No. 7 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland stormed into the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus on Thursday at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.
Swiatek converted seven of eight break points in the one-hour, 14-minute quarterfinal match. Up next is sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 14 Coco Gauff. Sakkari has won all three previous matches against Swiatek.
No. 4 Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and No. 15 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia will meet in the other semifinal after their straight-set wins Thursday. Kontaveit defeated No. 8 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-1, and Ostapenko eliminated No. 5 Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-2, 6-2.
Kontaveit has an eight-match winning streak and has won five titles in the past seven months, including two weeks ago at St. Petersburg. She is 3-1 against Ostapenko.
Abierto Akron Zapopan
Fourth-seeded Camila Osorio of Colombia shook off a slow start to beat the United States’ Hailey Baptiste 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round at Guadalajara, Mexico.
After Osorio put just 48 percent of her first serves in play during the opening set, she raised that figure to 58 percent in the second set and 80 percent in the third set.
The other seeded players in action won their second-round matches in straight sets. Third-seeded Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain routed Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-0, 6-2, and sixth-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States topped France’s Chloe Paquet 7-5, 6-4. Another quarterfinal berth went to Australia’s Daria Saville, who defeated the United States’ Caroline Dolehide 6-1, 6-3.
–Field Level Media
