Jelena Ostapenko improved her dominating record over Iga Swiatek to a flawless 5-0 on Friday as the No. 37 Latvian reached the final of the WTA Doha tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 rout.
The upset ended Swiatek’s hopes of achieving a possible record fourth title in a row here, with the loss coming in 71 minutes and ending a 15-match Doha win streak for the world No. 2 Pole.
It has been nearly seven years (Miami, 2018) since Ostapenko reached the final of a top 1000-level event, longest gap in the record book.
The Latvian who won Roland Garros in 2017, went into the semi-final with confidence.
“I was pretty confident that I would beat her, because we’ve played a lot of matches and I know how to play against her,” she said after not dropping a set all week.
“I was focusing on myself and what I had to do. I’m happy with the way I’m handling my emotions this week.”
.Ostapenko announced her intentions as she broke Swiatek in the opening game and won eight of the first nine points on her way to claiming the opening set.
The script hardly changed into the second, with the 27-year-old winning six straight games for a 4-0 lead prior to closing out the upset.
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