Swiatek Crushes Kontaveit For Doha Crown, Her Biggest Hard Court Title

Iga Swiatek kept Anett Kontaveit at bay crushing the red-hot Estonian 6-2, 6-0 today in the Doha final.

The title is Swiatek’s fourth of her career and second at the 1000 level after Rome a ear ago.

Kontaveit came into the final on a 9-match win streak but Swiatek was having none of it.

The former French champion and Kontaveit exchanged early breaks, but from 2-all in the first, it was all Swiatek who won the last 10 games of the match. Swiatek’s controlled aggression was too much.

“I’m pretty happy that I was composed and I stayed in the same shape I was for the whole tournament, because playing finals is a different feeling,” Swiatek said, after her win. “It’s always a little bit more stress.

“I knew that Anett is going to play well, because she’s shown consistency throughout the whole six months, I would say. I needed to put pressure on her, and I’m pretty happy that I did that well today.”

The 20-year-old Swiatek wins her biggest title on hard court, a surface that favored Kontaveit.

“Overall I’m very happy and feel like my game is moving in the right direction. I think the results have reflected that in the last few weeks. Very pleased with that,” said Kontaveit.

“Iga played a really, really good match. She put a lot of pressure on my serves. She was playing a really solid match. I think I was a little overwhelmed, maybe didn’t deal with my emotions as well as I would have liked. I mean, Iga was just great today.”

Swiatek has now won her last four WTA finals, and en hammered Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari in straight sets en route to the final. She’s not a clay courter.

“I was improving on hard court, but for sure this season my progress is faster,” said Swiatek who also made the last four at the Australian Open.