The Peninsula
Eighth seed Veronika Kudermetova rolled past much fancied opponent Coco Gauff with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win to book her second meeting against World No.1 Iga Swiatek for a place in the title clash of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, yesterday.
Russian 25-year-old Kudermetova, ranked 11th in the WTA points table, spent 2 hours and 4 minutes to eliminate the World No.4 Gauff in what was her first win over a Top 10 player since she overcame Turkish Ons Jabeur in the San Jose quarterfinals last year.
“I’m so proud. I’m so happy. Today it was really difficult because of the wind. Especially because I played against Coco. She’s a great player. She’s already a champion. And I mean, I’m so happy that I win this match,” Kudermetova said after her 11th win over a Top 10 player.
In today’s semi-final, the Russian will meet the defending champion Swiatek, who received a walkover following the withdrawal of Belinda Bencic from the quarter-finals.
Last time they met at the 2021 Indian Wells Masters, the Pole dominated to advance with a 6-1, 6-0 hammering of her Russian counterpart, but the 25-year-old said she will try her best against the hot favourite in Doha.
“Of course, no pressure, because I think I already played two times against her and both times I lost to her. I mean, tomorrow I will try to do my best. I will try to find the key to play against her. It’s a nice challenge to have Iga next,” Kudermetova said after her match last night at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex as she bids to reach her first final since Istanbul last April.
It was before the biggest thriller of the day between the fifth and third seeds of the tournament.
Greek wild card Maria Sakkari had to produce one of the best efforts in her career to eliminate Caroline Garcia of France, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) in a late night thriller.
Sakkari began the match in full control, breaking Garcia’s serve twice in the opening set to take advantage. But those would remain the only breaks of serve in the match for either player, as both Sakkari and Garcia would go unbroken in the final two sets. Sakkari saved all three break points she faced in the match to keep a clean sheet while Garcia faced just five break points.
“The conditions were very tough for both of us. I think we did a really good job in the second set of holding our serves and not giving the opponent a chance to break. You don’t see that often in women’s tennis. It was pretty impressive,” Sakkari, who secured the win 2-hours and 41-minutes, said.
Sakkari said she is ready for her next assignment against Jessica Pegula of the US, who made it to the semis after defeating her Brazilian counterpart Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-2.
The World No.7 Sakkari is aware of the strength her opponent is able to pose.
“Who is not tough here, but just I mean, we’ve played each other so many times and recently. She has been having an amazing couple of seasons. She plays, you know, very flat. So I’m going to go get some rest, get some food and, you know, come back tomorrow and try and do my best,”Sakkari said.
Earlier, Haddad Maia failed to pose much threat to the World No.4 Pegula who secured the win in 85 minutes.
“It’s a little bit different than the qualifying days. It’s a lot easier physically, but definitely still very tough with how strong and tough the field is,” said Pegula, who won made it to her second career semi-final at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, having done so as a qualifier in 2021.