By Alberto Amalfi | Friday, February 25, 2022
Anett Kontaveit topped Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-4 scoring her ninth straight win to roll into the Doha final—her seventh title match since last August.
Photo credit: Getty
Winning is addictive and Anett Kontaveit is joyously, hopelessly hooked.
A sharp Kontaveit carved out a 6-1, 6-4 sweep of Jelena Ostapenko stretching her win streak to nine matches—and snapping the Latvian's career-best nine-match surge—to charge into the Doha final.
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Striking with confidence, Kontaveit continues to take down all comers.
The seventh-ranked Kontaveit improved to 13-2 in 2022 powering into her seventh WTA final since last August.
St. Petersburg champion Kontaveit will play for her seventh career championship tomorrow against 2020 Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek.
The seventh-seeded Swiatek fended off sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-3, in today's second semifinal.
The 26-year-old Kontaveit has split four career meetings vs. Swiatek with the Pole prevailing in the third round of the 2021 Roland Garros and US Open in their most recent encounters.
It is Kontaveit's second career WTA 1000 final following her run to the 2018 Wuhan title match where she bowed to Aryna Sabalenka.
Dubai champion Ostapenko was bidding to become the sixth woman to reach the Dubai and Doha finals in the same season. The 13th-ranked Latvian fell to 14-4 on the season with her last two losses coming to Kontaveit, who topped Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4 in the St. Petersburg semifinals earlier this month.
Today, Kontaveit changed direction on her drives beautifully to take charge.
In a clash of winning streaks, Ostapenko held to open only to see Kontaveit reel off eight straight games to blow the match open with a 6-1, 3-0 lead. Ostapenko dropped serve four times in a row before breaking back for 1-3 to halt her slide.
The 2017 Roland Garros champion earned break point in the final game, but Kontaveit caught a piece of good luck when her drive crashed into the tape and plopped over on Ostapenko's side saving the break point.
That fortuitous bounce helped Kontaveit close in 68 minutes.
"In the end the net cord definitely saved me a little bit," Kontaveit said. "I was down break point and she had really found her game. She was playing more aggressive and finding the court a lot more, so I was under a lot of pressure and got really lucky.
"But I served some second serves, placed them really well eventually, and managed to close it out."