The WTA Qatar Open semifinals are all set for Friday in Doha. Out of the four players remaining, there is one huge surprise among them. American Jessica Pegula is the biggest surprise reaching her first semifinals in a WTA 500 event. The other three are not a big surprise as they are regular semifinalists in events such as this one. Here are the four women who will look for a place in the 2021 Qatar Open.
Qatar Open Semifinals
Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová is a former champion of this event, which she won back in 2018. She came close to winning it last year when she lost in the final to Aryna Sabalenka. Wednesday, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova very easily in two straight sets, 6-1 6-3. Thursday, she defeated Anett Kontaveit in three sets, 6-3 3-6 6-2. It was a close one until the third and final set when the Czech took control of the match.
Next up for the 30-year-old is American Jessica Pegula. They have met just once, last year at the US Open in the third round. Petra Kvitová took the win and will look to consolidate their head to head to a two to zero lead. Indeed it will be a great match in which the Czech is the heavy favorite to win.
Jessica Pegula
The 27-year-old American is playing some of her best tennis in her career. She made it to the quarterfinals of this year’s Australian Open and the Western & Southern Open last year. She has played 27 matches since the Tour resumed and has won 20 of those matches. She is in form and will look to seize this magnificent opportunity and head to the final.
She comes from the qualifying stages where she defeated Anastasia Potapova in three sets. Next, she defeated Misaki Doi to enter the main draw. She has only lost one set in the tournament and has ran over all of her opponents in the main draw. She easily defeated Wang Qiang, Jeļena Ostapenko, and in 57 minutes Karolína Plíšková.
Unquestionably, she is the underdog coming into this match. However, she has nothing to lose and a lot to gain. This makes Pegula so dangerous because she has no pressure to win. Indeed she will seek to avenge her defeat to Petra Kvitová in their last year’s encounter at the US Open.
Victoria Azarenka
The 31-year-old Belorussian is playing some lights out tennis. She has yet to drop a set in this tournament and has defeated some great opponents. She dispatched Svetlana Kuznetsova, Laura Siegemund, and Elina Svitolina. In her match Thursday with Elina Svitolina, she pushed through some pain as she called for a medical treatment early in the first set.
Clearly, she was in pain throughout the whole match, but kept fighting and eventually ousted the Ukrainian in 85 minutes. She will now play Garbiñe Muguruza who she has beaten her twice and lost to her twice. It should be noted that her back injury could impact her game against the Spaniard. With that in mind, we will have to see how will she perform in the semi-final match.
Garbiñe Muguruza
The 27-year-old Spaniard is playing well and is being consistent thus far. In this tournament she has only lost one set, to Aryna Sabalenka. Furthermore, she has defeated Veronika Kudermetova and Maria Sakkari in convincing straight sets. she is the highest unranked player in this tournament and will look to win this title for the first time in her career.
The Spaniard came close to winning this tournament back in 2018 but came up short losing to Petra Kvitová. Nevertheless, this year she looks stronger than ever and a serious threat to lift the trophy. Definitely her match against Victoria Azarenka is a blockbuster one which will have two former World No.1 players battling it out to reach the final.
Excellent SemiFinal Matches
Petra Kvitová will take on Jessica Pegula first in a great battle. Both players are playing some stupendous tennis and will look to reach the final in Doha. Last but not least, Victoria Azarenka will battle it out against Garbiñe Muguruza. If the Belorussian has no back pain, it should be a great match. Both players are some heavy hitters and will look to reach another final.
Given these points, the semifinals at the Qatar Open will be some memorable matches. Four in form players will set to leave everything they have on the tennis court and provide some incredible tennis.
Main Photo from Getty.
