Azarenka dominates Ostapenko again, setting quarter-final with top-seeded Swiatek in Doha

Victoria Azarenka is proving to be Jelena Ostapenko’s personal nemesis in 2024. Ostapenko has been on fire in 2024, winning a tour-leading 14 matches and two titls, but when she faces Azarenka her magic disappears.

The Belarusian topped Ostapenko for the third time in 2024 – and fifth overall – 6-0, 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha on Wednesday evening.

Former World No 1 Azarenka has defeated Ostapenko at Brisbane (6-3, 3-6, 7-5), the Australian Open (6-1, 7-5) and now Doha to improve to 5-0 overall against the Latvian. Though she stormed out to a commanding lead, she had to fight to close out the contest in straight sets.

“She’ll try everything to get back in the match, and today was evidence of that,” Azarenka said. “I’m happy that I was able to hold my serve, there were a couple of break points that I saved really good with my serve, I think that was important to keep that pressure from the first set, and I was able to close it out even though I was down 0-30 on my serve.

“I felt like like I still had to keep going and doing the right thing, and as long as I do that I have a great chance to win.”

With her win, two-time Doha champion Azarenka becomes the third WTA player to achieve 150 1000-level wins on hard court, along with Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki.

Azarenka on Swiatek: “It’s been a while”

Azarenka, ranked No 31, will face Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, next. She owns a 1-2 lifetime record against Swiatek, and dropped their last meeting, in 2022 at Rome.

“It’s been a while since we played, especially on hard court,” Azarenka said of the impending matchup. “Iga’s been improving so much, and she’s been playing incredible. I played against her in 2020 at the US Open and after that match I could feel that we were gonna see a lot more of her. I’m very happy we have a great No 1 player, she’s been so consistent and it’s going to be a great challenge – I’m looking forward to seeing how my game matches up to her now.”

The 34-year-old Belarusian beat Pole qualifier Magdalena Frech (6-3, 3-6, 6-3) and Chinese Xinyu Wang (7-6 (2), 6-2) ahead of her victory.

In the previous round of the Qatar tournament, Ostapenko, ranked No 11, won against Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina (6-0, 6-3).

Doha WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (14): 6-1, 6-4
• Elena Rybakina (3) beat Emma Navarro (16): 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-4
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Naomi Osaka
• Karolina Pliskova beat Linda Noskova: 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
• Leylah Fernandez beat Qinwen Zheng (5): 7-5, 6-3
• Danielle Collins (Q) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-4, 6-3
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Marketa Vondrousova (6): 7-5, 6-3

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