Top-seeded Iga Swiatek scored a comfortable straight-sets win over Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen to reach the third round of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha on Tuesday.
Playing her first match since a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, Swiatek dominated the opening set, dropping just eight points in a 6-0 win.
The second set was more competitive as Tjen displayed the form that has seen her rise from outside the top 400 at the start of the 2025 season to her current ranking of No. 46 on the WTA Tour. After the players traded early breaks, Swiatek broke in the eighth game and held to close out a 6-0, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes.
“It’s always nice to start a tournament in a solid way and I’m ready for every match,” Swiatek said when asked about this streak by the media in Doha. “I think that’s the reason for that. I don’t take anything for granted, so even first rounds or second rounds, I treat them as super important matches and as a challenge. So I’m ready for it from the beginning.”
Swiatek will next face former top-10 player Daria Kasatkina in the Round of 16. The Australian scored a 6-4, 6-0 win over 16h seed Elise Mertens of Belgium earlier in the day.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head 6-1 over Kasatkina and has won their last six meetings without dropping a set. But she is not taking the match lightly.
“Honestly I try not to think about head-to-head because every match is a different story,” Swiatek said. “She can come to the match feeling that she has nothing to lose. There are different ways the match can go, and I wouldn’t say that focusing on the last results gives a lot. I’d rather stay ready for the challenge and not really think about the previous ones.”
(Source: wtatennis.com)
