Published: February 12, 2026 at 5:44 pm
Elena Rybakina rallied past Zheng Qinwen 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in 2 hours, 27 minutes on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2026.
The reigning Australian Open champion has won nine straight matches, improving to 11-1 in 2026. Dating to last year’s WTA Finals, Rybakina has won 16 of her past 17 matches.
After dropping the opening set, Rybakina responded by breaking twice in the second to level the match. In the third, she secured the decisive break at 5-5 and served it out to seal the comeback.
Rybakina will next face No. 10 seed Victoria Mboko, who defeated Mirra Andreeva in her own three-set battle royale to reach the quarterfinals. The two met three times last season, with Rybakina holding a 2-1 edge and winning the most recent encounter in Tokyo.
On the same court, Anna Kalinskaya later defeated Elina Svitolina in straight sets to reach her first Doha quarterfinal.
With Wednesday night’s win, Rybakina also improved to 3-1 against Zheng in four meetings at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level. Still, Zheng earned credit for pushing the match the distance, becoming just the third player to take a set off Rybakina this year, joining Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka.
“Qinwen, she started better than me and I started a bit slower, and maybe played passive in a few moments,” Rybakina said in her post-match press conference. “But again, she started really well and then in the second I found a bit of my game and I stepped in. In the third…one break and everything changed.
“But I’m happy that in the end it went my way.”
Zheng took the opening set behind a dominant serving display. Although the former World No. 4 landed only 52% of her first serves, she won all 13 points played behind it. She faced no break points and repeatedly pressured the vaunted Rybakina serve, forcing the Kazakh into long, grinding service games.
One break for a 3-2 lead was all Zheng needed to pocket the opener in 43 minutes.
She held that level through the early stages of the second set, but from there, Rybakina assumed control. The World No. 3 flipped the script to take the set 6-2, facing no break points while generating seven of her own. She feasted on Zheng’s second serve, winning 7 of 11 points, and made hay on her own, winning 7 of 10 in the set to stay out of trouble and force a decider.
Rybakina opened the final set with a confident hold punctuated by a backhand winner, then broke immediately for 2-0. She stretched the lead to 3-0 and later 5-2, looking fully dialed in from both the baseline and the service line for the first extended stretch of the match.
But Zheng mounted a late charge. Rybakina held a match point at 5-2, before Zheng escaped with a hold, then erased a 30-0 deficit in the next game to break for the first time since the opening set to get back on serve. Serving down 5-4, Rybakina was again two points from the finish line when Zheng withstood another deuce point and leveled the set at 5-all with her eighth ace.
Rybakina responded with a composed hold for 6-5, then staged one final push of her own to try and avoid a third-set tiebreak. Down 40-0 in the last game, she won five straight points to reclaim the break and close out the victory on her second match point.
Despite the loss, Zheng’s week was a strong step forward. She came through two three-setters against Sofia Kenin and Alycia Parks before pushing the World No. 3 to the brink.
“I think the problem is during a match I have some up-and-down focus and suddenly I lose concentration for a long time,” Zheng said to reporters after the match. “I guess that’s because for a long time I didn’t compete.
“I hope (by) playing more matches this will get better. (I’m) always looking for things to improve, and that’s what I see from this week.”
(Source: wtatennis.com)
