World No. 1 Iga Swiatek recorded a 6-1, 6-4 victory over 14th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.
A two-time defending champion, Swiatek won her 10th straight match at the tournament after firing five aces and taking advantage of three double faults.
The 22-year-old native of Poland dispatched Russia’s Alexandrova in 91 minutes. She will face the winner between eighth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
A pair of upsets occurred on Wednesday as unseeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez upended fifth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova outlasted sixth-seeded Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. Fernandez and Pavlyuchenkova each posted a 7-5, 6-3 victory.
Fernandez won 70.5 percent of her first serve points to defeat Zheng in 92 minutes and move into the quarterfinals. She will face third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who notched a 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-4 win over 16th-seeded Emma Navarro.
“We played a long time ago,” Rybakina said of Navarro. “We both were young. She improved a lot. It was such a difficult match. I had some opportunities in the second set, but she played really well. For me physically it was a bit more difficult. It’s been tough. I’m really happy I managed to win in the end.”
Pavlyuchenkova overcame six aces by Vondrousova to advance to meet unseeded American Danielle Collins, who secured a 6-4, 6-3 win over Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
Also on Wednesday, Japan’s Naomi Osaka advanced via walkover after Lesia Tsurenko of the Ukraine withdrew due to an elbow injury.
Osaka’s quarterfinal foe will be former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, who rallied for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over fellow Czech Linda Noskova.
–Field Level Media