Iga Swiatek and Karolina Pliskova advance to Qatar TotalEnergies Open semifinals

Iga Swiatek steamrolled past Victoria Azarenka to lift her career head-to-head record to 3-1 over the Belarusian. The World No. 1 Swiatek has not dropped a set through her three rounds and has lost only 11 games in the tournament. She will face Karolina Pliskova who defeated Naomi Osaka in straight sets, each decided by a close tiebreaker.

This was the most dominant performance by Swiatek in her matches against Azarenka. She lost only four games. The first set was competitive until Swiatek found her form. Swiatek is an amazing frontrunner so when she secured the first set 6-4, she was off to the races. Azarenka became visibly aggravated and emotional with her level of play. The second set was a blowout in signature Swiatek bagel style with Azarenka looking extremely out-of-sorts. The final score was 6-4, 6-0.

The Pliskova versus Osaka match was their second meeting of the year. The first was at Brisbane International when Osaka was just returning to the tour from maternity leave. Osaka is improving her game but still could not overcome Pliskova who has been on a fierce winning streak in 2024. Two sets decided by tight tiebreakers that both players had opportunities to win made for the most interesting quarterfinal action of the day.

Karolina Pliskova's toughest test is coming up in the semifinals against Iga Swiatek

We know that a confident Karolina Pliskova is tough to beat. She is a former World No. 1 who is a two-time Grand Slam finalist. In recent years, she has become the forgotten Czech Republic player as 2023 Wimbledon Champion Marketa Vondrousova and 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova are the emerging stars.

She has never defeated Iga Swiatek in three previous meetings. She took one set from Swiatek in those matches and pushed her to a tiebreaker one time. Pliskova has been amazing in 2024 and has defeated the players and impossible logistics, but a win over Swiatek on Friday would be her biggest one of the year. The other semifinal between Anastasia Pavyluchenkova and Elena Rybakina will also be played on Friday.

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