Swiatek advances to Doha semifinals by walkover

  Swiatek advances to Doha semifinals by walkover

World No.1 Iga Swiatek got a win and a walkover on Wednesday at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open.

World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a triumphant return to competition at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. Swiatek raced past No.42 Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1 and is into the semifinals after her quarterfinal opponent Belinda Bencic withdrew from the tournament due to fatigue.

Last season, Swiatek kicked off her 37-match win streak in Doha, where she captured her first WTA 1000 hard-court title. Playing her first match since the Australian Open, the reigning champion showed no signs of rust against Collins, as she built a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes and pocketed the opening set in just 21 minutes. 

"[I felt] pretty confident," Swiatek told reporters. "I'm happy that I was kind of composed and from the beginning till the end pretty focused and disciplined with tactics.

"I didn't really let Danielle get into the rhythm. I wanted to be aggressive. I'm pretty happy that I did that well."

With the American struggling to find her range, Swiatek lost just four points in the opening set. In the face of Swiatek's dynamic defending and pin-point serving, Collins was unable to hit a winner in the opening set, while misfiring on 13 unforced errors.

Collins leveled up in the second set, snapping Swiatek's nine-game run to get on the board at 3-1. But Swiatek refused to let her own level drop, as she steadily marched toward the finish line to seal the win after 53 minutes.

Key stats: Swiatek finished the match with eight winners to just six unforced errors, breaking Collins' serve five times. She did not face a break point in the match. Collins matched Swiatek with eight winners, but tallied 22 unforced errors in the match. She won just 31.6% of her first-serve points. 

Up next: Swiatek was set to face Bencic in Thursday's quarterfinals, but the Abu Dhabi champion withdrew from the tournament after notching a physical, hard-fought victory over Victoria Azarenka. 

Swiatek will now face either No.4 seed Coco Gauff or Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinals on Friday. 

Garcia holds off Muchova to advance

No.5 Caroline Garcia needed three hours to fend off a spirited challenge from Karolina Muchova, winning 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. Garcia will face Maria Sakkari on Thursday.

In a high-quality offensive duel, Garcia kept her cool to patiently manufacture her winning comeback. Despite finding herself behind on the scoreboard for much of the match, the Frenchwoman kept Muchova under pressure throughout the match before the Czech finally buckled. 

Garcia faced two break points in the match and was broken just once, while generating 16 break points on Muchova's serve. The former No.19 played steely tennis to save 13 of those break chances, but two late breaks by Garcia in the second and third sets proved the difference. Garcia finished the match with 38 winners to 30 unforced errors. Muchova hit 29 winners, including 12 aces, to 19 unforced errors.

A finalist in Lyon two weeks ago, Garcia is bidding to make her second consecutive semifinal. She holds a 3-0 lead in the head-to-head against Sakkari.