Daria Kasatkina dished out a double bagel 6-0 6-0 to Polina Kudermetova in just 42 minutes at the WTA 1000 in Doha – one of the quickest WTA matches ever!
One month after losing to the same opponent in Brisbane, Kasatkina got her revenge with a devasting display to record the second 6-0 6-0 win of her career after beating Brit Lily Miyazaki by the same scoreline at Wimbledon last summer.
Kasatkina became the first player to win a main draw match at the Qatar Open 6-0 6-0 since Donna Vekic in 2016.
“I remember exactly what happened a month ago,” said Kasatkina, who won the opening set in 19 minutes.
“I was trying to be really focused because as soon as you lose your focus the match can change completely in the blink of an eye. Plus the conditions are really tricky here, it’s really windy, so it’s tough but this is what we have to deal with.”
Second seed Iga Swiatek cruised into the last 16 with a 6-3 6-2 victory against Maria Sakkari.
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Highlights of Maria Sakkari against Iga Swiatek from the Qatar Open
“From what I remember it’s not like I’ve been playing flawlessly, so it’s not like these tournaments were perfect, but at some point always I found some solutions,” said the Pole. “I think the conditions here are pretty tricky, and I was patient enough to just keep focusing on my game.
“Every year it’s different, every year there is a different story, so it’s hard to compare and hard to find one thing that worked exactly.”
Swiatek is looking to become only the second woman this century to win the same tournament four consecutive times, after Caroline Wozniacki in New Haven, from 2008-2011.
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