Aryna Sabalenka won her sixth career title on Saturday when she swept past former two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-3 in the Qatar Open final. The Belarusian ninth seed's win over the eighth-seeded Czech, who was Qatar champion in 2018, will see her rise to 11 in the world rankings on Monday. The Belarusian, who struck seven aces and 21 winners to just 15 unforced errors, is now on an 11-match winning streak at Premier 5 level, having also triumphed in Wuhan last September, and Saturday's win marked her third title in the past six months — as well as ending 2018 champion Kvitova's 10-match winning streak in Doha and leveling their head-to-head at two apiece. Dating back to that Wuhan title, Sabalenka's win-loss record is an impressive 22-6 — a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that the 21-year-old suffered personal tragedy during this period after the death of her father Sergey in November. "It was a long journey here and I put everything on tennis," said Sabalenka afterwards, describing Sergey's impact on her. "I was actually only playing tennis and focusing on tennis and nothing else. And I think I gave everything for tennis. And I just lost my dad in the pre-season and he was my biggest motivation, and I'm doing it for him." Playing in Qatar for the first time, Sabalenka had not thought she would walk away with the trophy. "I couldn't really expect the title for the first time in Doha... I'm really happy, it feels so special for me," she said. "I was really focused on each point, and played every point like the last point and like I'm actually losing... I respect (Kvitova), I knew she is a big fighter, I know she will bring everything she have on this final. I tried to focus on each point because I knew that she will try to come back in the game and she will try to beat me." Sabalenka was impregnable on serve through a brilliant first set in which she landed 81% of her first serves, and won the same percentage of the points behind it. Consequently, Sabalenka would concede only six points in total when she stepped up to the line, never facing a break point and leaving her free to swing away on return. The World No.13 would excel in this area, too. A stunning angled backhand winner during Kvitova's first service game was an early illustration not only of Sabalenka's aggressive intent — but also of the accuracy and subtlety of it. Though the Czech would come up with a flurry of superlative forehands to save two break points in that game, Sabalenka was undeterred and struck a decisive blow in the next, breaking Kvitova with a smart wrongfooting backhand down the line. Following an off-court medical timeout, Kvitova would also hold a 0-30 lead in the former World No. 9's next service game — but was unable to keep down her own error count, which ultimately tallied 19 to only 12 winners, to take advantage. Having survived danger twice, Sabalenka took her power game to yet another level, finding a forehand pass to break the 29-year-old to love for 4-3 and then repeatedly pulling off a series of breathtaking winners as the finishing line drew closer. Kvitova wasn't about to go quietly, boldly swinging away at a series of drive volleys to stave off triple match point serving at 3-5 — but Sabalenka would take this mini-tussle as well, sealing her fourth championship point as a backhand pass hit the net cord, forcing Kvitova to volley wide. — Agencies
