On her debut at the Qatar Total Open in Doha, ninth seed Aryna Sabalenka went all the way to the title by beating 2018 tournament champion and eighth seed Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-3 in Saturday’s final. It’s the Belarusian’s second consecutive Premier 5 title — she also won the Wuhan Open last September as defending champion.
In the first set, Sabalenka produced a dominant 81% first-serve percentage, faced no break points and lost just six points on serve, fittingly finishing the job with an ace, 6-3.
In the fourth game of the second set Sabalenka saved five out of five break points in an eight-deuce game and her back-to-back aces kept the set on serve.