Qatar Open is a women’s tennis tournament that was included in the already-established men’s Qatar Open in 2001. It was upgraded to a WTA 1000 event this year and has been going on since 9 February in Doha, Qatar.
The event has a total prize pool of $3,654,963 and the winner will take $597,000 home while the finalist will get $351,801. The quarter-finals concluded on 13 February 2025 and we have our semi-finalists.
Amanda Anisimova defeated Marta Kostyuk to secure her position in the semi-finals. Similarly, Jelena Ostapenko, the defending champion Iga Ṣwiatek and Ekaterina Alexandrova made it to the semi-finals by defeating their opponents in the matches that took place yesterday. The semi-finals are set to go on the floors on 14 February, so let’s take a look at these four challengers.
Amanda Anisimova
Amanda is an American professional tennis player who was born in 2001. He was ranked as Number 2 in the world as a junior player. She made her WTA tour and Grand Slam debut in 2017. She won her first WTA title in 2019 and also reached the semi-final of the French Open becoming the youngest player ever to do so.
She reached the semi-finals of the Qatar Open after defeating Marta and this is her best performance in the tournament yet. Earlier she had only made it to round 2 in 2020 and 2022. She will be facing Alexandrova in the semi-finals winning which, she will secure herself at least a total of $351,801.
Jelena Ostapenko
Jelena has a career-high ranking of World Number 5 in singles and 4 in doubles category. She holds the record for being the first Latvian to win a major title in both categories. Her trophy cabinet is full of various titles like two Grand Slam titles, eight WTA Singles titles, ten WTA Doubles titles and also the Wimbledon Junior Championship.
She also bagged 15 singles and doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit. Her personal best performance in the Qatar Open was in 2016 where she was a finalist but, could not win the title. She defeated Ons Jabeur to reach the semi-finals where she will face the three-time defending champion of the trophy, Iga Swiatek.
Iga Świątek
Świątek is a Polish tennis player who is also a defending champion of the title. She won the league thrice consecutively from 2022. Her career is full of outstanding achievements, she became World Number 1 in 2022 after achieving a 37-match winning streak in the WTA Tour. It was the longest streak on the tour in the 21st century.
She has won 22 WTA titles and she’s the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title. She was named Champion of the Champions in 2023. She made it to the semi-finals after defeating Elena Rybakina who surprisingly is also her final opponent in the last edition of the Qatar Open. She will now be competing with Jelena in the semi-final and will be eyeing the trophy to defend the title for the fourth time.
Ekaterina Alexandrova
Alexandrova is a Russian tennis player who has been playing the sport since the age of six. Her all-time career-high singles ranking is World Number 15. She owns five WTA titles and three WTA 125 titles. She has also bagged seven singles titles on the ITF Circuit.
She was also a part of the winning squad of the Fed Cup in 2020. She defeated World Number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the current edition of Qatar Open. She advanced to the semi-finals by beating Jessica Pegula and will face Anisimova in the semi-finals on 14 February 2025.
