We were uncertain how Iga Swiatek would perform after three weeks away from competition. The world No.1 wrote a good bakery business plan in her time off following the Australian Open and kicked off her Qatar TotalEnergies Open campaign with a dominant 6-0 6-1 victory over Danielle Collins in the second round.
The defending Doha champion Swiatek turned on the oven and served a fresh bagel and a breadstick to the world No.42 Collins. There were absolutely no signs of rust as Swiatek advanced in just 53 minutes to set up a quarterfinal meeting with newly-crowned Abu Dhabi champion Belinda Bencic.
The win marks a powerful start to the Pole’s attempt to repeat her last year’s historic 37-match winning streak that began at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. Very accurate and fast serves ensured that Swiatek didn’t face a break point against Collins. Moreover, the top seed had a positive winners-to-unforced errors differential, while her opponent outweighed her eight winners with 22 unforced errors.
Let’s see how Swiatek will perform against seventh seed Belinda Bencic, who has already won two WTA titles this season. The quarterfinal meeting in Doha will be a rematch of the pair’s encounter at the United Cup in January, which Swiatek won 6-3 7-6(3) in the group stage. There’s a big chance that Bencic is very tired at this point. The Swiss has just won the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open and escaped a 6-1 4-1 deficit to beat Victoria Azarenka in three sets on Wednesday in Doha.
