On Thursday, February 12, Maria Sakkari found her way over top seed Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinal match of Qatar Open 2026. The unseeded player from Greece defeated the Polish star by sets of 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. In their previous encounters, Sakkari had won her first three matches against Swiatek, with the last one taking place in 2021. However, in the last four matches played, Poland won, including the recent one in Qatar 2025.
Swiatek has had an impressive campaign at the Qatar tournament, including victories in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions. In the opening, she broke twice, but Sakkari fought back. However, the Polish player found a break point to win the round 6-2. But finding her way back into the game in the second set, Sakkari struck back, breaking in the tenth game to take the lead with 6-4. The decider game saw Sakkari once again dominating over Swiatek and goes on to seal the win. The match lasted for two-and-a-half hours.
Sakkari, who was ranked No. 3 in 2022, has now slipped to 52nd. However, her victory against Swiatek has gained attention on defeating a top seeded player. During the post-game interview, Sakkari expressed her excitement at the victory and shared the thought process behind the preparation that went to achieve it.
“It’s been a while since I had a big win like today. When you drop in the rankings, and you’re not playing good tennis, you start doubting yourself, and you think you are never going to beat those players again. So it’s a huge process, and you have to go through in your head that you can do it. Last year here in the second round here against her, I was not confident, I was not believing in myself, and this year it’s different. I feel a lot better,” she said.
Earlier in the day, which was the first quarterfinal match, Latvian Jelena Ostapenko defeated Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto by sets of 7-5, 6-4, making her entry into the semi-finals to face Canada’s Victoria Mboko. Meanwhile, Australia Open 2026 reigning champion Elena Rybakina suffered an exit by Mboko by sets of 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
In the Round of 16 match, Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya defeated Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in straight sets by 6-4, 6-3. After the win against top-seed Swiatek, Sakkari will compete against 14th seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals match. Muchova had previously defeated Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals by sets of 6-3, 6-4.
