Women's will: three Russians reached the semifinals of the Qatar Open

The next day of the "thousand-dollar tournament" in Doha turned out perfectly for our tennis players. Ekaterina Alexandrova won a willful victory over world number five Jessica Pegula. The Russian lost the first set, but allowed the Roland Garros2022 finalist to take only two games in the next two sets. She will now face Marta Kostiuk or Amanda Anisimova. The doubles quarterfinals for Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider were not easy only in the first set. The rivals exchanged breaks twice, but with the score 4:4 our girls seriously added and took seven games in a row. For the final Mirra and Diana will face old friends - Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

Will there be a first final?

Ekaterina Alexandrova continues to surprise after a poor start to the season. After a first-round exit at the Australian Open, the Chelyabinsk native took the biggest title of her career (Linz, WTA-500) and then withdrew from the Abu Dhabi tournament. It was as good a decision as possible. Alexandrova got a week's break and is showing incredible tennis in Qatar. In Doha, she started with a confident victory over Emma Raducanu (taking revenge for her recent defeat in Australia), and then outplayed world number one Arina Sobolenko, losing the first set but squeezing the Belarusian (in her first match after the Melbourne final) in the deciding tie-break. Arina did not win a single ball on her serve: Alexandrova had 11 mini-breaks in 12 games. The score was now 4:4 in head-to-head matches.

This was followed by a confident win over Elise Mertens, who specializes more in doubles. In the quarterfinals, Jessica Pegula, who missed the first round due to high seeding, tried to stop Alexandrova and then had no serious problems in her matches with Elina Svitolina and Daria Kasatkina.

The American also dominated the first set. In the key games it was noticeable that Pegula looked fresher (she played one less match and set in Qatar). Jessica realized two break points out of four and closed the game quite confidently. Who would have thought at that moment that Alexandrova would be able to change the nature of this match so easily. In the second and third games, the Russian dominated the court, showing an incredible level of tennis.

It should be noted that for the second time in her career she knocked out two top-5 opponents at one tournament. Earlier she managed to do it in Miami in 2024 (then passed Iga Sventek and the same Pegula).

- Did I expect to reach the semifinals in Qatar? Probably not," Aleksandrova admitted after the match. - I didn't think about it, because when I saw the draw, I realized what serious opponents were waiting for me on the net. I just try to play every match here to the best of my abilities and hope for the best. I'm very happy with the result and the way I'm playing now. The level of tennis I'm playing. So I want to keep playing as long as possible no matter what, so overall it's been great matches for me here. I hope to continue in the same vein.

Ekaterina reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the third time in her career. In 2022 she lost to Ons Jaber in Madrid in 1/2, last season she lost to Danielle Collins in Miami.

- Katya has picked up the pace that she is ready to beat any opponent. At the same time, she often came back into the game in difficult situations, which is especially valuable," Alexei Selivanenko, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame Committee, emphasized to Izvestia.

Impressive series

Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider also stepped into the semifinals. However, in doubles. In singles our girls quickly left the net of Qatar Open 2025. Mirra lost rather unexpectedly in the second round to Rebecca Shramkova from Slovakia, and Diana, who was seeded under the high number 11 could not overcome the American Alicia Parks.

However, the girls focused on doubles and have already produced another impressive tournament. Recall that their duo formed last summer at the Olympics in Paris, where they took silver (winning the first set in the final). This winter is the third joint tournament for the Russian pair. In Brisbane, Mirra and Diana took the title, and at the Slam in Melbourne they reached the semifinals. Pretty cool for an unseeded pair.

In Doha, Andreeva and Schneider were again not in the "seedings", but this did not prevent them from knocking out almost all the favorites in turn. In the 1/16 finals they defeated Americans Kruger/Pegula (4:6, 6:3, 10:7), in the second round they beat the first "seeded" - Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Australian Erin Routliffe. In the quarterfinals, the vice-champions of the 2024 Games faced an experienced duo consisting of Russia's Irina Khromacheva and Kazakhstan's Anna Danilina. It was the latter who were considered the favorites, considering how well they played last season and were the seventh seed. However, a tight fight did not turn out.

With the score 4:4 in the first set, Mirra and Diana took two consecutive games to zero and closed the game. The second set was a rout. Khromacheva and Danilina took their first game at 5-0. Yes, they couldn't win with the "sheep", but the Russians spent the minimum amount of energy before probably the decisive duel in Doha.

In the semifinals they will play with Italy's Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani. This will be the third meeting of their pairs: the Italians won in the final of the 2024 Olympics and the Russians won in the second round of the Australian Open. Let's hope that Andreeva and Schneider will take the lead in the head-to-head.