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The 22-year-old native of Poland will face
third-seeded Elena Rybakina in the final. Swiatek is bidding to
become the first player on the WTA Tour to win a tournament
three consecutive times since Serena Williams accomplished the
feat at the Miami Open in 2013-15.
"I'm happy to be in another final here in Doha but I wish we
could play tonight and entertain you guys. Hope you'll get well
soon," Swiatek wrote on Twitter, addressing Pliskova. "Congrats
to you and your team on your great two weeks."
Pliskova, the 2017 Doha champion, extended her winning streak to
nine matches by holding off Japan's Naomi Osaka 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5)
on Thursday.
"Sorry for the tournament that I had to withdraw, but
unfortunately I had too many matches in last couple of days, and
my body just didn't react well, especially after last night
having a tough match against Naomi," Pliskova wrote on Twitter.
"I felt like I was pushing it a little bit over limit, and then
I felt very big pain in my lower back, so I'm not able to
compete anymore."
Rybakina reached her third final of 2024 after posting a 6-2,
6-4 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
Rybakina recorded three aces and saved eight of nine break
points to dispatch Pavlyuchenkova and improve to 15-2 in 2024.
The Russian-born Kazakh finished off her foe with an ace, ending
the match in 89 minutes.
Rybakina holds a 3-1 edge in pro meetings against Swiatek.
"I think we both know each other pretty well, and of course we
are trying to study and analyze," Rybakina said of Swiatek. "For
now it was going my way, but as I said, she's playing really
good. I think she's a little bit fresher than me, that's for
sure, but for me it was already a very positive two weeks, so I
try to push myself (Saturday) and see how it's gonna go.
"For me the most important is try to recover physically, because
with Iga, it's a lot about the physics, of course. She's making
you work for every point, and of course I need to stay
aggressive and play my game, but we see what can I do (on
Saturday)."
--Field Level Media
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