DOHA (Reuters) - Three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek overcame Elena Rybakina 6-2 7-5 to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Open on Thursday, while Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated American sixth seed Jessica Pegula.
In what was a repeat of last year's final, second seed Swiatek swept through the opening set, breaking Kazakhstan fifth seed Ryabkina's first service game to lead 2-0 and broke again to wrap up the set.
Rybakina, who discovered on Wednesday that the WTA had decided to uphold a ban against her former coach Stefano Vukov following an investigation into a potential breach of its code of conduct, recovered to break in the opening game of the second set.
Swiatek, playing with real intensity, hit back to level at 4-4 and with Rybakina serving to force a tiebreaker, the Pole made the decisive break.
"I'm super happy and super proud of myself because playing against Elena is never easy," Swiatek said.
"At the beginning of the second set, I felt like she increased her levels. I needed to do that too in order to come back."
Rybakina came into the tie with a 4-3 lead in their head-to-head record, but it is Swiatek who will face the winner between Tunisian Ons Jabeur and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Pegula, U.S. Open finalist last year, won the opening set, but in-form Alexandrova, who had already beaten top seed and world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the second round, stormed back to win 4-6 6-1 6-1.
Alexandrova, now on an eight-match winning streak, will meet either Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk or American Amanda Anisimova in the semi-final.
"I'm really happy with the way I'm playing right now," Alexandrova said.
"I want to keep it going as long as possible, no matter what."
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
