Third seed Elena Rybakina took time to get going but secured a 6-4 6-2 victory over Leylah Fernandez to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Open on Thursday and stay on track for her third title of the season.
Rybakina, who has lifted the Brisbane and Abu Dhabi trophies this year, dropped serve twice at the start of the clash but the 24-year-old stemmed the flow of errors from her racket and won five games in a row from 4-1 down to claim the opening set.
Fernandez showed more fight in the second set, but the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up could not prevent former Wimbledon champion Rybakina from grabbing two more breaks and powering to victory on the back of some big hitting.
