Kontaveit to meet Swiatek in Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2022 final

Doha: After six days of exciting tennis action, the stage is set for the Qatar TotalEnergies Open ultimate showdown with the No.4 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and the No.7 seed Iga Swiatekof Poland locking horns in the final. While Kontaveit's seven-month hot streak continued with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of No.15 seed Jelena Ostapenko in just 68 minutes in the semifinals, Swiatek, on the other hand, notched a breakthrough win over one of her toughest opponents, defeating No.6 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-4, 6-3. Friday's result puts Kontaveit into her seventh final since last August, five of which she has converted into titles so far. The last of those was in St. Petersburg a fortnight ago, and the Estonian has extended her winning streak from that tournament to nine matches so far in Doha. Kontaveit also sealed a place in her second career WTA 1000 final following Wuhan 2018, where she was runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka. Meanwhile, Swiatek advances to the Doha final for the first time. The 2020 Roland Garros champion Swiatek will be going for her fourth career WTA singles title while Kontaveit seeks her seventh. The pair have met four times in their career, and the wins are evenly split between them, with Swiatek winning the last two encounters in 2021. On the other hand, the all-American pair of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula emerged champions of the doubles event of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2022 after defeating Veronika Kudermetovaof Russia and Belgian Elise Mertens in a tie-breaker 3-6, 7-5, 10-5 in a thrilling encounter on the centre court of the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha on Friday.

Team Qatar line up for Asian Beach Handball Championship

DOHA - The Qatar Handball Association  (QHA) has announced the squad of Team Qatar who will participate in the 8th Asian Beach Handball Championship to be held in Iran from March 22-31. The championship will also act as a qualification event for the 2022 Beach Handball World Championships, with the top three teams in each gender from the championship directly qualifying for the event to be hosted by Greece. Team Qatar squad includes: Ahmed Nader Naseem, Abdul Rahman Al Abdullah, Hamdi Al Nouri, Amin Nour Al Din, Mustafa Amir (Al Duhail), Rashid Youssef and Hani Marwan Kakhi (Al Sadd), Marwan Ali Sassi, Mahmoud Zaki, Rayan Laribi, Anis Abdel Razzaq Zawawi (Al Arabi), Moatasem Abdel Wahed, Amir Noureddine, Sayed Ali Qinawy (Al Gharafa), Mohamed Al Sousi, Farouk Kolo (Al Rayyan), Ahmed El Miniawy, Ahmed Abdel Haq (Al Wakrah), and Mohamed Hassan (Qatar SC).

Stage Set for Commercial Bank CHI AL SHAQAB Presented by Longines 2022

DOHA - The spectacular Commercial Bank CHI AL SHAQAB Presented by Longines 2022, is all set and ready to welcome the worlds top riders and horses which includes show jumping, dressage for people with special needs (para-dressage). The competitions begin on Thursday with the first round of dressage for people with special needs, (para-dressage) then a round of five-star showjumping at a height of 145 cm, followed by a round of dressage within the local championship "Longines Hathab", then tomorrow's competitions will conclude with a five-star showjumping tour at a height of 155 cm. A technical and veterinary examination was conducted on Wednesday for the horses that will participate in the championship. A star-studded contingent of 95 riders from 24 countries, and 146 elite competition horses from around the globe, has already touched down in Doha - primed to dazzle and impress the crowds as they compete for glory in Al Shaqab's signature event, which will be organized for the ninth time at Qatars iconic equestrian destination. This year, the dressage competitions will witness the Qatari participation of the Wejdan Al Maliki for the first time at this advanced level of competition, Wejdan aspires to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and seeks to participate in the World Cup for the International Equestrian Federation for dressage competitions. The tournament will be a real opportunity and an important station in the journey of this young rider to gain experience to move forward in her sports career. Three Qatari riders will also participate in the showjumping competitions, Hamad Nasser Al Qadi, the first-place winner in HH the Amir's Sword Showjumping Championship, Faleh Suwaid Al Ajmi, and Nasser Al Ghazali. The list includes the world's number one and gold medalist at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Swedens Peder Fredrickson, and as usual every year, the championship will receive the riders, who are at the forefront of the world rankings, including those whose name is in the list of the top ten riders according to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and the Longines Show Jumping Classification. Equestrian fans will witness more excitement during the competitions of this edition of the tournament, especially with the confirmation of the participation of six of the top ten ranked players in the world, including the world's number one Peder Fredrickson, the world's second-ranked, Swiss Martin Fuchs, in addition to the participation of Swedish Henrik von Eckermann, who shares the third place on the ranking list and is also a fellow rider for Fredrikson in the Olympic team that won the gold medal The tournament will also witness the participation of British Scott Brash, ranked sixth, and Brazilian Zanotelli Modulo, ranked seventh, in addition to the participation of Belgian Jerome Guerre, who shares the tenth place on the world rankings list.

Jabeur to play Kontaveit in Qatar TotalEnergies Open quarterfinals

DOHA - Ons Jabeur, Arab's No. 1 player and eighth-seed, fought back from a break down in the third set before overcoming Tereza Martincova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to book a last-eight date with her good friend and No.4 seed Anett Kontaveit. The 1-hour, 36-minute victory put the Tunisian into the Doha quarter-finals for a second time. In 2020, she reached the last eight of a WTA 1000 event for the first time here - and like that year, her symbiotic relationship with the Middle East crowd was on full show. Jabeur's shotmaking repertoire had Centre Court in raptures, and her victory was greeted with extended chants and songs in celebration. Meanwhile, Maria Sakkari defeated Jessica Pegula in 6-4, 7-5, avenging the defeat she suffered against the American a month ago at the Australian Open. Pegula opened the match better, taking a 2-0 lead. Sakkari broke back immediately after and continued applying pressure after that. With time, Sakkari found her rhythm and her confidence grew as she captured the first set. The Greek complicated things in the 2nd set as well with Pegula again taking an early 2-0. The American once again failed to hold the lead as Sakkari battled back. Eventually, she started playing even better closing out the 2nd set. Anett Kontaveit is through to the quarter-finals after beating Elise Mertens of Belgium in three sets 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 on Wednesday.The pair had met four times before the encounter at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha; Mertens had won three times to Kontaveit's one. No.14 seed Coco Gauff scripted a 6-2, 6-3 upset of No.3 seed Paula Badosa in 1 hour and 17 minutes in one of the other matches. The result was a reversal of the pair's only previous encounter, won by Badosa 6-2, 6-2 in the third round of Indian Wells last year en route to her second career title. With the victory, Gauff also sealed her first win over a Top 10 player since Rome 2021, where she defeated Aryna Sabalenka and Ashleigh Barty (via retirement) to reach the last eight. No.15 seed Jelena Ostapenko also dealt out some revenge in the desert, dispatching No.2 seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour and 13 minutes. Ostapenko, equalled her career-best winning streak of eight with the victory and scored a fifth win over a Grand Slam champion in the past two weeks.

Qatar Olympic Committee to organize inaugural Spartan Race in Qatar

DOHA- The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) announced on Monday that it will organize the first ever Spartan Race in Qatar on the 25th and 26th of March hosted by Al-Shaqab. The spartan race is a series of obstacle races of varying distance and difficulty inspired by the warrior culture of ancient Sparta. This race will enhance participants physical fitness and testing their body abilities, focus and endurance. The main mixed event will be held on the second day with a special event for kids and an event for ladies only on the first day. The women’s first day event includes Spartan Sprint 5+ km, which consists of 20 obstacles, while the second day’s mixed event will see Spartan Sprint 5+, consists of 20 obstacles, in addition to Spartan Super race 10+ km of 25 obstacles. Moreover, the second day event will also feature kids race for three categories:  800m race for ( 4-6 years), 1600m race for (7-9 years) and 3200m race for (10-13 years). Spartan Race has become increasingly popular as one of the toughest obstacle races internationally organized across 42 countries with more than 2500 annual events. The spartan race includes a number of obstacles such as climbing under barbed wire, fire jump, Herculean Hoist, rope climb, spear throw, tire flips and wall climbing.

Kontaveit to face Ostapenko in the last-four

Doha: Anett Kontaveit of Estonia booked a semi-final clash with the 2016 finalist Jelena Ostapenko after demolishing Arab No.1 player Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-1 in 1 hour and 11 minutes on Thursday. Latvia's Ostapenko, on the other hand, secured a convincing 66-minutes 6-2, 6-2 victory over Spain's Garbiñe Muguruza, the last year's finalist, in a one-sided match on the centre court of the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha. The Estonian entered the matchup in better form against her Tunisian opponent as Jabeur was making her way back from an injury. The first set was rather competitive despite Kontaveit proving herself better initially. Jabeur was able to stay in the match as Kontaveit failed to convert some of her early breakpoints. She eventually did convert them later in the set, after which she finished off the set with 6-4. The second set was a proper demolition as Kontaveit was simply on fire. She hit winners left and right, and it was too good for Jabeur, who could not hold on. Going into the last-four match, the fast-rising Kontaveit holds a 3-1 head-to-head advantage over her Latvian counterpart, with her latest victory being a straight-set thumping of the 13th-ranked Ostapenko at the St Petersburg Open earlier in the month. Iga Swiatek of Poland, 7thy-seed, scripted a 6-2, 6-3 upset of top-seed Aryna Sabalenka in the last quarter-final match of the day to book her semifinal’s clash against No.6 seed Maria Sakkari. Sakkari, meanwhile, claimed her third win in four meetings against No.14 seed Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour and 25 minutes. The Polish player was considered the underdog in this matchup, considering that Sabalenka already won this event in her career, with Swiatek not having the best of times in Doha in the past. Swiatek quickly crushed those assumptions with a furious start to the match, where she took an early 3-0 lead. Swiatek had a double break lead, but after that 3-0 start, we saw four games in a row where the server got broken. At the end of it, Swiatek still had a double break lead, and she finished off the set with 6-2. The start of the 2nd set saw Sabalenka jump out to a 3-0 lead after a brilliant start where she finally showed what type of tennis she could play. However, it did not last long enough as Sabalenka completely fell apart after missing badly. Meanwhile, Sakkari, currently ranked at a career-high of No.6 after reaching the St. Petersburg final a fortnight ago, moves into her sixth semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above following Wuhan 2017, Rome 2019, Miami 2021, Roland Garros 2021 and the US Open 2021.