体坛英语新闻：Sabalenka surges past Kvitova to win Doha WTA title

DOHA, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ninth seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus captured her third title in the past six months with a stunning display of power to destroy 2018 champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the women's singles final of the Qatar Open on Saturday.

The Belarussian struck seven aces and 21 winners to just 15 unforced errors in the 6-3, 6-3 victory and levelled their head-to-head record at two apiece.

"It was a long journey here and I put everything on tennis," said Sabalenka afterwards. "I was actually only playing tennis and focusing on tennis and nothing else. And I think I gave everything for tennis. And I just lost my dad in the pre-season and he was my biggest motivation, and I'm doing it for him."

"I couldn't really expect the title in Doha. I'm really happy, it feels so special for me," she said. "I was really focused on each point, and played every point like the last point. I respect Kvitova, I knew she is a big fighter, I know she will bring everything she have on this final. I tried to focus on each point because I knew that she will try to come back in the game and she will try to beat me."

A disappointed Kvitova admitted afterwards that Sabalenka has prevented her from playing her game.

"I wasn't playing probably what I wanted to, but she didn't give me anything to play my game," said the former world No. 2. "Aryna played an amazing match. For sure she didn't give me anything for free, I had a chance once in the second set to break her serve, but I just couldn't make it. But it was very tight game and probably that's really helped her win the second set."

In the women's doubles final held on Friday, top seeds Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic and Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei defeated Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia for the title.