Doha semifinals preview: Top 10 on the line for Mboko; is Sakkari back?

Precisely one decade ago, Jelena Ostapenko was an 18-year-old trying to crack the code of big-time tennis.

Ranked No. 88, she sailed into the Doha final, stunning Grand Slam champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Petra Kvitova in back-to-back matches. She fell in the final to Carla Suarez Navarro, but the young Latvian learned that she belonged in that good company.

She’s still there. On Friday, Ostapenko will take the court in the Qatar TotalEnergies Open semifinals as the winningest woman in Doha history. Her straight-sets win over lucky loser Elisabetta Cocciaretto lifted her record at the tournament to 24-9.

Ostapenko will take on No. 10 Victoria Mboko, the teenager who came back to take down No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina. Afterward, 30-year-old Maria Sakkari -- a dramatic three-set winner over No. 1 seed and three-time Doha champion Iga Swiatek -- meets No. 14 Karolina Muchova.

"Everything started here in 2016, my biggest final at that time,” Ostapenko told reporters. "I just like the vibe here. They are taking really good care of us, and it's all chill and relaxed in a good way. And they start matches later, which I love.”

Here’s a closer look at these two surprising WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz semifinals:

No. 10 Victoria Mboko vs. Jelena Ostapenko (NB 6:00 p.m. local time, 10:00 a.m. ET)

Head-to-head: 0-0

Mboko was down 4-2 in the third set to Rybakina, the Australian Open champion looking for her 10th consecutive match win. Then she won the last four games, showing terrific poise and converting her fourth match point for a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win.

We remind you that Mboko is only 19 years old, is the highest seed remaining and has now beaten two Top 10 players (Mirra Andreeva and Rybakina) in back-to-back matches. In her Doha debut, playing only her sixth WTA 1000 event, Mboko is into her second semifinal; she won the title last year in Montreal.

Mboko is the first teenager to make a Doha semifinal since … Ostapenko.

"She knows these courts well, she knows the environment," Mboko said. "I’m expecting her to play really great tennis. We’ll see what happens tomorrow."

Mboko has a powerful game -- she’s hit a Doha-leading 126 winners -- but Ostapenko likes to play against pace. Mboko, who had 33 winners and 34 unforced errors against Rybakina, will have to post similar numbers to beat Ostapenko, who was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Cocciaretto. (The Italian, ranked No. 57, was only the second lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 quarterfinal since the format was introduced in 2009.) It’s the fourth Doha semifinal for the No. 24-ranked Ostapenko, equaling Agnieszka Radwanska for the most ever.

While Ostapenko is a Grand Slam singles champion, hoisting the trophy at the 2017 French Open, she has never won a WTA 1000 title. Two of her three finals, though, came in Doha. This is her first quarterfinal since she won the title last spring in Stuttgart, defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

Ostapenko struggled in her opener against Anastasia Zakharova, coming back to prevail in three sets, but has won her past three matches in straight sets. Still, fatigue could be a factor because she and partner Hsieh Su-Wei have advanced to the semifinals in doubles.

No. 14 Karolina Muchova vs. Maria Sakkari (NB 7:30 p.m. local time, 11:30 a.m. ET)

Head-to-head: 4-0 Muchova, but two of those matches went three sets

Sakkari scored the upset of the tournament, coming back to defeat Swiatek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. It was the first time in 110 WTA 1000 completed matches that Swiatek lost after winning the opening set. After winning her first three matches against Swiatek, Sakkari had been on a four-match losing streak against the six-time Grand Slam champion. This result announced her return to the upper echelon of the WTA Tour.

After three year-end Top 10 finishes, and reaching as high as No. 3, Sakkari finished No. 32 in 2024 and No. 52 in 2025. In beating Swiatek and, earlier, Jasmine Paolini, this is the first time Sakkari has put together two Top 10 wins in a single event since the 2022 WTA Finals.

"I'm trying to obviously come back to the top of the game," Sakkari said. "I feel like the only way of doing it is beating those [elite] players. That's the same thing I did when I was at the same ranking a few years ago.

"Obviously, now [I have] a lot more experience, and a lot more [patience], I would say. Just very understanding of the situation."

This is Sakkari’s third Doha semifinal in five years. She’s looking for the second WTA 1000 title of her career, after winning in Guadalajara in 2023.

Muchova, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Anna Kalinskaya -- she took the last five games to secure it -- is into her fourth career WTA 1000 semifinal.

The 29-year-old is off to a strong 10-2 start in 2026, reaching the semifinals in Brisbane and the fourth round at the Australian Open. Muchova has dropped only 19 games in four matches this week.

She’s a two-time WTA 1000 finalist, reaching the title match in Cincinnati in 2023 and Beijing in 2024, losing to Coco Gauff in both. With two wins, she would join Petra Kvitova (2018 and 2021), Karolina Pliskova (2017) and Lucie Safarova (2015) as the only Czechs to win this tournament.

When the on-court interviewer asked her about "tomorrow’s match against Maria Sakkari," Muchova shook her head.

"It’s today already, not tomorrow," she said, referring to the clock that was already past midnight. "We’ve played quite a few times. It’s going to be tough for sure, but I’m willing to take on the challenge."

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