Elena Rybakina Archives

Rybakina keeps her cool to beat Sabalenka in tense Melbourne final

Elena Rybakina stifled her emotions to take revenge on world number one Aryna Sabalenka and win the Australian Open on Saturday for her second Grand Slam title.

The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2hrs 18mins.

It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis.

Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022.

Rybakina has a reputation for being unflappable, but she said she was nervous about losing the second set, even though she did not show it, and again as she served for the match.

She sealed the championship with her sixth ace of the final.

“Well, the heart definitely was beating too fast, even if maybe my face did not show it,” she told local broadcasters. Inside was a lot of emotions.”

There was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open last year for the second time but lost the French Open and Melbourne title deciders.

She was into her fourth Australian Open final in a row and had been imperious until now.

The 27-year-old top seed had tears in her eyes at the end and draped a towel over her head to hide her feelings.

“Let’s hope maybe next year will be a better year for me,” Sabalenka said ruefully. “She played an incredible match, and I tried my very best. I was fighting until the very last point.”

With the roof on because of drizzle in Melbourne, Rybakina immediately broke serve and then comfortably held for 2-0.

Rybakina faced two break points at 4-3, but found her range with her serve to send down an ace and dig herself out of trouble, leaving Sabalenka visibly frustrated.

Rybakina looked in the zone and wrapped up the set in 37 minutes on her first set point when Sabalenka fired long.

Incredibly, it was the first set Sabalenka had dropped in 2026.

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The second game of the second set was tense, Rybakina saving three break points in a 10-minute arm-wrestle.

They went with serve, and the seventh game was another tussle, Sabalenka holding for 4-3 after the best rally of a cagey affair.

The tension ratcheted up, and the top seed quickly forged three set points at 5-4 on the Kazakh’s serve, ruthlessly levelling the match at the first chance to force a deciding set.

Sabalenka was now in the ascendancy and smacked a scorching backhand to break for a 2-0 lead, then holding for 3-0.

Rybakina, who also had not dropped a set in reaching the final, looked unusually rattled.

She reset to hold, then wrestled back the break, allowing herself the merest of smiles.

At 3-3, the title threatened to swing either way.

But a surging Rybakina won a fourth game in a row to break for 4-3, then held to put a thrilling victory within sight.

Sabalenka came into the final as the favourite, but Rybakina has been one of the form players on the women’s tour in recent months.

She also defeated Sabalenka in the decider at the season-ending WTA Finals.

Rybakina said her overriding emotions were relief, but also hope that she can carry her scintillating form into the rest of the season.

“It gives a lot of confidence for sure,” she said. “Last year, I didn’t start that well… now it’s different. So I just hope that I can carry all this momentum and hopefully do a good job with the team and continue this way throughout the year.”

Rybakina beat second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals and sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the last four in Melbourne.

Rybakina switched to play under the Kazakh flag in 2018 when she was a little-known 19-year-old, citing financial reasons.

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Pegula edges past Anisimova to set up semi-final against Rybakina

Jessica Pegula edged past Amanda Anisimova to set up an Australian Open semi-final clash against Elena Rybakina, where Novak Djokovic hopes to join them later Wednesday in his latest history bid.

Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, stunned second seed Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in Melbourne to book her spot in the last four.

Pegula swept aside an error-strewn Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (7/1) in an all-American quarter-final.

Rybakina has made the Melbourne final once before, in 2023, when she lost in three tough sets to Aryna Sabalenka.

The 26-year-old fifth seed took her latest victory in her stride, saying a calmer mindset helped in the heat of battle.

“In the beginning, when it’s the first final, and you go so far in a tournament, of course, you are more emotional,” said Rybakina.

“Now I feel like I’m just doing my job, trying to improve each day. So it’s kind of another day, another match.”

Defeat denied Swiatek in her latest bid for a career Grand Slam of all four majors, having already won Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open.

Sixth seed Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina have shared three wins each in their six matches so far.

Pegula is yet to drop a set this year in Melbourne and is arrowing in on her first major crown at the age of 31.

“It’s awesome,” Pegula said of reaching her first Australian semi-final, having beaten defending champion Madison Keys in the previous round.

She was helped by an error-riddled display from fourth seed Anisimova, who racked up 44 unforced errors to Pegula’s 21.

Her frustrations boiled over at the end as her hopes of reaching a third major title in a row melted away in a blur of mistakes.

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Two-time champion Sabalenka faces Ukrainian 12th seed Elina Svitolina in the other semi-final.

Also on day 11 at Melbourne Park, where temperatures were far more comfortable than the 43 °C on Tuesday, Djokovic faces Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.

The winner will meet two-time reigning champion Jannik Sinner or all-action Ben Shelton of the United States in the last four.

Djokovic has won a record-equalling 24 Grand Slam titles, 10 of them in Melbourne.

But a 25th has remained agonisingly out of reach since triumphing at the US Open in 2023.

Djokovic got a free ride into the Musetti showdown when rising Czech star Jakub Mensik pulled out injured, giving the 38-year-old Serb an extra day’s rest.

“Pretty sure he won’t be tired,” said the fifth-seeded Italian Musetti. “But hopefully the rhythm that I have right now… will bring me luck for the next one. I feel ready to try to push him to his maximum.”

The odds are stacked against Musetti, who is into the last eight at Melbourne for the first time, with clay and grass his usual forte.

He has played Djokovic 10 times before — and only beaten him once, back in 2023.

Sinner is bidding to win the Melbourne crown for a third time in a row, something only Djokovic has done in the Open era (since 1968).

He has a tough opponent in Shelton, who reached the semi-finals last year, where he lost in straight sets to Sinner.

The pair have met nine times, with the world number two winning eight of them. But Shelton is a fan favourite and is hoping to harness the energy of a “rowdy” crowd to pull off a shock.

“I’m definitely a competitor, I’m rowdy on court, I look forward to rowdy crowds,” he said.

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Barbora Krejcikova stuns Elena Rybakina to reach Wimbledon final

Czech 31st seed Barbora Krejcikova will face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final after battling back for a shock 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over former champion Elena Rybakina on Thursday.

Just hours after Paolini beat tearful Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in the longest women’s semi-final at the All England Club, it was Barbora Krejcikova’s turn to dig deep for victory against fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina in two hours and seven minutes on Centre Court.

Barbora Krejcikova faces seventh seed Jasmine Paolini on Saturday in what will be the second Grand Slam final of the 28-year-old’s career after her French Open triumph in 2021.

“I’m so proud about my game and my fighting spirit today,” said Krejcikova.

The Czech started 2024 with a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, but a first round exit at the French Open was a major setback.

She struggled with a back injury and illness, winning just three singles matches in the five months before finally finding her form in remarkable style at Wimbledon.

Krejcikova shocked 11th seed Danielle Collins in the fourth round and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals, before turning her sights on Rybakina.

The two-time Wimbledon doubles champion is now one win away from an unexpected triumph in the singles.

“Unbelievable. It is very tough to explain, but a lot of joy and a lot of emotions,” Krejcikova said.

“When I broke her in the second set, I started to be in the zone and I didn’t want to leave the zone.”

Rybakina had been in formidable form, dropping just one set as she extended her impressive All England Club record to 19 wins from 21 matches.

The 25-year-old, who won Wimbledon in 2022, made a fast start with two quick breaks for an early 4-0 lead in a one-sided first set against Krejcikova.

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In her first Wimbledon semi-final, Krejcikova turned the tide in the second set, landing a priceless break in the sixth game.

She levelled the match on her sixth set point, making it the first time in 20 years that both Wimbledon women’s semi-finals had gone to the final set.

The Czech held all the momentum and she eventually wore down Rybakina, who had committed over 35 unforced errors by the time she surrendered her serve in the decisive, seventh game of the final set.

Paolini had never won a main draw match at Wimbledon before this year, but the world number seven tenaciously saw off Vekic in two hours and 51 minutes to secure a second successive Grand Slam final appearance.

The 28-year-old, who lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek last month, is the first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon final.

Paolini, who also made the Australia Open last 16 in January, had not gone past the second round in any Slam before this year.

Without a win at the All England Club heading into the tournament, Paolini now has six victories under her belt and has dropped just two sets in the process.

“The last months have been crazy for me. It is a dream. I was watching finals when I was a kid on this Wimbledon,” she said.

“You know there is no place better than here to fight for every ball and every point. I will remember this forever.”

Vekic paid the price for 57 unforced errors, with the semi-final fittingly ending on another wild forehand from the unseeded Croatian.

Unable to contain her frustration at letting 3-1 and 4-3 leads slip in the last set, Vekic broke down in tears in the closing stages of a rollercoaster clash.

“I was crying because I had so much pain. I didn’t know how I could keep playing,” Vekic said.

“I thought I was going to die in the third set. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg.”

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Novak Djokovic on brink of Wimbledon quarters as Rybakina advances

Novak Djokovic was on the brink of his 14th Wimbledon quarter-final on Monday as Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz prepared for a testing battle against Matteo Berrettini.

In early action, Russian teen sensation Mirra Andreeva lost to US 25th seed Madison Keys while defending women’s champion Elena Rybakina progressed when Beatriz Haddad Maia quit in tears.

World number three Daniil Medvedev reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final when Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka retired with an injury.

Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic was two sets up against Hubert Hurkacz when play was halted on Sunday ahead of a locally agreed 11:00 pm curfew.

The pair were set to resume on Monday with the winner to face Andrey Rublev for a place in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic is chasing a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title at the All England Club and 24th career Grand Slam crown.

Top seed Alcaraz is seen as one of the few genuine threats to the defending champion, who has not lost a match on Centre Court for 10 years.

The 20-year-old has little experience on grass but won last month’s tournament at Queen’s to set himself up for a tilt at the Wimbledon title.

He comes up against the dangerous Berrettini, who reached the 2021 final, in the last match of the day on Centre Court.

Berrettini, ranked 38th, was forced to miss last year’s Wimbledon after testing positive for Covid and has subsequently struggled with an abdominal injury.

He is desperate to make up for lost time and said he was relishing the opportunity to take on Alcaraz, who won the Queen’s tournament on grass last month.

“In a way it’s what you want, right? You want to play against the best players in the world. Playing against Carlos, it’s always been like a pleasure, a fight, a great fight.”

The first result of the day was on No. 2 Court, where 16-year-old Andreeva’s fairytale run was brought to an end.

The teenager, who came through qualifying, looked set for a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals when leading Keys by a set and 4-1 but the American fought back to win 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.

The match ended in controversy when Andreeva was handed a penalty point for banging her racquet into the surface.

The sanction took Keys to match point.

In the first match on Centre Court, Elena Rybakina was 3-1 up when Brazilian world number 13 Haddad Maia took a medical timeout to treat a lower back injury.

She limped back onto the court but was reduced to walking pace and was in tears as she saw out the fifth game before retiring.

“It’s never easy to finish a match like this. I hope it is nothing really serious, it is really unlucky for Beatriz,” said Rybakina.

The world number three will face either two-time champion Petra Kvitova or 2022 runner-up Ons Jabeur for a place in the semi-finals.

Kvitova, the ninth seed, is showing signs of her best form on grass, nine years after she won the second of her Wimbledon crowns.

Men’s third seed Daniil Medvedev was 6-4, 6-2 ahead when 37th-ranked Lehecka, who had needed a medical timeout for a right foot injury, retired from their Court One clash.

Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas takes on American Christopher Eubanks while 2014 semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov plays sixth seed Holger Rune.

Away from the action on court, All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton said there were no plans to issue a statement after Belarusia’s Victoria Azarenka was booed off court following her defeat by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

As has become common, Svitolina did not shake hands with Azarenka in protest over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Belarus is a key military ally of Moscow.

“Historically in tennis the decision on how a player reacts at the end of a match is entirely a personal decision for them and I think we don’t really want to start mandating what happens,” said Bolton.

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Elena Rybakina to clash with Kalinina in Italian Open final

ROME: Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina fought from 4-1 down in the second set to overhaul Jelena Ostapenko on Friday to reach the final of the Italian Open.

The 6-2, 6-4 comeback from the Kazakh sent Elena Rybakina into her fourth major final of the season after the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.

She will bid for the trophy on Saturday against Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, who reached the second WTA final of her career with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 defeat of Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova.

The winner then gave a shout-out to her country, invaded by Russia last year, as she moved into the title match at the Foro Italico.

“It’s absolutely important to try and win every match, (considering) what Ukraine is going through,” she said.

“I hope I can give a small light and maybe some positive emotions to my country.”

Elena Rybankina will need a quick turnaround after winning a rain-interrupted Italian Open semi-final in just under one and three quarter hours, aided by 33 unforced errors from 2017 Roland Garros champion Ostapenko.

The second-set fightback sealed victory for Elena Rybakina on her first match point as her opponent dumped a volley into the net.

“It was not easy at all with the starting and stopping,” the winner said. “I need to recover for the final.”

Everyone knows how good Anhelina is, we are also good friends – if you can say that (in tennis).

“It will be a tough match for sure. I think of course I’m more consistent, there are still a lot of things to improve.

“But I’m happy that physically I can maintain and stay in the tournament till the end.

Elena Rybakina was pleased with her second-set turnaround.

“I didn’t start that well, I was a bit low in energy. Lost my serve. So it was difficult.

“Then a few good shots from her, good serves – it changed very quickly.

“I just tried to focus on every point and got the break back and served really well after that.”

Earlier Kalinina pointedly refused to shake hands with her defeated Russian Kudermetova opponent and made no apologies for the snub.

“We didn’t shake hands because the girl is from Russia basically. It’s no secret why I didn’t shake, because this country actually attacked Ukraine,” she said.

“This is sport, but it’s also kind of a politician thing. It’s nothing personal. But in general, yes, it’s not acceptable.”

Kalinina will be the lowest ranked finalist at the Italian Open since 1986 and will rise to her equal career-high ranking of 28th.

It took her nearly three hours to go through in a match played 72 hours after she won another marathon in the quarter-finals.

“I don’t feel my legs, I’ve played so much tennis last couple of days – all three-setters,” the winner said.

“I’m barely walking but I’m happy to be able to go through.”

The Ukrainian dominated the third set after a back-and-forth battle in the earlier chapters on the clay.

Kalinina saved eight break points over two games in the first set before finally taking a 4-3 lead with a break to love.

Kudermetova stayed in touch, delivering two aces to trail 4-5, with Kalinina subsequently broken as she tried to serve out the set.

But the Ukrainian came good on a second chance, winning it 7-5 after 66 minutes thanks to 18 unforced errors from her opponent.

The second set began with a pair of love holds before Kudermetova handed over a break for 3-2 to Kalinina from a long forehand.

The Ukrainian, who lost her only previous WTA final two years ago in Budapest, was broken to love while serving for the match, with a recharged Kudermetova taking a 6-5 lead.

She quickly captured one more game after winning 16 straight points to throw the match into a deciding third set.

Kudermetova saved three break points but fell short on a fourth to lose serve in the opening game of the third set as she went down to defeat.

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Wimbledon champion Rybakina falls at WTA San Jose event

SAN JOSE: Reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan lost to seventh seed Daria Kasatkina on Monday in a first-round match at the WTA San Jose hardcourt tournament.

World number 12 Kasatkina won 11 of the last 12 games to win 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 in Rybakina’s debut match since winning her first major title.

Kasatkina will next play American Taylor Townsend, who eliminated Australian Storm Sanders 6-1, 6-4 at the US Open hardcourt tuneup event.

After 23rd-ranked Rybakina rolled through the opening set in 35 minutes, Kasatkina dominated the final two.

American Madison Keys, the 2017 US Open runner-up, defeated China’s Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-2 to book a second-round date against Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who lost to Rybakina in last month’s Wimbledon final.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, and American sixth seed Coco Gauff would meet in a second-round matchup if both win their openers on Tuesday.

Former world number one Osaka will face China’s Zheng Qinwen while 18-year-old Gauff, this year’s French Open runner-up, meets Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.

Osaka, whose ranking has slid to 41st, has not played since losing her first-round match at the French Open. She had suffered a right ankle injury in a tuneup event at Madrid.

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Elena Rybakina roars back to beat Ons Jabeur, wins Wimbledon title

LONDON: Kazakhstan Tennis player Elena Rybakina produced a scintillating comeback in the Wimbledon final against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur to lift her maiden Grand Slam title.

In an exciting final, Rybakina displayed nerve of steel as she made an astounding comeback from a set down to claim the most prestigious title in world Tennis as she defeated Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

The No.3 seed Jabeur, who made history on Thursday by becoming the first woman from Tunisia, Arab, and Africa to reach a grand slam final, started her first final on a high as she displayed complete control over Rybakina in the first set.

Rybakina, on the other hand, wasted no time as she quickly bounced back in the second with precise groundstrokes and turned the tables and forced the match into the decider.

The unseeded Rybakina, fuelled with momentum, then displayed the same performance in the final set as she completely outclassed Jabeur to seal a scintillating victory with an astounding comeback.

With her remarkable victory, Rybakina has become the youngest Wimbledon champion after Petra Kvitova in 2011.

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