The semifinals of the Indian Wells women’s tournament had a rather surprising ending. The World number one Iga Swiatek collapsed in front of the blows of Kazakh Elena Rybakina, with ElenaĀ who inflicted a real tennis lesson on her.
After the victory in Australia Elena confirms herself or even does even better and leaves no way out for the Polish tennis player, who appearedĀ distantĀ of the tennis player who dominated in 2022. Challenge without any balance with Rybakina who closed the games in little more of an hour of play with a clear 6-2;6-2.
The Kazakh’s service, always effective and very deep, was decisive for the result, while Iga failed to do the same, disappointing in the exchanges and in depth. At the end of the match, the Pole underlined some rib problems that will lead her to do some tests in the next few days.
The Indian Wells final will therefore be a remake of that of the Australian Open with Swiatek’s dominance on the Tour now appearing to be in the balance. With the fuel needle close to zero after four consecutive victories in the third set, Maria Sakkari fails to put up real resistance in the semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka.
At the same time, she returned from a health walk in the first round, a victory by walkover in the second and overtime only against Barbora Krejcikova in the replay of the Dubai match in the round of 16. All before the very clear 6-4 6-0 against Coco Gauff.
In short, the champion of the Australian Open despite some small empty passes gets rid of the finalist of the last edition in just over ninety minutes of play. She doesn’t immediately take advantage of the break that allows her to jump up to 3-1, but she still digs a furrow in the match with a mega-run of 6-0.
She same situation in the second set, with Sakkari who reassembles the score at 2-2 before losing the next three games. Called to close, Sabalenka made no mistake, closing on 6-2 6-3, giving herself the seventeenth victory out of eighteen matches in the season and reaching the twenty-first final in her career.