Elena Rybakina, with the victory against Aryna Sabalenka, has projected herself as one of the tennis players who can aspire to dethrone Iga Swiatek. She won a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time, but above all she avenged the painful defeat against the Belarusian a few months ago, in the final at the Australian Open.
The Kazakh had never managed to surpass the world number two. A double satisfaction therefore, which also projects her to the seventh position of the ranking.
Now, Elena will have an important mission. In fact, with the decline in results that is affecting Iga Swiatek, Rybakina can slip into the fight for the world no.1. It will be she, Sabalenka and Swiatek who will fight for the WTA Throne.
Rybakina has already won Wimbledon, made a final at the Australian Open and won Indian Wells. She has a type of tennis that can challenge Swiatek, both technically and mentally. Same speech against Sabalenka. The flexibility of the Kazakh, her talent and her ability can lead her to overturn the hierarchy that is now in force on the WTA Tour.
When she says her goal is to become three number one, you have to believe her. She now has all the skills to be able to aspire to this result. Not only that, this girl has still unexplored potential, which could also lead her to obtain many other satisfactions.
After her win at the BNP Paribas Open, she said: “It’s a great feeling, it’s been a tough but really positive two weeks for me. I think the first set was crucial, we both had a lot of chances, but in the end it went my way, so I think that was the most important moment. Then it was a little easier to start the second set with a break so early.
The conditions were also difficult, they changed a bit with a lot of wind, so it became very difficult to play. Having this lead in scoring made all the difference. It was a different match from the one we played in Australia, especially in the first set, because she committed a couple of double faults that gave me an advantage, even if I then took advantage of this opportunity that I didn’t know how to seize other times.
Obviously she made the difference, because also in Australia she served very well, she hit her second serve as fast as her first serve, she was really aggressive. Here I took my chances and was more aggressive.
It wasn’t easy to find the rhythm against this profile of players. First serve didn’t work as well as I wanted, of course, but that’s how I got into this match. With the second serve I tried to push more, I remember in Australia she put a lot of pressure with the second serve, so I knew I had to improve a lot in that aspect. I think here in Indian Wells, given the slightly slower conditions, it was much easier to play the next shot.
I think the bigger goal is to become No. 1, even if there is still a long way to go. But yeah, that would be the ultimate goal. For now I’m No. 7, but we know how fast the rankings change, so I have to focus only on the next tournament I play.”