The Kazakh tennis player Elena Rybakina rang the bell this Friday in the semifinals of Indian Wells defeating Polish Iga Swiateknumber one in the world, and will play in the final of the Californian desert tournament against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
Rybakina, who had already beaten Swiatek in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, He was once again the Polish ‘black beast’ and beat him unopposed by doubles 6-2 in one hour and 16 minutes.
Champion of the last edition of Wimbledon and number 10 in the WTA list, Rybakina will have the chance to be crowned in Indian Wells on Sunday in her first final at a Masters 1000 and also the option of ‘revenge’ on Sabalenka, who occupies the second position in the world ranking and beat her in the final of the Australian Open.
Swiatek, current Indian Wells champion, can’t have any time with a massive Rybakina and dominating all aspects of the game.
So, the Moscow-born got seven straight aces (only one from his rival), won 82.4% of his first service points and converted the five ‘break’ options he had in the match.
Swiatek didn’t lose a set on his way to the semifinals but this Friday he lived a nightmare in the middle court between failure, error and impotence.
Indian Wells was also left this Friday without another 2022 finalist, the Greek Maria Sakkariwho also fell hard against Sabalenka in the other semifinal.
The Belarusian took the match 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 23 minutes and will face a Rybakina who they have beaten in their four meetings so far.
Australian Open champion and world number 2, Sabalenka did not give Sakkari an option -ranked seventh on the WTA list- and dominated her match on center court in Indian Wells.
Thus, the Belarusian broke his rival’s serve three times in a row to win the first set.
An expert in comebacks and epic matches at this Indian Wells, all his matches so far have been played in three sets-, Sakkari pulled his nails in the second set despite the fact that he started by conceding a ‘break’ in the first game.
The Greek responded to the 2-0 deficit with a service break and at times matched the power and punch of his rival (2-2).
however, Sabalenka, after a section with some unforced errors and some doubts, regained her best versionbroke Sakkari’s serve (4-2) and pressed the accelerator to victory.
This will be the first final at the Californian desert tournament for Sabalenka while Sakkari was unable to ‘revenge’ this year her performance in 2022, when she lost the title match against Swiatek.
This semi-final got off to a rough start as it started more than thirty minutes late due to technical problems with the chair umpire’s public address system and the automatic hawk’s eye.
Source: La Verdad
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