Elena Rybakina ended her losing streak against Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek on Monday to close in on a spot in the knockout stages of the WTA Finals.
The Kazakh sixth seed was pushed aside in the opening set by Swiatek before fighting back to clinch a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, win in Saudi Arabia. Rybakina entered the match having lost her four previous meetings against the Pole, which all took place earlier this year. It is the 28th time in her career that she has beaten a top 10 player on the Tour.
“It’s always very tough to play against Iga. She brings so much intensity on the court,” Rybakina reflected afterwards.
“I feel like she started the match really well. I was a little bit slow. So straight away she broke me. But in the second set I pushed myself. The serve improved and I’m really happy that I stepped in and played better each point.”
Rybakina’s comeback victory was achieved with the help of a significant dip in Swiatek’s form, who hit 42 unforced errors during the match. The 26-year-old surged in momentum as the match progressed and was dominant behind her serve in the last two sets where she didn’t face a single break point.
It is the fourth time this year that Swiatek has lost a set 6-0 on the WTA Tour. The other players to have bageled her were Emma Navarro in Beijing, Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open and Madison Keys at the Madrid Open.
“I’m happy that I stayed focused. No matter if I lost the first set I was still trying to stay aggressive and do what we (Rybakina and her coach) talked about, so I was trying to follow the tactic a bit,” she explained.
“I got some confidence leading in the second set and everything was going my way.
“Hopefully I will play like this throughout the whole tournament.”
Rybakina is on the verge of sealing her place in the semi-finals of the end-of-season event after winning her first two round-robin matches. On Saturday she stormed past Amanda Ansimova 6-3, 6-1.
“I’ve been playing really well the last few weeks and I’m happy that first of all I was improving in each match,” she said.
“Here (at the WTA Finals) I’m trying to focus on little details and it’s a great opportunity to play here against the top players.”
Should Anisimova win her match against Keys later today, Rubakina will become the first player to qualify for the semi-finals.
