Elena Rybakina won the title at the WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open. She defeated the Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka by 2-0 (7:6, 6:4) in
Aryna Sabalenka simply did not resist the tension and lost the match which was filled with turnovers despite the straight-set victory of the Kazakhstani player.
The first set started equally and both players for their service games. Aryna Sabalenka reached a breakpoint in already the first game, but Elena Rybakina saved it and won the game. In the fourth game, however, The Kazakhstani player had three breakpoints, but Aryna Sabalenka saved all of them and equalized the score without giving a break. In the next game, the 2nd-seeded Belarusian tennis player succeeded to break her opponent and took an important lead. After winning her serve she had an advantage of 4:2. However, Elena Rybakina returned in the match in the 8th game when she equalized and returned the break. The Kazakhstani player had a set point at 6:5, but Aryna Sabalenka saved it and equalized to move the set into a tiebreak. And the tiebreak was really dramatic, as Elena Rybakina won by 13-11, having a total of 5 setpoints, and needed to save two setpoints for Aryna Sabalenka. Finally, Elena Rybakina succeeded to close the set and took an important lead.
The second set started great for the Kazakhstani tennis player. She took an early lead after a break in the first game. In the 7th game she registered another break and at 5:2 served for the match. However, Aryna Sabalenka did not retreated and returned one of the two break to make the result 5:3 and immediately after that won her serve game to make it 5:4.
In the 10th game, at the serve of Elena Rybakina, she succeeded to win at 15 and thus won the match and the title at the WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open.
Elena Rybakina has had a fantastic season so far. She was the runner-up at the Australian Open, losing to her today’s opponent Aryna Sabalenka. She is the reigning champion at Wimbledon and the first Kazakhstani player to win a title at a major. She has reached eight other finals on the WTA Tour, including three at the WTA 500 level, winning two titles.
