Kazakhstan tennis player Elena Rybakina has secured a Top 5 debut in the WTA Tour Rankings because of her recent great performances in tournaments. Elena is currently at the world No. 6 spot in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Rankings. The 23-year-old has already won the Wimbledon title in 2022. She reached the final of the Australian Open in 2023 and made it to the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2021. She also finished as runner-up in the Miami Open this year.
Her recent silverware was the Indian Wells trophy in March of this year. Elena Rybakina now has a strong chance to see herself in the top four seedings in the upcoming French Open if she manages to win the Italian Open title.
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina stormed into the final of the ongoing Italian Open 2023 after a win over 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinal at Rome. Rybakina has advanced to her third WTA 1000 final of the season with this win by 6-2, 6-4 in a match that lasted for one hour and 33 minutes on Friday.
Rybakina entered the match behind Ostapenko 2-1 in the head-to-head. The Latvians won the first two meetings, in Linz in 2019 and Eastbourne in 2021. Rybakina won their last meeting on the hard courts of the Australian Open in January. Rybakina has now tied their head-to-head at 2-2 after winning their first clay match.
Rybakina got off to a fast start, breaking Ostapenko twice to take a 4-1 lead. After 43 minutes, the WTA Tour’s ace leader kept control of her service games to seal the first set with her fifth ace of the match. However, Ostapenko swiftly recovered in the early portions of the second set. Ostapenko broke for the first time in her ninth Rome appearance, powering down a forehand return winner to go up 2-0. As the rain began to fall heavier, she saved a break point to increase her lead to 4-1.
After a brief rain delay, Ostapenko went behind on her serve at 4-2, 15-40, before a long rain delay was implemented. When play restarted, Ostapenko won just four points the rest of the way as Rybakina completed her comeback from a 4-1 deficit.
Rybakina will lock horns with Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina in Saturday night’s final. Rybakina and Kalinina have only met once, with the Ukrainian winning in three sets last year in Charleston. Rybakina was defeated 4-6, 6-2, and 6-4 by Kalinina.