28 mrt 2024 om 23:19 Update: 5 min. geleden
Elena Rybakina reached the final of the WTA tournament in Miami on Thursday. The Kazakh tennis star only took five points in the second set against Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. Rybakina will play unseeded Danielle Collins in the final.
The 24-year-old Rybakina was too strong for Azarenka, ten years older, in three sets: 6-4, 0-6 and 7-6 (2). The number four in the world decided the thriller after 2.5 hours on her second match point.
Rybakina won the first set via one break, but was not involved in the second act. The 2022 Wimbledon winner took only one point in the last four games of that set.
Rybakina recovered in the deciding set. Azarenka (WTA-32) twice cleared a break deficit, but still had to concede in the tiebreak.
In the final, Rybakina will face Collins (WTA-53). The thirty-year-old American had remarkably little trouble with the Russian Ekaterina Aleksandrova, number fourteen on the placement list: 6-3 and 6-2.
Last year, Rybakina also reached the final of the WTA tournament in Miami. She then had to recognize her superior in Petra Kvitová. The Czech was unable to defend her title due to pregnancy.
