Paris [France], May 20 : Kazakhstan tennis player Elena Rybakina has secured a Top 5 debut in the WTA Tour Rankings because of her recent great performance in tournaments.
Born in Moscow, Russia but representing Kazakhstan, 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 quarter-final of the French Open in 2021. She also finished as runners-up in 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 seeding in the upcoming French Open if she manages to win the Italian Open title.
"Rankings Watch With a title in Indian Wells and runner-up finishes at the Australian Open and Miami, Rybakina has secured a Top debut by virtue of her progress in Rome. She now has a chance to secure a Top 4 seeding at Roland Garros if she wins her second WTA 1000 title of the year at the @InteBNLdItalia," tweeted WTA.
https://twitter.com/WTA/status/1659681764506234880
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 Latvian 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 on 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, 6-4 by Kalinina.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor