Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina are set to meet again in Cincinnati, just less than two months after the Belarusian tennis star pulled off a miraculous comeback in their Berlin match.
In what was their grass-season opener, Sabalenka and Rybakina crossed paths in the Berlin quarterfinal. Through the opening two sets, there wasn't much separating the two and it all came down to a decider. For the second time in the match, a tie-break had to decide a set.
After the opening four points, the two players were even to two points apiece. Then, Rybakina went on a big four-point run to go 6-2 up and earn four consecutive match points. At that moment, the world No. 1's fate appeared to be sealed. But then, the Belarusian saved the first match point with a lucky dead net cord. The three-time Grand Slam winner then went on to also win the next five points and complete a 7-6 (6) 3-6 7-6 (6) win.
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Now, they are due to battle in the Cincinnati quarterfinal. Going into the match, Sabalenka leads their head-to-head 7-4.
Will Rybakina think about what happened in her last match versus Sabalenka?
After completing one of the craziest comebacks of her career, Sabalenka very honestly admitted that even she wasn't sure how she managed to pull off such a comeback.
"Elena is a great player and weve had a lot of tough battles. I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky. I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down match points, and not so long ago I was thinking that its been a while since Ive made a crazy comeback, and here I am," the world No. 1 said after her miraculous Berlin comeback against the Kazakh.
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It remains to be seen how will their Cincinnati match go and it will be extremely interesting to see how Rybakina reacts if the match goes the distance.
