Elena Rybakina was a dominant figure at the last WTA Finals and ultimately defeated Aryna Sabalenko to win her first WTA Finals trophy. While the public expected Sabalenka to have an easy task and win, Rybakina showed that she can create problems and spoil her opponent's plans.
The future of women's tennis seems very interesting with many quality tennis players fighting for the very top, although Sabalenka has been leading the charge for years. Performances like these certainly change how we see women's tennis and give hope that a somewhat different future awaits us.
Nick Kyrgios' former coach, Simon Rea, praised Rybakina's performance, saying that playing Sabalenka was a challenging task, but that Rybakina showed ease in her game. She was especially dominant on the serve, showing that she knows how to change the course of a match with her serve.
Looking specifically at the final, there are not many players on Tour that can almost have their way with Aryna Sabalenka down the other end, in terms of dictating more points than they are on the receiving end of, and Rybakina is one of those.
She had 13 aces to five in the final against Sabalenka. She was not broken across two sets.
This was an extraordinary number which jumped off the page at me, when I was watching this match back, and it did get confirmed, she won 75% of her second serve points, Rybakina. 50% is a really solid number, anything above 50 is a good, solid result. So, to win 75% of your second serve points against Sabalenka, who is all about trying to do maximum damage on second serve return herself, proved to be a real difference maker in the match.
Elena showed that she knows how to handle the world no.1
The famous tennis player has shown that she knows how to deal with players who are world number 1, considering she has a record of 8-6 against players who have been world number 1. Few have a positive record, and Rea mentions Steffi Graf and Serena Williams.
Rea believes that this shows her potential and that, when she is in the right form, hardly anyone can cause her problems.
We will see how much the world number 3 can progress in the future and whether she really has the potential to be at the very top.
