A series of clay competitions is gradually approaching its logical outcome – “Roland Garros”. Before the French Grand Slam tournament, top tennis players played at prestigious competitions in Rome.

The organization of matches in the capital of Italy left the fans with a crumpled feeling, primarily due to the constant stoppages of matches due to rain. But for Elena Rybakina, this “thousander” became a landmark – the second victory in a status tournament allowed her to climb into the top 4 of the world ranking.

True, half of the opponents simply did not finish the matches with the pupil of our tennis school!

Incredible breakthrough

Since last summer, when Rybakina sensationally won her first and so far only Grand Slam tournament (Wimbledon), the Russian, who plays for Kazakhstan, has firmly established herself in the tennis elite.

And although the end of 2022 was blurred by a series of defeats at not the most high-profile competitions, Elena started the new year excellently: she reached the final of the Australian Open-2023, on the way to which the first racket of the world, Iga Sventek, was confidently beaten. So the 23-year-old athlete climbed into the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time in her life.

Then Rybakina again defeated the Polish tennis player, only this time in the American Indian Wells. In the final, Rybakina was able to take revenge on Arina Sobolenko, whom she lost to in Melbourne, and won the first trophy in the WTA 1000 series of tournaments.

Elena Rybakina / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Way to victory

The clay part of the season started not so well for her. In Madrid at the end of April, Elena lost to the Russian Anna Kalinskaya in her first match, but three weeks later she rehabilitated herself and achieved a brilliant result.

Grid in Rome for the representative of Kazakhstan, to put it mildly, was not easy. In the third round, Kalinskaya again got caught as a rival, but this time the 24-year-old Russian woman refused to continue the fight on the equator of the first set.

In the fourth round, Elena outplayed Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic (6:3, 6:3), but further advancement along the grid looked difficult. The quarter-final against Šventek seemed like a doom for Rybakina, as the world No. 1 had given only nine games to her rivals in the previous three matches.

The beginning of the meeting convinced that Elena had nothing to catch – 6:2 in the first set in favor of the polka. But then Rybakina managed to turn the tide of the match by winning in a tie-break in the second game. And it was at this moment that Iga suffered a thigh injury, so with the score 2:2 in the third set, the winner of the last two tournaments in Rome withdrew.

Elena Rybakina / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

On the way to the semi-finals, Rybakina played four games, but the strongest opponents simply did not finish the matches with Elena to the end. True, it is worth paying tribute to the Kazakhstani tennis player – such crumpled matches did not relax her. In the match for reaching the final, she easily dealt with the strong Latvian tennis player Elena Ostapenko.

Under the whistle of the stands

The decisive game in the women’s draw, scheduled for Saturday, could be rescheduled. Blame the weather cataclysms that captured Italy. The rain, due to which many matches were stopped during the tournament, interfered with the preparations for the final.

When many fans already thought that the game would be postponed until Sunday, the organizers nevertheless released the girls on the court closer to the night.

— It was a really long day. At first I was fine, just waited and waited. But after maybe four hours it got really hard. I knew that it would not be easy, but, unfortunately, such is the weather, ”The Tennis Letter quotes Rybakina.

True, the long wait was compensated for by a quick denouement for the Kazakhstani athlete. Elena won the first set against Ukrainian Kalinina 6:4, and after the opening game of the second game, the offender of Veronika Kudermetova in the semi-finals … refused to continue the fight.

The reason for removing Angelina is an injury to her left thigh. The Ukrainian woman hugged Rybakina in tears and left the court, and Elena began to celebrate her second victory of the season at the WTA 1000 series tournament. This match was the third in Rome, which Rybakina won on the refusal of her opponent. That is, exactly half of the victories were won in this way.

Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

But this is not the only aftertaste from the finale. At the awards ceremony, the organizers for some reason decided to give the winner some kind of commemorative plaque, although both the tired Rybakina and the exhausted fans wanted to complete this night final as soon as possible.

As a result, this whole procedure was accompanied by a deafening whistle from the stands. In such an atmosphere, Rybakina won her fifth title and for the first time in her career became the fourth racket of the world.