By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, May 25, 2024
Reigning Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek is the world’s most dominant clay-court champion.
Yet in the case of hardest opponents, the world No. 1 is second to at least one for Elena Rybakina.
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The top-seeded Swiatek carries an imposing 77-10 profession clay-court report into her Roland Garros title protection, together with an outstanding 14-1 clay mark this season capturing back-to-back WTA 1000 championships in Madrid and Rome.
Swiatek’s lone loss on dust got here to Rybakina in Stuttgart.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina says world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, not four-time main champion Swiatek, is her hardest opponent on the WTA Tour.
“I would say Aryna [is my toughest opponent],” Rybakina advised the media in Paris at present. “We play a lot of tough matches, and she’s very aggressive. She has good power.
“And with Iga I really feel like I’ve extra dominant within the, simply, recreation by my energy over Iga. With Aryna, it is more durable.”
Head-to-head records support Rybakina’s stance.
Overall, Rybakina has won four of six meetings vs. Swiatek.
Two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka is 6-3 vs. Rybakina, including edging her rival 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in a pulsating Madrid semifinal earlier this month. Sabalenka fought off Rybakina to win her maiden major title at the 2023 Australian Open.
The 24-year-old Rybakina denied 11 of 13 break points in a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 triumph to snap Swiatek’s 10-match Stuttgart winning streak and reach her fifth final of the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix last month.
It was Rybakina’s fifth career victory over a reigning world No. 1 with four of those wins coming against rival Swiatek.
Now, Rybakina has beaten the Roland Garros champion twice in a row on her favorite surface.
Elena #Rybakina ends Iga Swiatek‘s Stuttgart profitable streak to succeed in her first Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Final! Congratulations! 👏🏼 #porschetennis #PTGP24 pic.twitter.com/6YWJZfGd6V
— Porsche Tennis (@PorscheTennis) April 20, 2024
Beating the world’s finest on her finest surfaces infuses Rybakina with confidence forward of Roland Garros, the place right here finest result’s a quarterfinal look in 2021. Rybakina swept Serena Williams within the 2021 French Open spherical of 16.
“Yeah, of course, it gives me a lot of confidence,” mentioned of her profitable report vs. Swiatek. “As I always say, I think I improve every year, every tournament.
“Of course these wins towards Iga, it offers you confidence.”
The fourth-ranked Rybakina went on to win Stuttgart turning into the primary girl to succeed in 5 finals within the first 4 months of the season since former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in 2012.
Photo credit score: Clive Brunskill/Getty
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