Indian Wells 2023: Wimbledon 2023 champion Elena Rybakina beat a misfiring Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(11) 6-4 on Sunday to claim her first WTA 1000 and Indian Wells title. Rybakina managed to avenge her three set loss to the Belarusian in the Australian Open 2023 final.
Rybakina who was playing in her first WTA 1000 final, came back from a break down to grab a tightly-contested first set. In the first set, second seed Sabalenka committed 10 double faults and allowed 10th seed Rybakina to crawl back into the set and set the tone for match. Rybakina leveled the score and never trailed in the match after recovering the break back.
RYBAKINA’S REVENGE 💪
Elena Rybakina picks up her first career WTA 1000 title with a 7-6(11), 6-4 victory over Sabalenka in Indian Wells!#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/Q50lJnK7YD
— wta (@WTA) March 19, 2023
On her way to the final, Rybakina beat defending champion and world number one Iga Swiatek. Rybakina dropped serve when Sabalenka landed a forehand lob just inside the baseline to take a 3-2 lead followed by a routine hold to consolidate the break and gave Belarusian total control of the set.
But Rybakina refused to back down and immediately held at love in her service game to steady the ship before Sabalenka handed back the break with an untimely double fault that levelled the match at 4-4. From there on the duo remained on serve to force a tiebreaker.
Despite her serve struggles, Sabalenka had her chances in the opener but squandered three set points. Rybakina too had her chances, prior to winning the first set, she had five set points but couldn’t capitalise on them. At 12-11 in the tiebreaker, Sabalenka sent a forehand long to giving Rybakina one set lead.
Rybakina opened the second set with a break before Sabalenka finally settled into her game. Rybakina lead by 5-2 but lost 8 consecutive points and had to serve it at at 5-4. Rybakina sensed her chance and quickly closed the deal on her first championship point as Sabalenka sent a service return into the net.
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