To see detailed h2h stats and predictions for Elena Rybakina vs Aryna Sabalenka, see our Stevegtennis head to head prediction here.
Elena Rybakina finally got the better of Aryna Sabalenka in her fifth attempt, putting in an impressive performance to take the Indian Wells title. The Wimbledon champion had won a set in each of her four losses but did far better here, delivering in key moments to secure a 7-6 6-4 victory.
Indian Wells had twice previously seen Australian Open final rematches but on both those occasions, the Australian Open winner (2000 Davenport, 2012 Azarenka) was once against victorious. It looked like things could be going that way again with Sabalenka getting the first break of the match for 4-2 but she failed to hold her nerve with the break back coming soon after.
She saved set points later on before falling in an eventful tiebreak which saw Rybakina finally take it on the sixth attempt. The Sabalenka serve had looked a bit more solid in recent months but in this matchup it was at it’s worst with 10 double faults in the opening set along. The last of them produced the decisive set point for11-12, with another error from the Belarussian finishing things off.
Rybakina had all the momentum in the second set, rushing into a 5-2 lead. She was pegged back slightly but a comfortable service game finished things off for the Kazakh to earn herself another big title. Rybakina is now at a career high No. 7 but she will be the one who feels most aggrieved by the 0 points at Wimbledon, when the traditional 2000 would see her comfortably inside the Top 5 right now.
“We both had chances [in the first set], but in the end, it went my way,” Rybakina said. “So I think it was important this first set, and then it was a bit easier to start the second with an early break. This tiebreak was really epic, I would say, with all these double faults and nerves. So in the end, it was just focusing on every point and try to fight till the end.”
While Iga Swiatek remains the runaway No.1, this matchup does show there are a number of strong challengers should the Pole struggle over the upcoming months on the clay. The rivalry between these two should also continue to grow with the pair both capable of superb aggressive tennis.
For additional head to head predictions of Elena Rybakina Aryna Sabalenka, you can see detailed H2H stats for Elena Rybakina vs Aryna Sabalenka.
To see all our predictions for upcoming matches, based on our machine learning model analysing results since 1960, see our tennis predictions page here.