The first racket of Kazakhstan, Elena Rybakina, made it to the quarterfinals of the prestigious WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells (California, USA). Correspondent bbabo.net - about how this will affect her rating, as well as the next opponent.
In the match of the 1/8 finals, Swiss Victoria Golubich was outplayed in two sets - 7:6(5), 6:2. It turns out that Rybakina won three games at the current competitions, all of them in two sets.
Thanks to this success in the Live rankings, Rybakina secured her promotion. She has definitely surpassed American Jessica Pegula and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who lost at the 1/32 final stage. Elena also broke away from Canada's Leyla Fernandez, who was close to overtaking the Kazakhstani, but eventually lost in the 1/8 finals to the seventh racket of the world, Paula Badose - 4:6, 4:6.
Now Rybakina is in 18th place in the WTA Live ranking. If she manages to win a major tournament, then she can secure herself a bottom position in the top 10. In case of reaching the final, the Kazakhstani player can return to the top 14, if she gets to the semi-final - to the top 16. Recall that the biggest rating achievement of the 22-year-old tennis player is the 12th line.
The opponent for reaching the semi-finals of the tournament will be the sixth racket of the world - Maria Sakkari from Greece. The 26-year-old athlete went through without a fight to the 1/4 finals after the refusal of the Australian Daria Saville. Prior to that, Maria outplayed the representatives of the Czech Republic Katerina Sinyakova and Petra Kvitova in two sets.
In February 2020, Rybakina and Sakkari played in the semi-finals of the tournament in St. Petersburg, and then Elena won a hard-earned victory - 3:6, 7:5, 6:1. After that, the paths of tennis players did not intersect. Sakkari should have no less motivation, because according to the results of this tournament, the Greek can become the second racket of the world. To do this, she needs to win the title.
The match between Elena and Maria will take place on the night of Friday, March 18th. The exact time will be announced later.
Earlier, in the 1/16 finals of the men's tournament, Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik lost in two games to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov - 3:6, 4:6. For performances in Indian Wells, a 24-year-old Kazakhstani earned 94.5 thousand US dollars, or 48.7 million tenge.
Photo: BNP Paribas Open
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