Rybakina rolls, faces Kasatkina in Abu Dhabi Round of sixteen
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| Rybakina booked her spot withinside the Round of sixteen on the Abu Dhabi WTA Women's Tennis Open with a 6-four |
No.6 seed Elena Rybakina believes it is going to be hard for her to recapture the magic she had this time remaining yr, whilst she got here flying out of the gates to make 4 consecutive WTA finals to begin the 2020 season. But the 21-yr-antique from Kazakhstan has seemed strong to begin her 2021 campaign.
On Saturday, Rybakina booked her spot withinside the Round of sixteen on the Abu Dhabi WTA Women's Tennis Open with a 6-four, 6-four win over China's Wang Xiyu. In a first-time showdown among those big-hitters, Rybakina proved the steadier participant from the baseline. Though she served at much less than 50% for the fit, Rybakina remained best on her carrier games, saving the 2 damage factors she faced.
Rybakina has now no longer misplaced a fixed via her fits, and she or he will face Daria Kasatkina next. Kasatkina superior to the Round of sixteen after receiving a walkover from No.12 seed Karolina Muchova.
From the outside, Rybakina's shape has regarded sharp. But Rybakina says she nevertheless has a protracted manner to visit discover her perfect level.
"At this tournament, I'm now no longer looking ahead to much," Rybakina said. "I'm simply looking for the rhythm and play masses of fits and we're going to see the way it goes."
"Today I hit a number of unforced mistakes and my serve turned into up and down. I suppose it changed into numerous errors from each sides. It became windy these days and she or he performs competitive so it became hard to transport the ball. First spherical I assume I performed greater stable however nonetheless now no longer the exceptional yet."
"I suppose with each fit I gets higher and higher and shortly I can display my satisfactory, however I assume it is like 50% now. It's nonetheless now no longer so near the great.
Rybakina finds the open court 👏#AbuDhabiWTA pic.twitter.com/GUIbAijvJo
— wta (@WTA) January 9, 2021
Rybakina finds the open court 👏#AbuDhabiWTA pic.twitter.com/GUIbAijvJo
— wta (@WTA) January 9, 2021
Rybakina's breakout 2020 season, which noticed her make 4 finals withinside the first months of the season, became grounded with the aid of using the excursion's shutdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Rybakina might make one greater very last after the excursion resumed, dropping in 3 difficult units to Elina Svitolina on clay in Strasbourg.
When the excursion completed in October, Rybakina and educate Stefano Vukov had been in no temper to rest.
"I became practising plenty due to the fact we completed the yr and I did not have vacation," Rybakina said. "Just some days off. Because on this pandemic time in March, I did not keep a racquet for 3 months. So it become a number of rest.
"So I turned into practising for 2 months. From the thirteenth of November I began out right here in Dubai."
"We labored on the entirety due to the fact I nonetheless must enhance on technical stuff and bodily of course. It's plenty to enhance and it is now no longer smooth to trap the rhythm that I had at the start of 2020 due to the fact after the pandemic it changed into tough to begin again. I suppose most effective ultimately of the second one 1/2 of of the yr I began out to play higher and higher however already the 12 months turned into completed, so it changed into actually crazy. So with any luck now I can play numerous fits now."