Elena Rybakina became the first player since Serena Williams at 2015 Wimbledon to serve 10 or more aces in six matches in the same tournament, per OptaAce. On Saturday, Rybakina suffered a 7-6 (14) 6-2 loss to Petra Kvitova in the Miami Open final.
In the Miami final, Rybakina fired 12 aces. In all six matches played in Miami, Rybakina had at least 10 aces in every matches. In her first two Miami matches, Rybakina had 14 aces against Anna Kalinskaya in the second round and the 23-year-old Kazakh also collected 12 aces versus Paula Badosa.
In the next three rounds – against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Jessica Pegula – Rybakina had 10 aces in each match.
Rybakina fell short of completing the Sunshine Double
After winning Indian Wells, Rybakina came to a just win away from also winning Miami and completing the Sunshine Double.
“Just happy with two weeks overall. Not so happy with the second set of course, but I think it’s still [been] one positive month here in US. I think Iga [Swiatek’s 2022 winning] streak was the longest, which I remember, and it’s not easy at all.
Obviously it’s gonna come the day you’re gonna lose, so I don’t really count on that,” Rybakina said. In the first-set tie-break, Rybakina missed out on five set points. After losing an extremely tight…
