(Image: Tennis World USA)
Elena Rybakina made it to the quarters of the Italian Open for the first time in her career. The Kazakh put an end to Marketa Vondrousova’s upset-causing ways in their fourth-round match on Monday. The seventh seed prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 12 minutes.
Rybakina won 73% of her first-serve points to the Czech’s 69%. She also won 82% points on return on the latter’s second serve. The world no. 6 had more than as many winners as Vondrousova, 28 to the latter’s 13.
In terms of break point conversions, the 23-year-old five of seven break points on her opponent’s serve while saving six of eight break points she faced. Post-match, Rybakina said, “I’m happy to stay aggressive.
There were some moments it was up and down but overall, it was a good match, good serving from me. For sure now I need as many matches as I can to be more confident at the French Open”. In the quarter-finals, Rybakina will take on either the top-seeded Iga Swiatek or the 21st-seeded Donna Vekic.
Their fourth-round match was pushed to Tuesday after rain forced the abandonment of the latter matches.
Italian Open: Jelena Ostapenko’s showing signs of peaking
Jelena Ostapenko also made her way…
