Elena Rybakina thought she made the correct shot-decision when picking where to go with her forehand in the critical moments of the Aryna Sabalenka match but it was just that she “went too much” on the miss that later turned out to be very costly.
After dominating Sabalenka in the first set and winning the opener with a 6-1 scoreline, Rybakina also got her a chance to serve out for the match after breaking the second-seeded Belarusian for a 5-4 second-set lead.
Down 0-30, Rybakina fired two great serves to tie the 10th game to 30/30. Then in the following point, Rybakina had Sabalenka on the ropes and she was around the left side of her own service line when the Belarusian got the ball back in play. The ball looked like handed to Rybakina on a plate but then the Kazakh went for a paralalel on her forehand that went just wide left. After missing what looked like a pretty easy and routine forehand, Rybakina also made an unforced error on her backhand in the next point and Sabalenka managed to get the break back.
Sabalenka then went on to claim another break in the 12th game and ultimately seal a 1-6 7-5 7-6 (5) comeback win.
“It was just a regular ball. I think that I choose the correct angle and everything. It’s just I went for too much and it went…
