(Provided by Tennis World USA)
The semifinal of the top-half of the women’s main draw in Rome will instead see Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko engaged. She certainly didn’t expect to beat WTA number one Iga Swiatek for the third time in a row in this way, but Rybakina nevertheless became the first Kazakh to gain access to the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
The Pole dominated the match in the first set, as demonstrated by the 6-2, and she probably relaxed too much on the 4-2 imposed on the Kazakh in the first minutes of the second set. Swiatek first wasted the ball to make it 5-2 and then gave up the serve by making two bad mistakes with her forehand.
Before the tie-break, the world number one threw away another five great chances. Rybakina was rewarded by her aggressiveness and reached the third set. Swaitek suffered a problem with her right leg during the tie-break and was forced to request medical time out.
The 21-year-old from Warsaw tried to continue the match, but in order not to put her body at risk she withdrew after just four games in the deciding set. Ostapenko conquered the semifinals in Rome on her third attempt: in fact, in two editions she had stopped in the…
