The 23rd Kazakh world made short work of Simona Halep, winner of the tournament in 2019, this Thursday during the second semi-final. Saturday, she will face Ons Jabeur for a new poster.
Elena Rybakina, 23rd player in the world, qualified for the Wimbledon final on Thursday, a tournament in which she is only participating for the second time, beating Romania’s Simona Halep (18th), 6-3, 6-3, thus becoming the first representative of Kazakhstan to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament. “I don’t know how to describe how I feel, it was really good, I was well prepared mentally, I did my best and I had an incredible matchcommented the 23-year-old whose best Grand Slam result was a quarter-final at Roland-Garros in 2021.
Rybakina, who was born in Moscow, grew up there and lives there, will face the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (2nd), winner of the German Tatjana Maria (103rd) in the final. “It will still be a great game. She is a great player, very difficult to play and it will not be easy to counter her drop shots and volleys.predicted Rybakina, who will be the youngest grass-court Major finalist since Garbine Muguruza in 2015.
Rybakina dominated the match
Thursday, with his big shots, especially on serve (5 aces and 0 double faults when Halep did not manage a single ace but committed 9 double faults), Rybakina dominated the game. Halep, winner at Wimbledon in 2019 and very widely supported by the public while some encouragement in Russian rises from the stands for Rybakina, saw her defense dented by the violent blows of her opponent (21 winning strokes). The Kazakh broke away 3-0 in the first set and completed the round without shaking. Halep had just given up her very first set of the tournament.
In the second set, she broke from the start taking advantage of two consecutive double faults from Halep. But Rybakina returned his opponent the courtesy by chaining four unforced errors on his service game, allowing Halep to immediately pick up at 2-2. The Romanian has never had any other break point than this game.
Under the fire of powerful and fast shots from her opponent, Halep committed another double fault to offer another break to the Kazakh who this time confirmed on her serve (with two aces and a winning service) to s escape 4-2. Then she struck an ace at 195 km / h to lead 5-3, one game from qualifying. On a double fault, Halep missed a ball 4-5 and put Rybakina two points away from the game. The Kazakh scored the last two points in stride, finishing with a dazzling winning comeback.