Former Indian Wells champion duo Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz win Eisenhower Cup in exhibition pre-cursor
Tennis News
Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz have been crowned champions at the 2025 Eisenhower Cup after victory in front of a sold out crowd prior to Indian Wells.
A usual tradition before the action gets underway on Wednesday night, it features the fast paced Tiebreak Tens format where matches are only played to ten points.
Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz started the night with victory over Jasmine Paolini and Lorenzo Musetti. Before Madison Keys technically returned to the court on public view anyway to see off Casper Ruud and Maria Sakkari alongside Tommy Paul.
But there were a few standout teams as Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz surged through the tournament. They defeated both Daniil Medvedev and Amanda Anisimova who were both late additions to the line-up as well as defending champions Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton.
Navarro and Shelton showed that they have cohesion as they saw off power couple Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter but they weren't able to defend their crown.
After seeing off Ruud and Sakkari, Team USA in Keys and Paul took down Team Poland in Hurkacz and Swiatek to seal their spot in the title match. But Rybakina and Fritz proved too strong with their power on evidence. They took the title 10-4 giving Fritz his second career Eisenhower Cup. Rybakina her first.
The duo walked away with $200,000 for winning. Not bad for a night's work. They now head towards Indian Wells not only with money in their back pocket but a confidence booster ahead of play starting.
Indian Wells typically is full of exhibitions and this year has been no different as players have had the chance to strut their stuff and get used to the conditions. The aforementioned Anisimova and Medvedev team also only came together as Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas withdrew. A sign that maybe Badosa's injury is worse than feared or she just merely didn't want to risk it.
FRIBAKINA 🏆
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 5, 2025
Elena Rybakina & @Taylor_Fritz97 are your 2025 Eisenhower Cup champions!@tiebreaktens | #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/F1fr62wnMG
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