Elena
Rybakina (No. 4) overcame
Madison Keys (No. 17) and advances at the
Miami Open.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion admitted she's not in her best form, considering
her withdrawal from the Dubai Open and later pulling out of Indian Wells where
she was defending the trophy.
Nevertheless,
she put up a strong performance against the American star, who usually shows
consistency on the WTA Tour and returned to competition in Indian Wells after
missing the entire start of the season. This week, Keys secured consecutive
victories against Diana Shnaider (6-2, 6-4) and Wang Xinyu (6-4, 7-6) before
facing the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
In the
early stages of the match, Keys struggled to maintain her service but managed
to hold it, saving several break points against her. On the other hand,
Rybakina was impeccable on serve, with a 77% first-serve rate and winning 79%
of those points.
With the
score at 4-3 in favor of Rybakina, she capitalized on her fifth set point to
secure a break, which proved to be enough to take the lead at 6-3.
The second
set started well for Rybakina, who again generated a couple of break points and
converted one in the third game to lead 3-1. Everything seemed to be going
smoothly for the Kazakh, but Keys managed to break back to level at 3-3 with
her serve.
Despite
Keys serving above 80% on her first serve throughout the set, she couldn't hold
her serve when the score was 5-5, and Rybakina secured the decisive break to
then close out the match 6-3, 7-5.
In the
quarterfinals, she will face the 8th seed
Maria Sakkari, who advanced by
walkover after the withdrawal of Anna Kalinskaya (22nd seed). The Greek player
is currently enjoying her best form in several months after reaching the final
of Indian Wells a week ago.
