Rybakina's masterclass sends Swiatek packing, reach Indian Wells final against Sabalenka

Elena Rybakina swept past world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and will have a rematch of the Australian Open final against Aryna Sabalenka in search of the new champion of the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells.

Swiatek is usually the favorite in every match she plays, not only because she is the world No. 1, but also because of the results she usually obtains, conceding very few games and obtaining bagels against a good part of her opponents. This time, it was the Polish player who suffered a heavy defeat.

Although Swiatek was the favorite, Rybakina is one of the few players who has shown that she can rival the Polish player. In fact, the Kazakh had defeated the 3-time Grand Slam champion in their last encounter in the fourth round of the 2023 Australian Open.

The former Wimbledon champion played an almost perfect match and only conceded 3 games to the 21-year-old player. Rybakina played a game plan looking to play short points and always looking to play the cross-court forehand to put pressure on Swiatek, who made many more errors than usual. The first set only took 36 minutes for the world No. 10, who after a double fault from her opponent, closed the set 6-2.

The second set was even more dominant for the Kazakh. She quickly got the breaks and went up 5-0. Despite a slight recovery from Swiatek by getting her first break of the match, the superiority of the 23-year-old player was too wide to overcome. With the same result as in the previous set, Rybakina reached the first Masters 1000 final of her career by defeating world No. 1 Swiatek 6-2, 6-2.

In the final, Aryna Sabalenka awaits, who earlier had defeated Greek Maria Sakkari also with wide superiority (6-2, 6-3). This repeats the 2023 Australian Open final, which on that occasion had the Belarusian as champion.