Elena Rybakina is through to the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix semi-final, after beating Jasmine Paolini in three sets.
The Italian player has been flying under the radar recently, but she’s actually set to reach her career-high 13th place after the WTA 500 tournament in Stuttgart, and she’s very close to Top 10 breakthrough.
That’s why, ahead of this quarter-final match, Rybakina had to be aware of her opponent’s qualities, as she didn’t want to face struggles similar to those against Veronika Kudermetova in her first match.
She managed to do that well in certain stages, but not early in this match. In fact, she was a break down in the opening set, after losing eight of the first ten rallies, which gave Paolini a 2-0 lead early in the match.
However, the Italian wasn’t able to hold on to that, as Rybakina showed her why she’s currently the fourth-best player in the world, winning 20 of the next 26 points to completely turn the score around and lead 5-2.
After her opponent held her serve, the Kazakhstani player stepped up to serve out the set, but Paolini gave her one last fight, creating two break point chances. Those were unused, and the fourth seed won the first set 6-3.
In the second set, Rybakina avoided similar worries like in set number one, as she was the first player to break, and even though her opponent immediately got a chance to break back, the Italian couldn’t use it.
Paolini then broke back later in the set to make it 4-4, and even though her opponent then had chances to win the second set, the Italian just refused to give up and won the second set 7-5 to take the match into the decider.
Still, despite a great push in the second set, the world no. 14 just didn’t have enough to challenge Rybakina throughout the duration of the match, as the Kazakhstani player won 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
In the semi-final of the tournament, she will take on the winner of the match between Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu, and regardless of who wins, it will be a proper blockbuster, especially given that Iga Swiatek is yet to lose a match in Stuttgart in her tennis career.
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