Elena Rybakina took a significant step towards her second grand slam title as she overpowered and outplayed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, advancing 7-5, 6-1 to end the second seed’s hopes of completing a career grand slam this year.
The victory sends Rybakina, the fifth seed and 2023 Australian Open finalist, into her fourth grand slam semi‑final. It has been nearly four years since the 26-year-old made her breakthrough by winning Wimbledon. Although she has won numerous titles and established herself as one of the best in the world she has failed to drag herself over the line at the grand slams for a second time.
However, Rybakina arrived here playing some of the best tennis of her career after dismantling the field at the WTA Finals in November. The disdain with which she put Swiatek away in set two here reinforced her status as a major contender.
Rybakina will face the sixth seed, Jessica Pegula, after the American put together her own statement performance against the recent Wimbledon and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova. She held firm at the end of a tight second set to advance to her first semi-final with a 6-2, 7-6 (1) win.
Rybakina and Swiatek have built one of the most significant rivalries around. Although Swiatek is the superior player overall, margins are tight and this is a match-up Rybakina relishes. Her destructive serve, the best in the world, neutralises Swiatek’s return and she robs Swiatek of time with her easy, destructive ball speed off both wings. This is reflected in their countless tight matches, with the head-to-head now 6-6.
The serve differential was the story here again. Rybakina did not even serve that well in the first set, landing 41% of first serves, but she won 93% of the points behind it, conceding one point. While Rybakina breezed through her service games to reach 6-5, Swiatek served badly under significant scoreboard pressure. In that crucial 12th game, Rybakina’s aggression put pressure on Swiatek to take the initiative and the Pole played an error-strewn service game to relinquish the set.
Having secured the opening set, Rybakina relaxed and played with total freedom. She was nearly unplayable, firing aces on important points and eviscerating the ball off both wings with total clarity, hurting Swiatek with her aggression. There was no way out for Swiatek, who once again had to endure the grim experience of being hit off the court by Rybakina.
Swiatek said she leaves the tournament determined to make significant changes to her game, particularly her serve. She believes the time has come to employ a lighter schedule to ensure she has enough time at home to keep improving. “I know what I need to improve, and it’s the same stuff I had in my mind before the tournament. So there’s no breakthrough lesson,” she said. “I’m just going to keep doing my job, and hopefully [by] the next tournament I’ll get some stuff settled in terms of what I want to do with my game.”
As is often the case with Pegula, she has flown under the radar. Her game is less flashy than many of the nuclear shotmakers at the top and she is a more composed, understated personality, meaning other players naturally command more attention. However, her play here has been superb, a consequence of her continuous improvement in the second half of her late‑blooming career.
Against Anisimova, her performance in the first set was surely one of the best sets of her life. She served supremely well, firing down six aces in the set, deflected Anisimova’s ball speed with ease, responding with flawless depth and sharply redirecting shots.
After Anisimova had established a 5-3 second‑set lead, Pegula coolly dragged herself back into the set. She took advantage of some dire serving and then played a perfect tie‑break to advance.
Grand slam quarter-finals were once the greatest challenge of Pegula’s career after the 31-year-old lost the first six she contested. This week, she reached her third grand slam semi-final without dropping a set in five matches. However, with all of the top players congregating in the final stages, there are no easy matches. She will now have to neutralise another of the most devastating ball strikers on Thursday as she faces Rybakina.
