With a demonstration of tennis power that blew the central court, Elena Rybakina reached her first Grand Slam final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Simona Halep. But in doing so, the 23-year-old has also suffered a headache at Wimbledon.
When the All England Club decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players from this year’s tournament, it was in part to try to avoid scenes of the Duchess of Cambridge handing over the trophy to a Russian-born player.
However, after this performance, there is the very real perspective of Rybakina, who was born in Russia and represented his home country throughout his childhood before moving to play in Kazakhstan when he was 19 years old, lifting the famous plate of rose water Venus when facing Ons Jabeur. Saturday.
Certainly, if he plays as well as he did against Halep, he will have every chance. The Romanian had won 12 games in a row at Wimbledon, including the 2019 title, the longest streak since Serena Williams won 20 games in a row between 2015 and 2018. But here, she simply slipped off the track.
“It was a great match,” Rybakina said. “Simona is a great champion. Today I was very focused and very happy with my performance. I was nervous, of course, because today was my first time on the central court, but previous games have helped me. “
Rybakina might have been nervous, but most of all she was able to disguise it with a hand game from a conjurer. He won the first game for love, crashed three unrepeatable serves along with a delicate fall shot, and then broke Halep on the next to get 2-0 ahead. Another easy prey followed and the Kazakh was suddenly three days ahead in just eight minutes.
Halep faced another breaking point the next, but at least he was able to stop the bleeding. However, finding an answer to Rybakina’s powerful service, delivered high from a 6-foot box, and the devastating landslides was a far more complicated enigma. A 118 mph howitzer gained three points from seven to the Kazakhs and, when a Halep right entered the tram tracks, a start was found in 37 minutes.
If Rybakina’s power wasn’t worrisome enough for Halep, she also found that her own game was starting to crunch. Three double fouls at the start of the second set immediately put her on her back as she broke down and then put herself 2-0 up behind.
The crowd sensed that Halep might be coming down without a hit. But suddenly Rybakina threw a horror show from a service game, deflecting the ball repeatedly off the court as it broke to love.
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With 2-2 in the second set, the audience felt the momentum was changing. The problem was that Halep’s service was still everywhere. Two more double fouls followed when he broke again. Rybakina, meanwhile, was returning to the keel. He hit three asses (120 mph and 119 mph and 96 mph wide) to go 4-2 ahead.
Halep continued to struggle, but another double foul and a 5-3 setback error allowed Rykabina to get the match and become the youngest Wimbledon finalist since Garbiñe Muguruza in 2015.