INDIAN WELLS: Elena Rybakina again proved too much for world number one Iga Swiatek, denying the defending champion a return to the Indian Wells final with an emphatic 6-2, 6-2 semi-final victory on Friday.

Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion who stunned top-seeded Swiatek in the fourth round of the Australian Open on the way to the final, will now get a chance to turn the tables on Aryna Sabalenka, who beat her in Melbourne to capture a first Grand Slam title.

World number two Saba­lenka advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over seventh-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece.

Rybakina was in control from the start, breaking early to take a 2-0 lead, before going on to clinch the first set when Swiatek produced a double fault on set point.

Rybakina’s serve was tested in the first game of the second set, but the Kazakh held under pressure and then won the next four games to take a 5-0 lead.

Swiatek was far from her best on the night and later revealed that she had struggled with “discomfort” in her ribcage during the match, but added that she was still expecting to defend her title at next week’s Miami Open.

“We’re going to consult with the medical team. For sure I’m going to use these days off before Miami (to recover),” Swiatek told reporters.

The Pole did manage to avoid a bagel in the second set by saving a break point to hold before breaking to then further reduce the arrears, but Rybakina broke back immediately to extinguish the comeback and secure the win.

“I really played well today, it was a really nice atmosphere tonight,” Rybakina said in her on-court interview. “I didn’t expect I would play that well today. I had nothing to lose, I just wanted to enjoy. I think it was one of my best matches this season.”

Earlier on Friday, Sabalenka was not at her best in her win over Sakkari, but maintained her composure even when her old nemesis — the double fault — reared its ugly head on a sunny day in the Southern California desert.

“In the past I lost so many matches like that after a few not super smart mistakes,” said Sabalenka. “I was reminding myself that it is okay to make mistakes. I’m not a robot, I’m a human. I can miss those shots, and probably that’s why I was able to keep fighting and keep trying.”

After the start of the match was delayed by more than 30 minutes to fix an audio issue related to the electronic line-calling system, Sabalenka cracked an ace out wide to open the match. She broke Sakkari for a third time on an errant Sakkari forehand to capture the first set but the Belarusian’s frustration began to mount in the second when two double faults gave Sakkari a look at break points at 2-2.

Sabalenka regrouped to hold for 3-2 and broke Sakkari in a lengthy deuce game for a 4-2 adv­antage she would not relinquish, pouncing on a short ret­u­rn of serve on match point and burying the ball with an emph­atic backhand.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2023