STUTTGART: Elena Rybakina ended defending champion Iga Swiatek’s 10-match winning streak in Stuttgart on Saturday to reach the final of the clay-court tournament.

Fourth seed Rybakina came through their semi-final clash 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, stunning the Polish world number one who had captured the last two titles at the German event.

Rybakina will face Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 in Saturday’s second semi-final, for the title.

Rybakina now boasts a 4-2 career head-to-head record against four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek and will be playing in her fifth final of 2024.

“Like always it was a very tough match,” Rybakina said of her opponent. “My serve helped me a lot in important moments. I was fighting for the ball.

“It was such a close match. I’m really happy I managed to win and could show a good game.”Kostyuk took just one hour 35 minutes to beat world number eight Vondrousova, just a day after coming through a three-set epic against US Open champion and world number three Coco Gauff.

“I don’t think a lot of people know but I started my career 0-14 against top 10 players so I’m really trying to catch up,” said world number 27 Kostyuk who also eliminated seventh-ranked Zheng Qinwen earlier in the week.

“These are some of the best players in the world in the last year and it’s incredible to beat all of them — and I’m hoping for a Grand Slam too for myself one day.”

The 21-year-old Ukrainian will play in her second final of the season, having finished runner-up to Katie Boulter at the San Diego Open in March.

It will be her third career final having claimed her maiden WTA title in Austin last season.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2024