Elena Rybakina is not one to dwell on numbers, which is probably just as well.
Ten weeks ago at the Australian Open, Rybakina came out on the wrong side of the longest tiebreak in grand slam singles history, losing a 42-point shootout to Anna Blinkova. Pushed to a final-set shootout for the first time since, it would have been natural for her mind to drift back to that gut-wrenching defeat.
But as the 24-year-old vied with Victoria Azarenka for a place in the Miami Open final, nothing could have been further from her mind. She was not thinking of Australia, or Blinkova, or the six match points she missed on that January night in Melbourne. She was not dwelling on a remarkably one-sided second set in which Azarenka turned a match she had been controlling on its head with a run of 16 straight points. Nor was she preoccupied by the thought that, less than 10 minutes earlier, she had stood just two points from victory as she served for the match at 5-4. All that mattered now was a clear mind.
“I knew that in the tiebreak the only chance for me to win was just to switch off my mind and just try to go for it,” said Rybakina following her dramatic 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory.
“I didn’t even remember that last time I played in Australia, the tiebreak. But definitely, all the matches I played here, it was a battle for every point with all the opponents.
“I was not really thinking much. I knew it’s a tiebreak, it’s a kind of roulette, it might not go your way, especially from the beginning – and it went my way.”
Through to the final for a second straight year, Rybakina will face a player cast in the same powerful mould in Danielle Collins, who maintained her dominant form at the tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 14th seed.
“I’m looking forward to playing Elena,” said Collins after reaching the first WTA 1000 final of her career in her last season as a professional. “We have had a lot of great matches previously, some battles. That’s what we play for as professional athletes, these close ones.
“Every time I have played her, it’s neck and neck. These games are close, the points are close, they are long, challenging points. Big serves from both of us. Big returns, big groundstrokes. I think we will go out there and put on a great show and it will be a fun match.”
Rybakina could be forgiven for hoping that their latest meeting bucks that trend. The Kazakhstani has won her past three matches against the unseeded American – her sole defeat came during Collins’s title run in San Jose in 2021 – but all have gone the distance. After being pushed to a decider in four of her five matches in Miami, another three-setter is the last thing the world No 4 needs.
“It was really difficult from the beginning,” said Rybakina, who arrived in Florida short of match practice after a gastrointestinal illness forced her to abandon her defence of the Indian Wells title. “For sure I can take a lot from this tournament, a lot of positives. And also, in the beginning, these long matches were helping me to get back in shape.
“Now I’m not in shape, just because I’m tired of all these long matches. But overall, it was a really successful tournament no matter how I do in the final.”