In Indian Wells, it was a day for grappling with demons.
Elena Rybakina laid a few of hers to rest, avenging her Australian Open final defeat to Aryna Sabalenka with a 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 victory that marked her first success in five meetings with the Belarusian.
The Kazakh’s first WTA 1000 title – and first tournament win of any kind since last summer’s Wimbledon triumph – elevates her to a career-high ranking of seventh, a boost she was denied after her victory at the All England Club as a result of the WTA’s decision to strip the event of points. For Rybakina, points were made on and off the court.
But on a windswept afternoon in the California desert, Sabalenka’s monsters resurfaced. Ten double faults played a decisive role in the 24-year-old’s second defeat of the season, most damagingly when she held a set point in a seesaw first-set tiebreak.
It was the bitterest of blows for Sabalenka, who seemed to have put her serving woes behind her when she won her first grand slam title in Melbourne two months ago, and her dismay was evident as she struggled to retain her composure at the start of the second set, the opening points of which she barely contested. The assumption after Australia was that the self-proclaimed Queen of Double Faults had abdicated; now, the possibility of an interregnum must be entertained.
In fairness to Sabalenka, her difficulties were not solely of her own making. Rybakina, whose quartet of previous defeats had all come in deciding sets, had spoken beforehand of the need to serve better at the decisive moments against a player whose own thunderclap delivery bears comparison with her own. The 23-year-old made good on that ambition, particularly behind her second serve, where her 52% success rate represented a significant improvement on the 44% she managed in Melbourne. Her willingness to risk more on the second ball made it harder for Sabalenka to exert the kind of pressure that had reaped dividends in the past.
“The first serve was not working that well, how I wanted,” said Rybakina. “But on the second serve, I just tried to push more, because I remember since Australia she was putting a lot of pressure on the second serve. So this is something for me to improve.
“I think here, since the conditions a bit slower, it was kind of easier to play the next shot. I tried to also change the second serve.
“Compared [to the] match in Australia, it was different, especially this first set, because she did a couple of double faults, which gave me an advantage. But then I didn’t take this opportunity from the first times.”
The power and quality of the ball-striking from both women was frequently exquisite in the early stages. Sabalenka pushed hard from the outset, fashioning a break point in the opening game that Rybakina saved with a signature move, a penetrating crosscourt backhand proving too hot for the Belarusian to handle. The same play had earned her numerous points in her semi-final win over Iga Swiatek, but here it was Rybakina’s forehand that did the greater damage. The tone was set when she glided to her right to smoke a huge winner down the line, a move she repeated to stunning effect with several early service returns. Sabalenka delivered similar hammer blows with her backhand, launching herself at the ball with gleeful relish, and it was one such effort that completed a difficult hold in the fourth game, where she was forced to fend off three break points.
There were signs in that game of the difficulties to come for the world No 2, who delivered two consecutive double faults, including a 105mph second serve. Sabalenka’s ability to cancel out such setbacks by immediately landing big serves has been a defining feature of her improvement over the past six months, and she once again showed the courage of her convictions, blasting her way out of trouble. Some clever changes of pace then propelled her to a break, but she relinquished the advantage in disastrous fashion a couple of games later, another pair of double faults allowing Rybakina to draw level at 4-4.
Now Sabalenka’s troubles began in earnest. A double fault at 5-6 brought up a set point for Rybakina, who spurned the opportunity with a missed return. Three more doubles would follow in the tiebreak, the first costing Sabalenka a set point, the next two gifting Rybakina the opportunity to take the lead. The resulting tension proved contagious, the normally calm Rybakina producing a double-fault of her own on her third set point and later bouncing her racket into the court in frustration after missing a backhand to bring up a second set point for Sabalenka. The Belarusian could barely believe it when she subsequently sent a backhand long.
It was ragged, nerve-riddled stuff, a far cry from the high standard of the first few games. Rybakina eventually converted her sixth set point, Sabalenka sending a wayward forehand sailing beyond the baseline. With so much riding on the opener, it was always likely to have a disproportionate influence on the final outcome, and so it proved. Having returned from a bathroom break in visible distress, there was to be no way back for Sabalenka after she dropped her opening service game to love.
“There will be some days when old habits will come back and you just have to work through it,” reflected Sabalenka afterwards. “Not every match will be going your way, and you will be serving perfectly. So it’s just kind of a reminder that that’s OK, to still struggle with something. That’s okay, to not play your best [but] keep fighting and keep using the rest of the weapons.
“Today I would say that I was super disappointed with my serve, so I was back to old habits. I was a little bit overreacting on things, and I wasn’t there in the first two games in the second set.”
There was a lovely moment during the trophy presentation when Rybakina, reflecting on “a great result”, acknowledged that it was “the first time it went my way”, expressing hope she would face Sabalenka in “many more finals”. “I’ll make sure it was the last one,” Sabalenka interjected. “No. No, no, no, we’ll see next time,” smiled Rybakina as Sabalenka patted her playfully on the shoulder.The reality is that, for all Swiatek’s success over the Middle Eastern swing, the pair have now contested the two biggest finals of the season. With Rybakina going from strength to strength, the women’s season promises to be a three-way shootout for the big trophies – demons allowing.