After her run to last week’s final in Doha, Elena Rybakina was asked if she saw herself as part of a big four along with Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff.
“Not really,” replied the 24-year-old. “It’s too early to say if it’s a big three, big four. I think some years should pass and we all need to continue playing well.”
Years? A cynic might counter that it has taken less than a week to disprove the notion.
The Dubai Tennis Championships were billed as the first collision of the world’s top four since the Australian Open; instead, as the business end of the tournament heaves into view, Swiatek is the only seeded player left standing. The Polish top seed defeated Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals, where she will be the lone standard bearer for the world’s top 20 and a red-hot favourite to add a second straight WTA 1000 title to last week’s triumph in Doha. Not that the 22-year-old is not getting carried away.
“I’m not thinking about winning the title, because I try to do everything step by step,” said Swiatek in her on-court interview. “All these players that are playing this tournament are really great, any of us can win. I try just to stay humble and focused on only the next step, and if by any chance I’m going to win the tournament, it’s going to be just an effect. No point in overanalysing that.”
Be that as it may, not even Swiatek could deny her prospects looked brighter by the end of a day that, after starting with three of the four reigning grand slam champions in contention, ended in utter carnage.
The exodus was led by Marketa Vondrousova, the Czech seventh seed, who saw six match points come and go as she fell victim to an extraordinary fightback from Sorana Cirstea of Romania. It has been a difficult start to the season for Vondrousova, who struggled with sickness in Australia and arrived in Dubai short of match practice. But for an hour or so, the 24-year-old looked every inch the player who stormed to the Wimbledon title last summer. Mixing heavy groundstrokes with short angles, drop shots and lobs, Vondrousova opened up a 6-2, 5-1 lead.
The emphatic nature of that scoreline was misleading, however. Cirstea had competed fiercely throughout, her power and athletic defensive play keeping the points close even as her unforced errors stacked up. But with defeat seemingly inevitable, the 33-year-old resolved to go down swinging; if she couldn’t win, the least she could do was entertain the fans who continued to chant her name in loud, chopped syllables. Cirstea saved two match points with aces, another with a winning volley, and forced the play on three others to lay the foundations for what she described as “the biggest comeback of my career”.
“I looked over at the clock and I saw it was only one hour of play,” said Cirstea after completing an improbable 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 victory. “I was having such great support. I said, ‘OK, let’s try to win one more game for the public, make it a little bit longer.’
“I think that thing took the pressure away from me. I started to find my game.”
By the time Cirstea was done, another Wimbledon champion had exited the tournament without striking a ball after Rybakina withdrew with a gastrointestinal problem.
“Unfortunately, I was not feeling well overnight,” announced the fourth-seeded Kazakhstani. “Since I am not feeling 100% ready to compete, I have decided to pull out from my quarter-final match.”
Rybakina’s withdrawal means the event is guaranteed at least one unseeded finalist, with Jasmine Paolini of Italy advancing to face Cirstea in what will be the 28-year-old’s first semi-final appearance at this level. Paolini, ranked four places below the Romanian at No 26, has won both their previous meetings.
Vondrousova was later followed out of the tournament by Coco Gauff, the third seed and US Open champion, who was undone by a free-hitting display from Anna Kalinskaya, a Russian qualifier ranked 40th in the world. Kalinskaya, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the previous round, prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to claim her second victory over a grand slam champion in as many days. The Russian, a straight-sets winner over defied an upper back injury to .
In her first appearance on the tournament’s main court, it took time for Kalinskaya to find her range. A brilliant ball-striker who favours high-risk, high-reward tennis, the 25-year-old was unable to find the right balance in the opening set, committing 11 unforced errors and winning barely a quarter of her second-serve points. She was not helped by an upper back injury that required a medical timeout and briefly seemed serious enough to raise doubts about whether she would continue.
Once she settled, though, Kalinskaya was irresistible, her self-belief evident as she controlled the tempo of the baseline exchanges, drilling her backhand with regal authority in the face of Gauff’s dogged retrieving.
“I started a little bit not so confident,” said Kalinskaya, a surprise quarter-finalist at last month’s Australian Open. “I was getting used to the surface. I didn’t get the chance to play on centre court, I felt the speed of the bounce was a bit different. I couldn’t find my timing.
“In the second set, I calmed down a little bit more and I played point by point till the end of the match. I could feel the tension till the last point. She kept bringing so many balls back, so I had to stay really patient and decide which ball to go and finish the point.”
Having struggled against Karolina Pliskova in the previous round, where she became embroiled in a protracted dispute with French chair umpire Pierre Bacchi, Gauff’s second defeat in four matches concluded a forgettable Middle East swing for the American world No 3.
With Sabalenka beaten by Donna Vekic in her opening match on Tuesday, the big four becomes a big one. Swiatek now has seven consecutive straight-set wins under her belt and, unlike her peers, appears to have been largely untroubled by the transition from Doha to Dubai. Her caution is understandable, particularly given the power at Kalinskaya’s disposal, but it is hard not to like the Pole’s chances.