On and off the court, Iga Swiatek has successfully fielded her share of tough questions at this week’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The one puzzle the double defending champion could not solve was Elena Rybakina.
In a match of fine shot-making and fine margins, the Polish world No 1 suffered her first defeat in three visits to the WTA 500 event in Stuttgart, a 10-match unbeaten run coming to an end as Rybakina edged a tight deciding set to prevail 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Two months after she ended a run of three straight losses against the 24-year-old from Kazakhstan to win the Qatar Open, a fourth defeat in six meetings with Rybakina leaves Swiatek with food for thought. This was the first defeat of her career in a clay-court semi-final, and her second reversal in two matches with Rybakina on the red dirt, after she was forced to retire with a leg injury early in the deciding set of their semi-final meeting at last year’s Italian Open.
Nonetheless, Swiatek is as unlikely to dwell on the significance of losing on an indoor clay court laid on wood, conditions a world away from those she will encounter at Roland Garros next month, as she is to fixate on her record against Rybakina. She leaves Stuttgart with a pair of solid wins over Elise Mertens and Emma Raducanu, and perhaps a quiet sense of relief that she will no longer have to face the challenging post-match questions posed by Heinz Günthardt, a former top-30 player whose entertaining on-court interviews with the Pole have been a highlight of the week.
“She had struggles with some injuries, but every time she’s healthy she is playing well,” said Swiatek when asked what makes Rybakina such a tough opponent. “There are specific aspects of her game that are hard, but I wouldn’t say there is one specific [thing]. She’s a good player. That’s all.”
In a contest that once again highlighted Rybakina’s ability to discomfit Swiatek with her heavy serve and flat, penetrating groundstrokes, it was invariably the player who landed the first big strike that came out on top in the baseline exchanges. Swiatek, three of whose four grand slam titles have come at the French Open, is normally able to make her supreme movement and athleticism tell on clay, staying in points long enough to counterpunch in the rare passages when she is unable to dictate from the back of the court. Here, though, Rybakina’s weight of shot nullified that advantage, instead placing a premium on holding serve. No factor was more decisive than the former Wimbledon champion’s ability to fend off all but two of the 13 break points she faced.
“Iga moves really well and she likes to dominate in the rally,” said Rybakina after reaching her fifth final of a season in which she has notched up a tour-leading 25 wins. “With me, it’s difficult because I play fast, I play flatter, and also like to move the opponent.
“It’s a matchup where we are both pushing each other, both trying to dominate in the point. I think, of course, my serve helps a lot.”
That much is undeniable. Given Swiatek’s ability to stretch a lead, Rybakina’s repeated success in warding off danger on serve was never more crucial than when she saved a pair of break points to avoid going a double break down at the start of the match. Had the Pole broken then, she might have run away with the set – and, given the rarity with which she is beaten after going ahead, the match. Instead, Rybakina pulled off a run of five straight games, putting the onus on Swiatek to hold. The top seed rose to the challenge impressively, saving 14 consecutive break points until she was finally broken in the fifth game of the decider.
“I doubted my serve a little bit in the third set,” said Swiatek. “For sure it wasn’t easy to see her winning her service games pretty easily, and me struggling on every game. I think at the end it made a difference.”
In the final, Rybakina will face Marta Kostyuk, the Ukrainian world No 27, who defeated Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets to reach her second final of the season. Kostyuk, who was beaten by Britain’s Katie Boulter in last month’s San Diego final, continued an extraordinary week’s work with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory over the Wimbledon champion, although the outcome was in the balance when she found herself in a first-set tiebreak after holding a 5-1 lead.
For Kostyuk, the first Ukrainian to make a final in Stuttgart, it was merely the latest in a series of cliffhangers. Taken the distance in each of her first three matches, the 21-year-old saved five match points against Qinwen Zheng, while an impressive three-set win over Coco Gauff came only on her eighth match point.
“I came here on Saturday and I practised four days before my first match, and really I was playing worse and worse with every day,” said Kostyuk. “I was, like, ‘OK, time to play some matches, because I don’t want to practise any more.’ I was not feeling great at all. I’m not talking about physically, but generally I didn’t feel good on court.
“In tennis, everything is very close. It’s like you can really feel very bad, but then have the best week of your career, like happened to me.
“I think its [about] trusting the process. I really excelled this week, and I tried in every match to just do as much as I can, and things are getting better.”
With three top-10 wins behind her – over an Australian Open finalist and the reigning US Open and Wimbledon champions, no less – how dearly Kostyuk would like to maintain her stellar trajectory against Rybakina on Sunday.