Tennis is a sport of failures where normally the most orderly usually wins. The women’s final of Indian Wells 2023 was a sample of it and Elena Rybakina she knew how to contain her nerves better and not stray from the game script she had in mind, which has led her to get her first victory over Aryna Sabalenka (7-6 and 6-4) and also lifted her first title in the 1000 category in a lackluster match, but in which the calm of the Kazakh made her know how to take advantage of the chaos that was her rival in this grand final.
The match started with the most active Belarusian, who as soon as it started had the first opportunity to break, which Rybakina saved with a great serve. That first game, which ended up falling to the side of the Kazakh, was the perfect example of what we were going to see in this final. Lots of serves, powerful shots and virtually no exchanges. Sabalenka also suffered to maintain her first service turn, but the service -which was going to be her ally and her enemy during the match- saved her from this first predicament.
The sleeve continued to surprise because both suffered on serve, but they managed to push it forward, although Sabalenka began to commit an infinity of double faults that prevented her from playing loose. However, the first to take a break was her, who gave the first blow to the game. The joy was not going to last long, because today was one of those days where the tennis player from Minsk gave away and gave away points with double faults, which led the Kazakh to recover the break in the eighth game of the set, when the nerves began to wear off. appear to not leave at any time in this first chapter.
Not without suffering, Sabalenka managed to take the first set to the tiebreaker, a tiebreak that left everyone present perplexed. Both players had numerous chances and alternated great points with blunders that prevented either of them from closing the set. The Belarusian had two options with her serve -both ended in double faults- and Rybakina had three, one of them wasted with a double fault and another with a good winner from her rival. However, the third time was the charm and a set was scored where the errors had been more protagonists than the successes, highlighting above all the 10 points that Sabalenka gave away with a double fault.
MOOD STRIKE FOR SABALENKA
Losing the set in this way left the Belarusian very touched, who gave up her serve as soon as the second set began and saw in the blink of an eye how she had gone from having the game on track to having a very difficult uphill climb. She tried, and she was close to recovering that break, but again the precipitations and the failures made the two break points that Sabalenka had to make it 2-2 vanished into nothing. From there, everything went smoothly for Rybakina, who was the one who commanded both on the scoreboard and on the court, as her rival got into a spiral of failures that she was only able to save thanks to her powerful services, which in this set they did work and the double faults did not appear.
Despite the fact that her serve was going better, the backcourt was the one in charge and there the Kazakh was the owner and lady and even got a second break to put a 5-2 that left the game seen for sentence. However, not everything was said yet and when Rybakina had everything to win, Sabalenka reacted and chained eight points in a row to make it 5-4 and put the ball back in her rival’s court, who now faced this closing turn with many more nerves There she knew how to put her doubts aside and with great services she achieved her first victory over Sabalenka, taking the final and conquering her first WTA 1000.
