The Kazakh Elena Rybakina, world No. 4, qualified Thursday for the final of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami by difficultly beating the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (No. 32) 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7/2) .
Rybakina, 24, 2022 Wimbledon champion, will meet in the final the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (no. 16) or the American Danielle Collins (no. 53), who were to face each other on Thursday at the end of the day in the other semi-final.
The Kazakh is now the favorite in a tournament which saw Iga Swiatek (world no. 1), Aryna Sabalenka (2nd) and Coco Gauff (3rd) fall along the way.
Azarenka, former world No. 1 with 19 years on the women’s circuit, almost created a surprise and won a record 200th success in the WTA 1000, which would have opened the doors to the final of a Miami tournament that she has already won three times (2009, 2011 and 2016).
After a first set won in 51 minutes by Rybakina, very solid and author of seven aces, the second round completely changed its appearance with the Belarusian hitting harder and chaining points and shutouts to inflict on her opponent a scathing 6- 0 in 28 minutes.
The break taken at that moment by the Kazakh visibly did her good during a very tight third set, but concluded with a one-sided decisive game to her advantage.
2024-03-28 21:54:00
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