INDIAN WELLS, California — Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina edged Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (13/11), 6-4 to win the Indian Wells WTA title and avenge her loss to the Belarusian in the Australian Open final.
Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, the world number 10 who ousted top-ranked defending champion Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals, followed up with her first victory over second-ranked Sabalenka in five career meetings.
While Sabalenka had the edge from the baseline in a hard-fought battle, Rybakina’s fierce pressure saw the serve demons that beset Sabalenka last year resurface.
Her 10 double faults in the opening frame ultimately proved too much to overcome.
After fending off three break points in a marathon fourth game, she broke Rybakina to gain the advantage, but Sabalenka handed back the break with a double fault to close the eighth game.
She gifted Rybakina a set point with another double fault in the 12th game and while the Kazakhstan player couldn’t capitalise, she would do so finally in the tiebreaker.
Unable to convert her own two set points in the decider, Sabalenka’s 10th double fault of the set gave Rybakina her sixth set point and she took it.
Sabalenka, struggling to quell her emotions, was broken to love to open the second set and that was all the opening Rybakina needed.
The Moscow-born Kazakh saved a pair of break points to push her lead to 3-1 and, with Sabalenka in survival mode, she ripped a backhand return up the line for a break that put her ahead 5-2.
Sabalenka wouldn’t go quietly, breaking Rybakina to love and holding serve with ease with the wind at her back.
But Rybakina polished it off with confidence on her first match point when Sabalenka smacked a service return into the net.
Elsewhere, Top seed Carlos Alcaraz snapped Daniil Medvedev’s 19-match win streak with a 6-3 6-2 rout in the Indian Wells final that will see him leapfrog Novak Djokovic and return to world number one in the rankings.
Alcaraz did not drop a set across six matches in the tournament and his performance in the California desert gives him an added boost of confidence ahead of his Miami Open title defence.
“I’m playing great. Of course today, the conditions today were pretty tough. Of course Daniil didn’t play at his best, obviously,” said Alcaraz.
“All I can say is I’m really happy with my performance, the way that I was playing this tournament. I’m looking forward to playing this level in Miami as well.”
Alcaraz enjoyed a dream start to the matchup of first-time Indian Wells finalists as he got an early break for a 2-0 lead and dropped just six points on serve, racing through the opening set in 36 minutes.
Russian fifth seed Medvedev, who was looking to add another title to the ones he collected in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai over the last month, was unable to stop the bleeding and had no answer for the Spaniard’s brilliance the rest of the way.
Alcaraz broke to love in the first game of the second set and held at love for a 2-0 lead as a resigned Medvedev dropped 10 consecutive points dating back to the first frame.
The hard-hitting Spaniard kept dragging Medvedev from corner to corner and consolidated another break for a commanding 4-0 lead while barely breaking a sweat as he closed out a seemingly stress-free victory in 70 minutes without facing a break point.
A bruised and battered Medvedev was clearly not at his best after having rolled his right ankle in the fourth round and then cutting open his thumb in the quarter-final. He was also unable to deal with the windy conditions during the final.
“It was a surprising week in many aspects,” said Medvedev. “The ankle, the thumb, the tennis, wind, whatever. But we almost made it. … I will try to be better next time.”
The victory marked the third ATP Masters 1000 trophy for 19-year-old Alcaraz, who became the youngest world number one last September when he won the US Open and held that spot for 20 weeks until Djokovic reclaimed it in January.
Djokovic withdrew from the draw for the Indian Wells event in an indication that his application for a Covid-19 vaccine waiver to enter the US might have failed. The Serbian has also withdrawn from the Miami Open.
