Miami (USA), March 29 (IANS) World No.7 Elena Rybakina defeated Italy’s Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-0 to advance to her third semifinal of the season at the Miami Open. The victory extended Rybakina’s current win streak to 12.
Rybakina is now two wins away from becoming the fifth woman to complete the “Sunshine Double”, sweeping back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami in a single season.
The 23-year-old captured her first WTA 1000 title two weeks ago at Indian Wells, defeating World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final to win her biggest title since Wimbledon.
“For sure I don’t have any pressure. I know that it’s very difficult and not many players did it. Plus I was match point down in the other match, so I really don’t think so far in the draw,” Rybakina said after her win on Tuesday night.
“I just need to focus match by match, and I have a tough opponent. Of course it would be amazing to achieve something like that, but it’s still far away,” she added.
Rybakina will face either World No.3 Jessica Pegula or Anastasia Potapova in the semifinals on Thursday. She is now 20-4 on the season, matching Sabalenka for the tour lead in match wins.
In their first meeting on tour, Rybakina’s offense proved too much for the crafty Italian. Making her main draw debut in Miami, Trevisan came through the section of the draw vacated by No.1 Iga Swiatek and became the first Italian to reach the quarter final stage in Miami since 2013.
The Kazakhstani tennis player earned the first break of the match on a Trevisan double-fault to lead 3-1. Trevisan broke back to get back on serve at 4-3, but Rybakina did not give up a single game from there. With Trevisan struggling to get the ball out of Rybakina’s strike zone, Rybakina settled in and reeled off eight consecutive games to close out the 69-minute victory.
Rybakina finished the match with 23 winners, including 10 aces, and 21 unforced errors. Trevisan hit 11 winners to 13 unforced errors.
–IANS
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