By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Sunday, June 6, 2021
No. 21-seeded Elena Rybakina defeated three-time champion Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 to reach the last eight at Roland Garros.
Photo credit: Adam Pretty/Getty
Elena Rybakina did not let her awe over the greatness of Serena Williams stop her from completing an impressive straight sets win over the former three-time Roland Garros champion in their first career meeting.
The hard-hitting No. 21 seed Rybakina upset the seventh-seeded Williams 6-3, 7-5 to reach her first ever career major quarterfinal.
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Williams, bidding to earn a career 24th major singles title that would tie Margaret Court’s all-time major record will now have to wait until Wimbledon to possibly reach that milestone.
Rybakina, known for not showing much emotion after a win, talked about what it felt like to defeat the all-time great Williams.
“The legend of the sport,” Rybakina said earlier in the week when she was asked to describe Williams. “Of course I want to be with her on the court, to feel this power and everything. I was watching her matches when I was growing up, and it will be nice to play with Serena. Why not?”
Why not indeed as Rybakina matched Williams’ power from the baseline throughout their fourth round meeting. Some may be surprised by the result, yet Rybakina posted very good results back in 2020. That included reaching a tour best five finals and winning one tournament in Hobart.
For Williams, the loss did not seem to impact her too much as she already is setting her sights on the grass courts. Williams entered Roland-Garros having not played many clay court matches and was essentially looking for match play heading into the rest of the summer.
“I got some good matches in here,” Williams said after the match. “I did not have the best clay-court season. But it was good to finally get some wins on clay. I’m in a much better place than when I got here.” “Yeah, I'm in a much better place than when I got here. You know, just literally trying to win a match, because it had been a really difficult season for me on the clay. And although I love the clay, I was, like, if I could just win a match. Yeah, that's kind of where I was kind of coming in,” Williams added.
Rybakina, with her big, flat groundstrokes quickly took a 4-1 lead to open up the first set. Williams was often late getting to the ball and needed several games to adjust to her opponent’s aggressive game plan.
Williams managed to break Rybakina for 3-4 and get back on serve. Yet, Williams’ momentum was short-lived as Williams hit several unnecessary errors on what would have been easy winners. Rybakina soon broke her opponent again for 5-3.
The 21st-seeded Rybakina needed four set points before she finally served out the first set 6-3.
When Rybakina broke Williams to start off the second set, the possibility of the upset win looked more tangible for the Kazakhstan player. Yet that break seemed to energize Williams.
Off a pair of furious return winners, Williams broke back for 1-all.
Both players matched each other’s power from the baseline as well as their ability to hold serve. Yet Rybakina was unfazed by seeing Williams rise to the occasion as she had so many times in her legendary career.
Rybakina would live and die by her forehand down the stretch in the second set. With a potent forehand winner, Rybakina broke Williams at love to take a 4-3 lead. Yet in the next game, a wild Rybakina forehand error handed the break right back for 4-all.
Was Rybakina feeling the moment of the possible upset?
Very likely. Yet to her credit, she managed to reset her game and stay focused.
At 5-all, Rybakina came up with several incredible powerful winners - one on a big forehand, and then sizzling crosscourt backhand to open up a 0-40 lead on Williams’ serve. Rybakina cracked another huge return to break again and allow herself to serve for the upset at 6-5.
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Rybakina showed no hesitation in closing out the match in the next game. She quickly reached 40-15. On match point, Williams sent a return well long. With that, Rybakina secured the 6-3, 7-5 win
The explosive Rybakina controlled the stats sheet as she hit 21 winners to just 13 unforced errors to Williams’ 15 winners and 19 unforced errors.
Rybakina is now into her first-ever major quarterfinal. She will take on No. 31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who earlier in the day upset No. 15 seed Victoria Azarenka 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.