MELBOURNE: If Elena Rybakina is the queen of first-strike tennis, then Jelena Ostapenko's 'blink and you'll miss it' fare, isn't far behind that of the Kazakh's. Not surprising then that the longest rally of the Australian Open quarterfinal clash was a breezy nine shots. Only two exchanges in the 79-minute feature lasted nine shots.
Rybakina, 6'0'' in her tennis shoes, with a pulsing service motion, is the owner of the most dominant shot in the women's draw as the stat board underlined.
Ostapenko's ground game, sculpted by her remarkable hand-eye coordination that dismantled American Coco Gauff in the round-of-16, has the heaviness of a hammer. The Latvian, not the swiftest of athletes, however, owns court position, moving in and stepping up the pressure. She takes the ball early and drills a flat shot that skims the net. Playing close to the line, she picks angles at will, the short crosscourt being a favourite. The 25-year-old doesn't leave opponents with breathing time.
The key to Tuesday's last-eight clash on the Rod Laver Arena was that the Moscow-born Kazakh didn't need the time.
Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, ranked 25, only because there were no points to tally from last July as The Championships was played without Russian and Belarusian players, scored a 6-2, 6-4 win. The 23-year-old will go up against two-timeAustralian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals on Thursday. The 33-year-old put out the third-seeded American Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-1.
Some 16 minutes into the women's quarterfinal, there was a cloud burst, turning the court into a ginormous puddle that ball kids attempted to rescue with tournament towels. It was a day that saw all the seasons — it started with a winter chill, then came the warm summer sun, moving on to grey skies and a downpour before settling into a pleasant evening.
When play resumed under a closed roof almost 40 minutes later, with tunes of 'Sweet Caroline' having entertained the stands, Rybakina showed that she was equal to the conditions.
The serve has always been the Kazakh's strength, right from her Spartak Club days in Moscow, but since she started working with Croat Stefano Vukov in 2019, it has been more efficient. It was in the pandemic ravaged 2020 season that Rybakina first topped the WTA Tour's aces list.
"We did a lot of changes on the technique, I gained even more power with that," she said of her off-season work. "It's my weapon and we are still trying to work on it. There's always a lot to improve. It's very important to have good biomechanics technique."
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