Elena Rybakina is now one win away from completing the Sunshine Double after defeating Jessica Pegula 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in Thursday's Miami Open semi-final.
Only four women have ever claimed the Sunshine Double – which requires winning both the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open. Steffi Graf did it in both 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters did it in 2005, Victoria Azarenka accomplished the feat in 2016 and current world number one Iga Swiatek did it just 12 months ago.
Rybakina sent a message to the tennis world as she knocked out both world number one Iga Swiatek and world number two Aryna Sabalenka to take home the Indian Wells crown, and she has carried that form into Miami.
After prevailing in three-setters against Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa, the Kazakhstan representative has now rattled off consecutive straight sets victories against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Pegula to extend her winning streak to 13 matches.
Against Pegula, Rybakina served 11 aces to the American's one, and in the process she became the first woman to serve at least 10 aces during five matches in the same tournament since Serena Williams back at Wimbledon in 2016.
By securing the first-set tiebreaker, Rybakina claimed her tour-leading seventh tiebreaker win of the season, with a perfect 7-0 record.
She will meet the winner between Petra Kvitova and Sorana Cirstea in the final after the Czech veteran emerged victorious 6-4 3-6 6-3 in her quarter-final against Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The neck-and-neck contest saw Kvitova only narrowly edge the total point count 96-91, but she created nine break points to Alexandrova's six.
Kvitova, 33, is now one win away from her 41st WTA singles final, where she would be seeking her 30th WTA title, and her ninth at the WTA 1000 level. It would be her first at this level since the 2018 Madrid Open, following defeats in the finals of the 2019 Dubai Championships, the 2020 Qatar Open and the 2022 Cincinnati Open.
Swiatek confirms split with coach Wiktorowski and Wuhan Open withdrawal
Iga Swiatek has announced the end of her three-year partnership with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, saying the split was a mutual agreement.
Wiktorowski, who joined Swiatek's team in 2022, helped her become the first Polish player to reach world number one and she has since spent 123 weeks at the top of the rankings.
Swiatek also won 19 of her 22 career titles and an Olympic bronze medal in Paris earlier this year with Wiktorowski, along with four grand slam victories.
"After three years of the greatest achievements in my career, together with my coach Tomasz Wiktorowski we decided to part ways," Swiatek wrote on Instagram.
"I want to start with a big thank you and appreciating our work together."
Swiatek has not competed since losing to Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals of the US Open, choosing to withdraw from the China Open due to personal reasons.
The 23-year-old has also pulled out of the recent Korea Open in Seoul, citing fatigue, and next week's Wuhan Open.
Swiatek won the French Open and US Open during her opening season with Wiktorowski, before embarking on a 37-match winning run in 2022 - the longest streak by a woman this century.
The Pole won a fifth grand slam, which was her fourth with Wiktorowski, at Roland Garros in June, making it three consecutive wins at the tournament in Paris.
"Coach Wiktorowski joined my team for three seasons, when I strongly needed changes and a fresh approach to my game," Swiatek continued.
"His experience, analytical and strategic attitude and enormous knowledge about tennis helped us to achieve things I've never dreamed of only a few months after we started working together."
But Swiatek was disappointed with her hard-court performances this season, exiting the Australian Open in the third round and the US Open in the last eight.
The Pole said she has held "first talks" with prospective new coaches and will take a "couple of weeks" to start work with her next appointment.
"Our main goal was to become number one player in the world and coach Wiktorowski was the one who said it first," Swiatek concluded.
"Due to this important change on my team, I give myself a couple of weeks to start cooperation with a new coach.
"I'm in the middle of first talks with coaches from abroad (non-Polish) because I'm ready to take the next step of my career. I will let you know when I make a decision."
Medvedev rallies to straight-sets win in Shanghai opener
Daniil Medvedev held off a stern test from Thiago Seyboth Wild to edge through his Shanghai Masters opener on Friday.
The Russian won the tight contest in straight sets, prevailing 7-5 7-5 in just under two hours.
Seyboth Wild started brightly, superbly defending five break points in the opening game before breaking Medvedev to take a 3-1 lead.
A three-game winning run at the end of the first set was enough for the world number five to edge in front.
The Brazilian made another strong start in the second but was his own worst enemy as he racked up 47 unforced errors throughout the match to Medvedev's 28.
Despite going down a break again, Medvedev rallied, staying patient to mount another comeback and book his place in the next round against Matteo Arnaldi.
Data Debrief: Patience pays off
Last year, Seyboth Wild stunned Medvedev in the opening round at Roland Garros, as his high-risk, high-reward method paid off and he earned the win with 69 winners and 77 unforced errors.
Despite pushing the 28-year-old all the way, it did not garner the same reward this time around, despite getting 29 winners to Medvedev's 17.
Sabalenka stunned by Muchova in Beijing quarter-finals
Karolina Muchova secured an upset at the China Open, snapping Aryna Sabalenka's 15-match winning streak to reach the semi-finals.
The Czech prevailed in two hours and 48 minutes with a 7-6 (7-5) 2-6 6-4 win over the number one seed on Friday.
Muchova started strong, forcing Sabalenka to defend three break points in the opening game, but they were evenly matched throughout.
Sabalenka almost took the first set, but Muchova held her nerve, successfully fighting back against two set points before taking the tie-break.
The Belarusian looked back to her free-flowing best in the second though, earning two breaks as she forced the decider in comfortable fashion.
Sabalenka took an early lead in the final set, but from 4-2 down, Muchova clawed her way back, going on a four-game winning streak at the end to book a meeting with Qinwen Zheng or Mirra Andreeva in the final four.
Data Debrief: Czech mate
Given Sabalenka's recent hot streak, this does look like an upset, but it is actually pretty run-of-the-mill for Muchova.
She has now won her last three matches against Sabalenka in WTA events, defeating her at Cincinnati, Roland Garros 2023 and China Open 2024.
Excluding the BJK Cup, only Iga Swiatek (85.3%) has a higher winning percentage than Muchova on hard-court in WTA events during 2024 (84.6%, 11-2), surpassing Sabalenka (82.5%, 33-7).
The 28-year-old has reached just her second career semi-final and is the player with the fewest WTA-1000 wins during the season before the start of the China Open (one) to reach this stage of the tournament.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
