Elena Rybakina finally defeats Rebecca Sramkova at Qatar Open as Jelena Ostapenko dumps out Jasmine Paolini
WTA
Amid issues with her coach Stefano Vukov who has been banned for a year from the sport, Elena Rybakina could've been remiss for being affected by outside noise but she wasn't as the Kazakh finally defeated Rebecca Sramkova. While Jasmine Paolini is out to a resurgent Jelena Ostapenko.
Rybakina won through 7-6, 6-2 over the Slovenian who has emerged as one of the fastest rising stars on the tour after spending most of her prior career in smaller tournaments struggling to make a breakthrough.
But she did just that last year and held a 2-0 Head to Head record against Rybakina so certainly not the easiest tie on paper for her. But she battled through the first set racing into a 3-0 lead before failing to convert three set points in the 10th game.
Eventually in the tie-break though she took the opener. While Rybakina broke Sramkova to start the second set and won the first four games as she wrapped up victory in just over 84 minutes. Rybakina could face Iga Swiatek in the last eight, she is currently facing Linda Noskova.
Jelena Ostapenko started last season as one of the best players on the planet but petered away and is showing again some resurgent form. It is her first top 10 win since 2013 as she saw off Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 of the No.4 seed.
This is a crushing loss for Paolini who will have to defend her Dubai title next week without a cushion of points to work off. Ostapenko trailed 2-0 in the second set but responded by sealing the last six games of the match in just 63 minutes.
She will next face either Ons Jabeur or Sofia Kenin. Only Swiatek and Rybakina remain as top two five seeds and one will leave next round if their tie is set up.
that second set performance🤩
— wta (@WTA) February 12, 2025
Rybakina seals her spot in the quarterfinals, defeating Sramkova 7-6(1), 6-2!#QatarTotalEnergiesOpen pic.twitter.com/S2Iohq3hgQ
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- Oooooo.... wow... tell us more... we just live each day waiting for "news" of these two women who don't know when to go away. Why do you keep posting their personal management's weekly press releases?
mandoist11-02-2025 - Hard to believe Emma "understands" all that much about the rigors of a prioritized Life in tennis.mandoist11-02-2025
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- Bencic is all business right now. If Rybakina is the ice queen, then Bencic is Antarctica—colder, sharper, and seemingly unstoppable. 🔥❄️MrAndreeva07-02-2025
- Creepy.mandoist07-02-2025
- Ouch!!mandoist07-02-2025
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- This is just getting beyond ridiculous!! Not to mention unsportsmanlike and unfair to serious up & coming contenders.mandoist06-02-2025
- No, writer, we were not "stunned". If you knew your business you would have been aware of her statement last weekend re: her knee and retirement. The main take-away here is that Simona went out on her own terms. She surely wanted to play again after WTA & ITIA screwed her out of her final productive seasons. Personally, I believed she was going to make this announcement when I saw the President and his family in their box seats. Good for Simone -- now she can move on to other things as she said she would.mandoist04-02-2025
- It sounds seriously absurd that in Davis Cup, (unlike Grand Slams such as the Aus Open), medical time outs off court with the medical staff are not allowed?? I mean, if this was an Aus Open match, and the same thing happened to Gurin then, he would have been able to go off court for official medical time out and make an informed decision whether to resume the match or retire. How come such conditions do not apply in Davis Cup?? I mean, there with Davis Cup, it is even more like a soccer match or basketball game in that teams are playing. And so as with those, it ought to be the case in tennis that if a player needs serious medical time out, then one of the other team mates ought to substitute and each team needs to have stand-ins or understudies in case substitution is needed which will be rare but as we can see here, this kind of circumstance fits. But even if the teams do not go down the road of subbing other team mates in, in case of a health issue like the one which played out here, at least, as in the Aus Open and other Grand Slams, there ought to be time-outs with the health professionals and at the conclusion of these time-outs, the particular decision that has been reached between them and the player needs to be taken on board by the umpire. PERIOD.
Sueiyin04-02-2025
