Elena Rybakina prefers to play on faster surfaces, but judging by her results so far this season, it\u2019s obvious that irrespective of her locale, the odds of her making it to finals weekend are always pretty high.<\/p>\n
The world No.4 has reached at least the quarter-finals in seven of the eight tournaments she has contested thus far in 2024, and has made the final or better in four of her last five events.<\/p>\n
She arrived in Madrid fresh off a title run on indoor clay in Stuttgart and picked up a fifth consecutive victory on the red dirt on Friday with a 6-4, 6-3 performance against Italy\u2019s Lucia Bronzetti.<\/p>\n
Rybakina could have gotten a rematch of the Stuttgart final in her upcoming third round in Madrid, but the 25th-seeded Marta Kostyuk fell 6-2, 7-5 to last year\u2019s quarter-finalist Mayar Sherif.<\/p>\n
It was a relatively quick turnaround for Rybakina to make the switch from indoor clay in Stuttgart to outdoor conditions at the Caja Magica, but the Kazakhstani big-hitter has accumulated enough experience transitioning from one tournament to the other while consistently making deep runs at every event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had four days, so I had a day off and also I tried to practise a little bit. It\u2019s not easy to get used to the conditions so quick. That\u2019s why I think today the win is also important to feel better on the court for the next matches,\u201d said Rybakina, who leads the tour this season with three titles, five finals, and 27 match-wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy for sure to prepare yourself mentally because we have a lot of tournaments. For now, I\u2019m going quite deep and we\u2019re travelling a lot but I\u2019m managing. I\u2019m really happy and hopefully I can continue like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rybakina let a 2-0 lead slip early on against Bronzetti but a vital break of serve in game 10 gave the 2022 Wimbledon champion the opening set in 38 minutes.<\/p>\n
The pair traded breaks in the first two games of the second frame but it was Rybakina who upped her aggression on return to surge ahead 3-1.<\/p>\n
Despite building a healthy lead, it wasn\u2019t all smooth-sailing for Rybakina, who faced stiff competition from Bronzetti.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is easy today, accept it,\u201d Rybakina\u2019s coach Stefano Vukov reminded her between points.<\/p>\n
Rybakina never relinquished her advantage as she punched her ticket to the third round for just the second time in four appearances in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters after the match, Rybakina explained how the altitude in Madrid takes some getting used to and that she\u2019s trying to add more spin to her shots due to the fact her traditional flat-hitting is less effective in these conditions.<\/p>\n
While faster surfaces give her more free points, thanks to her booming serve and huge groundstrokes, slower conditions have also been kind to Rybakina in the past. One of her early breakthroughs came on clay at Roland Garros in 2021, when she beat Serena Williams to reach the first Grand Slam quarter-final of her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course (that run) gave me belief on the surface, and actually my first WTA title win was on clay also in Bucharest. I know I can play well on clay but it\u2019s going to take more patience, it\u2019s a lot about the physique,\u201d said the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u2018I felt like I own the place\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Rybakina\u2019s next opponent, Egypt\u2019s Sherif, adores the clay and took out four top-40 players \u2013 including fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia \u2013 en route to the quarter-finals at the Caja Magica 12 months ago.<\/p>\n Sherif snapped a 6-match losing streak on Wednesday in the Madrid opening round against Lauren Davis \u2013 her first tour win of the year \u2013 and followed that up with an impressive straight-sets dismissal of Kostyuk on Friday.<\/p>\n Sherif and Kostyuk engaged in some brutal rallies on Court 7 but the Cairene remained committed to the cause as she moved back into the Madrid third round.<\/p>\n \u201cI was telling myself, \u2018You\u2019re so tough, you\u2019re so tough, much tougher than her, this is your place, this is your court\u2019, that\u2019s what I was telling myself all the time,\u201d said Sherif, who is the highest-ranked Egyptian player in tennis history.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I know that playing on clay, playing here in Madrid, is one of the best conditions that I can play in and I felt very comfortable and I felt like I own the place.\u201d<\/p>\n Sherif lost in straight sets to Rybakina in their only previous meeting, in Cincinnati in 2022, but the Egyptian feels she can cause some damage in these clay conditions, and can draw confidence from her big wins from last year at the Caja Magica.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like on clay it\u2019s more important if that player knows how to play on clay or not, and I feel like I\u2019m one of the toughest people to play here and that just gives me a lot of confidence. So I\u2019ll take that to the next match and I\u2019ll see what Rybakina can do against me,\u201d said Sherif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elena Rybakina prefers to play on faster surfaces, but judging by her results so far this season, it\u2019s obvious that irrespective of her locale, the odds of her making it to finals weekend are always pretty high. The world No.4 has reached at least the quarter-finals in seven of the eight tournaments she has contested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":93818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,999,843],"tags":[1026,831,1085,832],"class_list":["post-93816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-tennis-en","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en","tag-2024-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2","tag-rybakina","tag-wta-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93823,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93816\/revisions\/93823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}