Didn’t expect this Rybakina!!

Six months ago I saw Elena Rybakina twice in Bonfiglio: I attended the semifinal she played against In-Albon and the final (that she won) against Iga Swiatek. I must say that, even if she found her way through in both matches, Rybakina did not impress me a lot, if not for her mental strength: in both occasions she demonstrated you are never done with her, till the last point is over. Especially in the final, though, until Swiatek did not turn off the light, she was dominated by the Polish.
Well, as often happens, it seems my scepticism on Rybakina was a complete misjudgement since, as most of you may know, she has beaten in S. Petersburg world no. 7 Caroline Garcia (after qualifying for the main draw and after winning, in the first round, against Timea Bacsinszky).
Garcia did not play a bad match; though, she can be blamed for the following: she was not able to hold whilst she was serving for the match (but I do not remember particular mistakes from her in that game); much worse, in the second set she lost a tiebreak she was leading by 4-0, also by missing two returns to her opponent’s second serve: the no. 7 in the world should not allow herself not to win is such a situation against an 18 year old girl, who just ended her junior career, owns little experience in the pro tour and ranks 450th. Third mistake by Garcia was, in my view, of a tactical nature: she just played muscle tennis – which Rybakina can counter well – and when she realised that things were becoming dangerously complicated, she didn’t try to add any variation to her game. Having said that, I repeat that Garcia didn’t play bad at all: in the first set, which was close and that the French won by 6-4, Garcia was accounted by stats with three or four unforced errors only (that figure became much worse in the following sets); in any case, even if helped a bit in crucial moments by the French, it is all to Elena’s credits having forced Garcia twice to the tie-break, after making her life difficult also in the first set.
Rybakina grounds an important part of her game on her serve: she owns a solid first serve which she constantly blows at around 180 km/h; often she hits it by relying on power but, from time to time, she (successfully) goes for tight angles with it. Through her first serve, Rybakina obtains many direct points and, even more, she enables herself to hit a winner on the following shot, forcing her opponent to be defensive. Rybakina’s second serve is pretty fast, most of the times hit above 150 km/h, but it’s always a bit flat and central: she may need to add some variety to that, as Garcia demonstrated, being able to hit many winners when returning it.
Rybakina’s best baseline shot is her forehand: there’s nothing to say on that shot, it’s just powerful and precise. She hits it most of the times fairly flat but she can add spin to it when needed, making it also easier for her to defend with it. All the above I knew from the matches I saw in Milan; what was new for me was that, besides the fact that, of course, in the match against Garcia Rybakina was much less faulty, her backhand impressed me quite a bit. She is (and was in Milan) able to return with it very well, especially by hitting tight crosscourt shots; though, in this match she found much more consistency also during the rallies: while in Milan she made several unforced errors and the shot was not as incisive as her forehand, yesterday she could hit tonnes of winners with her backhand and, throughout the match, she never lost consistency in the hit. She even added one shot to her repertoire, the backhand sliced drop shot: I never saw that from Rybakina before; against Garcia she played it only on few occasions and she did not miss any. The execution is not beautiful to see but, at least yesterday, it was effective indeed. Otherwise, she hits only double-handed top.
More, it seems that Rybakina’s has improved a lot in managing short balls. This aspect of her tennis in Milan was atrocious; every time she had to counter a shorter ball, Elena flooded the shot in the net both with her forehand and with her backhand. As she is able to spin the ball well with her forehand, she didn’t miss any of those yesterday; she did instead with her backhand, since  the flat hit makes it still difficult for her to lift the ball swiftly. The other downside of Elena’s game I noticed is that sometimes she is lazy to find the position of her backhand and she impacts late; this problem, in any case, showed up much less than before. More, if she is attacked, she lacks in defensive alternatives, not being really eager in playing a slice, lifting a ball or playing other tricks. Since she is very tall and not the fastest girl in the world, this means that most of the times she counters a very deep ball she misses quite badly.
One last aspect of her game which is, again, a confirmation of the qualities I saw in Milan: mentally, the girl is iron made. Having lost the first set, she was able to break Garcia immediately; being down 4-5 in the second set, she managed to break Garcia and secure a tiebreak to herself and, even if down by 0-4 in the tie-break, she didn’t demoralise and continued to play really aggressively. No emotion was even shown on 5-5 in the tie-break of the third set, which she won by 7-5.
One can say that, having beaten such great champions, even if not as prestigious, Rybakina’s exploit may be even more valuable than Kostyuk’s achievements in the Australian Open (though Elena is three years older than the Ukrainian, and this must be taken into account)!! Let’s see if Elena will continue as such in the next round; she is scheduled to play against Georges. Not an easy draw for her, up to now.