Wimbledon is entering what history will refer to as ‘the Elena Rybakina era’. It was entirely fitting the Queen was in attendance to see the player destined to become the undisputed queen of grass.
If a coach was tasked with constructing a prototype for the perfect lawn tennis player, the 2022 champion would be it.
In a 61-minute masterclass, Rybakina made a tough quarter-final draw against the impassioned Elina Svitolina seem a routine knock-up. She showcased that exhilarating cocktail of a serial champion in this 6-3, 6-2 win: a big serve and raw power from the back of the court, a deftness of touch around the net, and a deceptive rapidness as her tall frame glided to cut off the angles of her opponent. If she was not a tennis player, she has such elegance one could imagine her as a ballet dancer.
The women’s game has been more ‘wide open’ than ‘open’ tennis recently, with seven different Wimbledon champions in as many years. That sequence surely ends on Saturday. A solitary Wimbledon crown will not do for Rybakina. A second title ought to be hers in three days, and the engraver should become well rehearsed adding Rybakina’s name to the Venus Rosewater Dish.
“It is only you guys telling me I am the only one left who won this tournament. I don’t think about it,” said Rybakina, responding to her status as a runaway favourite.
“This is something I want to achieve and do again. It is getting closer but there are still two matches and tough opponents.
“Back then [in 2022] I was not expecting to be that far in the draw. Now with all the experience I come [here] to be at this stage. I am a much more experienced player and know what to do. I am managing better than before and a lot of things have come together.”
Rybakina has been a study in effortless poise while other top seeds have disappeared. This quarter-final could have been trickier. There was no more motivated player left in the draw than Svitolina, empowered by playing for her country, Ukraine, more than herself.
Svitolina did not play badly. She was simply blown away in straight sets, unable to contain Rybakina’s greater variety and intuition for stepping up to secure crucial breaks at the end of the first set and beginning of the second.
“She does not let you into the match,” said Svitolina. “The game she broke me in the first set she hit four great returns even though I hit a first serve every time.”
It was too much for Svitolina, despite gallant efforts, and in successive Wimbledon years, one cannot help but feel the deeper she has progressed, the greater the danger that it all starts meaning a little too much.
She is a Ukrainian athlete with a guilt complex, enjoying the spoils of her talent while aware of the terrors being inflicted upon her country. Every stroke carries a weight of patriotic responsibility to offer her nation comfort within the gloom. It is too much of a burden for any sportsperson.
The questions to most players in their post-match press conference are exclusively about what happened on court. Svitolina was asked to urge the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to continue to support Ukraine’s war effort.
“I think, I hope he is aware of the help we got before from the Government and I hope this will continue because it is really important for us,” she said. “It is not getting easier, it is getting tougher. Hopefully the support will continue.”
While Svitolona proudly wears her nationality as a badge of honour, Rybakina has found hers exploited for propaganda purposes. Although born in Moscow, she switched citizenship in 2018 to represent Kazakhstan. When she won the Wimbledon title two years ago, Russia’s Tennis Federation assumed credit claiming her as one of their own.
Her next passport might as well just list ‘Centre Court’ as her address. No female player since Serena Williams has made it look so much like home.
Doubles specialist Krejcikova finally makes her mark in singles
Barbora Krejcikova has long been renowned as a doubles contender. In 2022, the Czech won the women’s pairs title at Wimbledon with her compatriot Katerina Siniakova. But in the singles, her record at the All England Club is less distinguished: the furthest she has previously progressed is the fourth round, just the once.
Not this time, however. Now, after her 6-4, 7-6 victory over Latvia’s Jelana Ostapenko, the 28-year-old is through to the semi-finals, where she will face Rybakina, the No 4 seed and highest ranked player left in the competition.
“How does it feel to play in the semi-final against a player of Rybakina’s prowess?” she was asked in the immediate aftermath of her win. “I’ll tell you after the match,” was her reply. “Then I will know.”
Krejcikova’s sharp verbals were characteristic of her performance: this did not appear to be someone standing on ceremony. Perhaps anxious to get on with the serious business of the doubles as quickly as possible – following her win she dashed off to No 3 Court for her quarter-final – she dispatched her more elevated opponent in straight sets. Poor Ostapenko – perhaps sensing that, with so many of the seeds above her falling, here was her…
The Telegraph
