“You are so tired that at 5-2, you’re just (like), ‘OK, if I’m going to lose, I’m going to have some vacation because the next tournament is coming’.”
World No 4 Elena Rybakina didn’t get her vacation. She rallied from 2-5, 15-40 against compatriot and world No 50 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan to save two match points, before winning the third and final set 7-5 in Madrid. She faces Aryna Sabalenka later today (Thursday) for a place in the final.
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Rybakina’s victory occasioned a high-quality racket smash from her opponent, frustrated not just that she had lost a match but also a battle of tactical nerve. This was a contest in which both players had a clear plan from which they simply would not deviate, whether it was working or not.
The question was who would blink first — and Rybakina won the stare-down.
Here’s how she did it.
Putintseva made her intentions clear early. Rybakina’s ball-striking is among the most formidable on the WTA Tour and her opponent sought to take control of points quickly, shifting the action into the front half of the court and forcing Rybakina forward, out of her apparent comfort zone. The first drop shot went without a hitch.
However, Rybakina wasn’t interested in a baseline grind either. She showed a willingness to approach the net early on, too. Both players were setting a pattern that would repeat throughout the match, as each tried to impose their plan upon the contest. This was just the second game of a match that would last two hours and 48 minutes.
Putintseva took the first set and her success spurred her on to continue the plan. Here, she has deceived Rybakina into thinking she is going to hit a two-handed backhand groundstroke before changing her grip to hit a drop shot with her opponent deep behind the baseline, cross-court of where Putintseva intends to place the ball.
It doesn’t work out this time. Putintseva is hitting her own shot from behind the baseline, extending the time it takes to travel over the net just enough for Rybakina to reach it and angle away a winner — a sequence that would foreshadow a much more significant moment deeper into the match.
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This doesn’t mean Putintseva is deterred. Here, Rybakina is further inside the court than the previous example, making this a trickier shot to execute.
No matter. A beautifully feathered shot has so much spin that Rybakina, despite setting off in reasonable time, has no hope of getting anywhere near it.
Down in the match overall, Rybakina doesn’t allow a setback to alter her tactics. She again goes to the approach on a huge point — if Putintseva wins this game, she would consolidate a break to add to her one-set lead. But Rybakina trusts her plan, even approaching cross-court, which is typically riskier than down the line, and takes a break point of her own to draw level in the second set.
This isn’t to say that it’s always going to plan. With Rybakina coming in off a short ball, the bounce of which has left her off-balance, Putintseva has a huge amount of space to Rybakina’s forehand side — and, given the forward momentum of approaching, could direct the ball back behind her, too. She dips a ball into Rybakina’s ankles and, although she makes it, the questionable choice to approach has given her opponent a rudimentary put-away shot.
Even a better approach, deep into the corner, is dismissed with a stunningly angled pass. Putintseva is getting to grips with what to expect and Rybakina is now holding on to have a chance to eke out the second set and take the match to a decider.
She manages to endure long enough to get to a tiebreak. Two set points down, Putintseva does what so many players do: she goes back to what has worked so far. Here, she’s taking the drop shot from just inside the baseline. Perhaps because it has become a go-to, Rybakina is already pushing forward as Putintseva shapes to change grip, arriving onto the ball so quickly that she has enough time to set herself for a precise forehand.
Putintseva is forced to scramble deep into the corner, and with that, the set is gone.
What was that about going back to what has worked well in pressure moments? Here, Putintseva has managed to swing momentum back her way, cruising through the third set and seemingly with an unassailable lead.
Again, it isn’t quite enough.
Being so far behind the baseline actually contributes to the quality of the drop shot; it lands so close to the net that Rybakina is left reaching into the front of the court like she’s dropped her keys on the floor — but she gets there, and with the help of a trickle from the net cord, she saves match point.
She saves the next with an ace and reels off five games to take the match.
On the way there, there’s an instructive moment. Rybakina again approaches too centrally; Putintseva again forces her to make a tricky volley; the ball again pops up… but the quality of the shot is too high, too deep and too wide for Putintseva to do anything other than pop up an easy finisher.
Both players refused to alter the tactics that put them in a winning position — even when they found themselves in a losing one — but Rybakina did it slightly better and these are the fine margins of top-level tennis. One standing tall in victory, the other smashing a racket on the opposite side.
(Top photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images)
