Tennis

Elena Rybakina Wins Indian Wells 2023 – Her Impressive Title Run

The 2023 Indian Wells tournament has officially come to a close. This is true for both the men’s and women’s events, and there were just two left standing after the action yesterday. For the men, it was Carlos Alcaraz who secured the title, and he was the number 1 seed. As for the women, which is what I will be focusing on here, it was the 10th seed, Elena Rybakina who captured the title. This win takes her up to number 7 in the world, and it means that she now has 4 WTA tournament wins to her name.

Indian Wells Rybakina

Of course, the Indian Wells title is now added to the biggest trophy that Rybakina has to date – the 2022 Wimbledon Championships that she won last summer. And I have to say, having watched several of her matches during Indian Wells, it’s tough to see how she can be stopped when she is in top form. She simply out-powers her opponents with enormous groundstrokes and big serves, as she demonstrated during several big wins this year.

On that note, I’d like to now take you through the main talking points concerning Rybakina’s title run in Indian Wells. 

2023 Indian Wells – Elena Rybakina’s Tournament Highlights

It’s obviously a big moment for any player to win a 1000-level WTA event. However, Rybakina is no stranger to winning these big titles, even if she doesn’t have a ton of titles to her name as of yet. Let’s not forget that at just 23 years of age, she is already a Grand Slam champion. And now she’s won Indian Wells, she’s proving to everyone that she has ambitions to do much more than win just a single slam.

As for what she accomplished last week, besides the obvious title win, there were a few standout moments for me that I’d like to bring to your attention.

Win Over World Number One – Iga Swiatek

When Rybakina went up against Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals, I must admit, I didn’t believe that she would beat Swiatek. The world number one had been playing quite remarkable tennis in recent weeks, and Rybakina hadn’t produced a similar level in recent times, in my opinion. However, she proved just how misguided my opinion was by smoking the world number one by a score of 6-2 6-2. This really was a statement victory, and it marked her second win over Swiatek in 2023.

First Win Over Aryna Sabalenka in the Final

Going into the Indian Wells final, Sabalenka had a 4-0 head-to-head lead over Elena Rybakina. Of course, the most recent of these wins came in the 2023 Australian Open final too. So there were questions over whether the wounds sustained down under would have healed in time to turn this record around. But much like the Swiatek victory, Rybakina put any doubts to bed by beating Sabalenka in straight sets – 7-6 6-4.

Tournament Title With Just One Set Dropped

Last but not least, a big highlight for me was the fact that Rybakina won the tournament with the loss of just one set. This came against Muchova in the quarter-finals. But other than that, Rybakina was clearly flawless throughout the tournament, and she really deserved to take the title.


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