The crown jewel of women's tennis

   The 23 year old has achieved a lot in the last 12 months. She has only won 4 titles on tour out of which 1 is a grand slam and 1 is a masters title. After winning her first tour title in Bucharest and making it to several finals in the next 12 months, she reached Wimbledon final last year and came back from one set down  year against the favourite Ons Jabour. Then about 6 months later, she was playing her second grand slam final in Australia against Aryna Sablenka. She would go on to lose that thrilling match after being one set up. Elena has now won her first masters title and looks like a trailblazer on tour.
     Just a tiny fist pump and a cheeky little smile towards her own box, that was all that she had to offer to the cameras after winning the in Indian Wells Masters. Maybe it's the lazy elegance on her forehand, the nonchalant speed of the backhand or the tremendous power on the serve, but there's something about Elena Rybakina that you just like. Elena Rybakina is one of the very few players left across both genders who don't grunt and that is probably the thing I love the most about it. Right from walking out on the court to the easy walk back as if it was no real deal to her, everything about Elena is easy on the eye. She can inject tremendous speed in the first serves which are usually in 180s and we have seen her hit high 190s as well. The ability to hit every spot on both sides of the serve makes it an even more special. There is very little difference in speeds between her forehand and backhand which is a very scary stat. She likes to come to the net a lot and it's not a coincidence that she is a good volleyer thanks to her doubles' game. We have seen that Elena likes to go hard at every ball and is a reluctant defender. There is no doubt that we will have days when it's not going well for her. We could be in for an error fest when it's not her day and it is absolutely awful to watch but that comes with the package to say the least. Even if it is exciting on half the days, she is going ot have a pretty successful career. 
     It is very interesting to look at the rivalries she is building with Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sablenka. Rybakina and Sablenka have faced off twice this year, both in massive finals with both winning one each. That matchup is an interesting one because both play a very similar style of tennis. Both like to go on the offensive and play from the baseline. Again it won't be an overstatement to say that these two can dish out a pretty ugly match one day with plenty of unforced errors. But it is certainly one of the matchups to look forward to in women's tennis. Iga Swiatek looked unbeatable in 2022 and until she lost in Australia. It is becoming a bit of trend for the pole in the recent weeks. Her wins are so much more convincing that almost nobody sees her losses coming. We have seen it at least thrice in this year that she has had dominant runs in the first half of the tournament and then she just runs into a brick wall and has no solution for it. In California, it was Elena Rybakina who stopped the pole from advancing. It would foolish to think that Swiatek won't go into the clay season as the overwhelming favourite but she would definitely be aware of Elena as a potential threat to her on any surface including clay. 

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