Elena Rybakina and Karolina Pliskova might be close in height, but their match at the 2024 Australian Open will be about more than that.
Elena Rybakina had a tremendous campaign in Melbourne last year. She made it to the final by beating Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5 6-3, Kaja Juvan 6-2 6-1, Danielle Collins 6-2 5-7 6-2, Iga Swiatek 6-4 6-4, Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-4, and Victoria Azarenka 7-6(3) 6-3.
She took on Aryna Sabalenka in the final but lost in 3 sets: 6-4, 3-6, and 4-6. This year, she's coming in even more hot as she already has one trophy in the bag, beating Sabalenka 6-0 6-3 in Brisbane.
Karolina Pliskova hasn't had a great start to this year, notching a pretty good win over Naomi Osaka 3-6 7-6(4) 6-4 in Brisbane but then losing to Jelena Ostapenko 2-6 6-4 3-6.
Her Adelaide International participation this week wasn't that great either, as Katerina Siniakova bested her 6-2 6-1. Luckily, Melbourne has been pretty solid for her traditionally.
She has three quarter-finals, including the one last year and one semi-final back in 2019. Making another deep run seems rather unlikely as she got Rybakina in the draw, but could she actually beat the least year's finalist?
Head-to-head:
Rybakina and Pliskova played a few times, with the Kazakhstani player completely dominating the matchup. The first match came in Dubai in 2020, and Rybakina won 7-6(1) 6-3. The second one came in 2022 in Guadalajara, and Rybakina won 7-6(5) 6-2.
The final meeting came last year in Abu Dhabi, and Rybakina won 6-4 6-2, so it's pretty clear that the matchup heavily favours Rybakina. It kind of makes sense. She's a very similar player to Pliskova, and she just does it better.
Prediction:
The playstyle is a pretty simple one and certainly won't revolutionize tennis, but it's effective. There is nothing Pliskova can do that Rybakina doesn't do better, and when we take into account the form of each player, it's a pretty simple answer.
Prediction: Elena Rybakina to win in two sets.
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