Rybakina beats Sabalenka after losing first set 0-6

| by Zachary Wimer

It seemed that Elena Rybakina won't help her team in their opening tie at the 2022 World Tennis League, but she managed to pull of an incredible come back.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion couldn't find the rhythm in the first set as she was coming to the court after her teammates Dominic Thiem and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova lost the opening match to Grigor Dimitrov and Paula Badosa.

Dimitrov & Badosa start with win over Thiem & Pavlyuchenkova at World Tennis League
Dimitrov & Badosa start with win over Thiem & Pavlyuchenkova at World Tennis League

Supported by her good friend Paula Badosa from the bench, Aryna Sabalenka was very effective on the break points. She took advantage of the no-ad format that the event uses as she had four breakpoints, out of which three were on the deuce, and used three of those.

Thanks to that, she managed to win the first set 6-0 in just 20 minutes, losing only four points on her serve. However, the second set was much different.

Rybakina improved her serve massively as she hit four aces and 90% of points after her first serve. On the other hand, Sabalenka made four double faults and helped her opponent to get two breaks and win the second set 6-1 to force a deciding super tie-break.

The Belarusian got an opening mini-break as she led 2-0, but she then lost five points in a row and found herself in a three point deficit. The score was then tied once more at 5-5, but since then, Rybakina dominated the game and won the super tie-break 10-6.

In the last match of the tie between The Falcons and The Hawks, Novak Djokovic will play against Alexander Zverev, as both teams need very game won thanks to the special format.

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