Elena Rybakina was the biggest favorite left in the 2024 Wimbledon Championships draw, but she won't be lifting the trophy on Saturday.
The Kazakhstani player knows how it feels to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish, having won it in 2022, and that's one of the reasons, apart from her ranking on the WTA Tour, why she was the biggest favorite remaining in the draw of this year's grass court major.
Still, sometimes, rankings, history, and even form don't matter, as every match is unique, and so was her match against Barbora Krejcikova, who beat her in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 4-6.
The 25-year-old was obviously not happy about the loss, but during her post-match press conference, she tried to look only at the positives, as she reached a major semi-final, which is always a great result.
"It’s definitely a pity to lose the match and being so close to the final. But as I said before, I think overall it was a positive two weeks for me. I’ve been playing pretty well the last four matches."
"So I’m happy with the level I’m at now and also how I felt physically on the court. Because the last few months I was struggling a bit. I’m just trying to take only positives from these two weeks."
The Kazakhstani player recognized her opponent's qualities, as she was aware that in the second set of the match, Krejcikova started serving much better. While in the first set, she hit her first serve 61% of the time and won 47% of points, afterward those numbers improved to 74% and 69% in the second set.
"I think she raised her first serve percentage in the 2nd set. My percentage dropped a little bit. It went pretty quick. We had a lot of games on deuce, 30-all."
The 2022 champion also thought that she wasn't able to physically keep up, and she also thought she lost some of her aggressiveness. While in the first set, she hit 19 winners and made 15 unforced errors, deciding 34 rallies, and letting her opponent decide only 10 with 3 winners and 7 unforced errors, this changed in the second set, when the Czech player decided more rallies than Rybakina.
"I think physically I also dropped in some important moments. I should’ve stayed more aggressive with a bit better footwork. But she was playing well, opening up the court. Also serving pretty well. I cannot say much."
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