Elena Rybakina was amazing in Paris this year, but she wasn't good enough to beat Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Roland Garros.
The Italian might not be a huge name that most people have heard of, but she's been very good for a very long time. She's been knocking on the Top 10 of the WTA Rankings for a very long time and she will get there with this win.
It was a very interesting match, but certainly not the best from Rybakina, who, at her best and far below what we saw this week. It was clear pretty early as she spammed errors left and right.
Slow starts are nothing unusual for her, but this was different. Paolini looked very motivated and knew exactly how to make the Kazakhstani player uncomfortable, who was a bit of a sitting duck.
Anytime the rally developed, Rybakina didn't know what to do. Her game mostly revolves around hitting the ball hard, and it works well, but she didn't hit it as clearly today as she did in the previous matches.
The first set was a 6-2 win for Paolini, who had 8 winners and only 1 unforced error, compared to 8 winners and 16 unforced errors from the Kazakhstani player. Leading 16-1 in unforced errors is not the way to win a tennis match.
The second set was also troublesome for Rybakina, but she mounted a spectacular late comeback to snatch it away from the Italian, winning 6-4. It wasn't the best set from Rybakina, but Paolini missed a lot as well.
In the final set, the Italian actually hit it on par, with Rybakina opting to go for it herself on occasion. It worked initially as she took a break, but then she lost it.
The problem for Rybakina was that she never really found a good rhythm, so she got broken once more to lose the match 2-6, 6-4, 4-6.
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