Elena Rybakina speaks softly, but her racquet is speaking louder by the week

Interview with the Indian Wells champion: Elena Rybakina

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—In tennis, Martina Navratilova once said, there are only two things you can control: your toss and your attitude. When both go awry simultaneously, it’s impossible for much good to happen. Such was the case today for Aryna Sabalenka. In a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, Sabalenka was beaten by Elena Rybakina 7-6 (11), 6-4 in the final of the BNP Paribas Open.

The serving problems Sabalenka had largely solved returned with a vengeance throughout the first set, most notably in the form of ten double-faults, including one when she held a set point at 7-6 in the tiebreaker. A significant sag followed, Sabalenka immediately going down a break in the second set.

Though the match officially lasted four minutes past the two-hour mark, to a great degree it was decided an hour earlier when Rybakina saved two set points before closing out the tiebreaker on her sixth set point. Earlier in that set, Rybakina had fought back from 2-4 down.

“Well, I think important was the first set,” said Rybakina. “We both had chances, but in the end, it went my way.”

Having lost all four of her previous matches versus Sabalenka, Rybakina was happy to take the fifth, a win she attributed partially to neutralizing the oppressive Sabalenka return.

“But on the second serve,” said Rybakina, “I just tried to push more, because I remember since Australia she was putting a lot of pressure on the second serve. So this is something for me to improve also. I think here, since the conditions a bit slower, it was kind of easier to play the next shot.”

Suspenseful as the first set was, the rallies had usually been ruthlessly staccato-like. The mix of each player’s powerful serves, flat drives, and the thin desert air made many a ball fly long or wide. It also became blustery.

“In the end of the second set it became very windy,” said Rybakina, “so from one side it was difficult to play. But since I had this advantage of the score I, think this was the difference today.”

Though it was natural for Sabalenka to be demoralized at the end of the first set, the unfortunate aspect was how Sabalenka let the loss of a highly competitive opener become less momentary setback and more epic tragedy. From the start of the second set, Sabalenka moped. And yet, she was only set down versus an opponent she’d never lost to; hardly time to panic. Instead, it was as if Sabalenka wanted to deliver on some form of self-fulfilling prophecy: a bad start at the office, its outcome determined by mid-day. They happen to us all, don’t they?

To her credit, Sabalenka assessed what happened with candor. As she said, “there will be some days when, like, old habits will come back and you just have to work through it and not every match will be like going your way, and you will be serving perfectly. So it just kind of reminder that that's okay to still struggling with something. That's okay to don't play your best and like keep fighting and keep using the rest of the weapons.”

There also came a slight opening for resurgence. With Rybakina serving at 2-1 in the second set, Sabalenka reached 15-40. But a crisp backhand down-the-line winner and an excellent serve down the middle erased those openings.

Having fought past that speed bump, Rybakina appeared on track to run away with the match when she broke Sabalenka at 2-4. Her back to the wall, Sabalenka rallied to win eight of the next nine points. But then, serving at 5-4, Rybakina was airtight, serving superbly to go up 30-love. At 30-15, a sweeping crosscourt forehand winner brought Rybakina to championship point. It had taken her six chances to close out the first set. This set, just one, Sabalenka’s forehand return lined into the net.

In her last two matches here, Rybakina had beaten the top two players in the world, Iga Swiatek in Friday’s semi, Sabalenka today. This evening Rybakina imagined a victory party, perhaps featuring such forbidden food items as pizza and sweets. But the bigger priority was tomorrow’s flight to Miami.

While the often combustible and candid Sabalenka summoned up an insight from the legendary Navratilova, Rybakina evokes something Jimmy Connors once said about one of his great rivals, Bjorn Borg: It was impossible to find any way to generate anger towards a rival so subdued. Opaque and tranquil as the Rybakina persona remains, her racquet speaks louder by the week.