Rybakina and Anisimova were playing each other for the first time on Saturday, but Rybakina looked like she knew exactly what to do from the start, serving up a storm—she faced only one break point in the match and saved it, and converting four of her own five break point chances to cruise to victory after just 57 minutes.
The Kazakh continues to be one of the hottest players on the women’s tour in the second half of the season, now 24-6 since Wimbledon, and more specifically 11-2 since the US Open.
She’s now won her last seven matches in a row—she won four matches to capture the WTA 500 title in Ningbo two weeks ago, then picked up another two wins at another WTA 500 event in Tokyo last week before having to withdraw from the tournament because of back pain, and now another win in Riyadh.
She’s now 1-0 in her round-robin group, and hopes to flip the script this year on her two previous appearances at the WTA Finals, falling in the round-robin stage in 2023 and 2024 with 1-2 records.
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