Elena Rybakina steered Kazakhstan into the United Cup quarterfinals for the first time with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari on Monday in Perth, sealing the Group C tie following Alexander Shevchenko’s upset of Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Zhibek Kulambayevan and Aleksandr Nedovyesov made it a clean sweep for Kazakhstan by defeating Despina Papamichail and Petros Tsitsipas 2-6 6-3 [10-6].
“Really excited and super happy for the team,” Rybakina said. “Everybody tried hard, Sasha in singles. Today was a tough match for me also, but I’m really happy to be through to the quarterfinals.”
Three of the four prior meetings between Rybakina and Sakkari stretched to three sets, but the Kazakh was under no threat of such a result in RAC Arena: After the first nine games of the match went with serve, with only one break point faced by the two players combined, Rybakina ripped off six consecutive games en route to a 1 hour and 23-minute victory.
“I know when it’s 5-0 it’s a little bit nothing to lose for the opponent,” Rybakina said. “She started to play more aggressively and some good shots from her. A little bit lucky on the match point but a really positive match for me.”
Prior to Rybakina’s win, 24-year-old Shevchenko prevailed 6-4, 7-6(0) over World No. 11 Tsitsipas, capitalizing on an out-of-sorts performance from the Greek to put Kazakhstan 1-0 up.
https://x.com/UnitedCupTennis/status/1873647449266655238?t=4Jyn1FyrbGoGzROmatFyJA&s=19
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