Epic thriller in Miami! Rybakina is the first finalist and rewrites history! Unreal score development

Elena Rybakina and Victoria Azarenka opened the semi-finals of the 1000-point tournament in Miami on Thursday night with a marathon and extremely thrilling match that was very close and offered many twists and turns, ultimately decided in the deciding tiebreak.

Rybakina won the match in the decider, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6, and qualifies for her second consecutive final in Miami. At the same time, this final will be the 18th of her career and the 5th at the WTA 1000 level.

Following the performance after a nearly three-hour match, Elena Rybakina (24 years and 285 days) became the youngest player to reach back-to-back Miami Open finals since Maria Sharapova, who did so in 2005 and 2006.

At the same time, Elena Rybakina is the first player to reach four finals in the WTA circuit (Brisbane, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Miami) in the first three months of a season. The last one who had succeeded in such a thing was also her, in 2020.

The duel in the penultimate act of the competition in Florida started under the sign of balance, with the two athletes going head to head until 3 tied. Azarenka then broke serve and Rybakina broke back at 5-3, enough to take the first set and end the match 6-4 after 52 minutes of play.

After a balanced first set that ended towards the end in favor of the player from Kazakhstan, Azarenka, the world number 32, came with a clear reply in front of the fourth favorite.

The player from Belarus made an unprecedented set, which she won extremely clearly, 6-0, after less than half an hour of play, and pushed the match into the decider.

However, Elena Rybakina became the second player to win a women’s singles semifinal in Miami, although she lost a set 0-6, after Gabriela Sabatini in 1991 against Steffi Graf (0-6, 7-6, 6 -1).

After 1-1 in sets, the first semi-final of the Miami Open reached the decider, where an extremely close battle took place.

It went head to head, with successes on her own serve, until 2 tied, at which point Rybakina managed the first break of the set. And she immediately consolidated her distance to 4-2, but Azarenka continued to serve very well and narrowed the score to 4-3.

Rybakina did not give up her serve and took a serious option to reach the final, taking the score to 5-3. Azarenka did not give in and prolonged the suspense, coming to 5-4. The Belarusian defended superbly and did not allow Elena the victory, tying at 5 in the decider.

Azarenka, in absolutely fabulous spirits, took the lead at 6-5 after Rybakina led 5-3. In the end, the match went to a tiebreak, after almost two and a half extremely hot hours.

There, Rybakina was more precise and managed from the start to consolidate a lead that she did not waste this time, qualifying for the final after 7-2.

Elena Rybakina tonight became the player with the most games dropped (69) en route to the Miami Open final since the competition was established in 1985.

In the last act of the Miami Open, Rybakina will face the winner of the semi-final Danielle Collins – Ekaterina Alexandrova, the latter managing to defeat the American Jessica Pegula, the world number five, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Russian is set to do great things in Miami, after in the previous round she passed Iga Swiatek, the world leader.

With the success against “Jess”, Alexandrova reached 3 victories in 2024 against the top 5 WTA athletes, after in Adelaide, in January, she also beat Rybakina. On the other hand, Collins is also having a dream week in his last participation in the tournament in Florida.