STUTTGART
Elena Rybakina ended defending champion Iga Swiatek’s 10-match winning streak in Stuttgart on Saturday to reach the final of the clay-court tournament. Fourth seed Rybakina came through their semi-final clash 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, stunning the Polish world number one who had captured the last two titles at the German event. Rybakina will face Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 in Saturday’s second semi-final, for the title.
Rybakina now boasts a 4-2 career head-to-head record against four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek and will be playing in her fifth final of 2024.
“Like always it was a very tough match,” Rybakina said of her opponent. “My serve helped me a lot in important moments. I was fighting for the ball.
“It was such a close match. I’m really happy I managed to win and could show a good game.”Kostyuk took just one hour 35 minutes to beat world number eight Vondrousova, just a day after coming through a three-set epic against US Open champion and world number three Coco Gauff.
“I don’t think a lot of people know but I started my career 0-14 against top 10 players so I’m really trying to catch up,” said world number 27 Kostyuk who also eliminated seventh-ranked Zheng Qinwen earlier in the week.
