Iga vs Rybakina

[Friedman Whip]

I believe that Iga needs to develop some really effective slice shots (a la Ash Barty) and drop shots if she is ever going to offset the kryptonite like advantage Rybakina has over her. Iga's very high bouncing ground strokes don't bother Rybakina because she is so tall. Seems like Iga's high bouncing balls just feed in nicely to Elena's groundstroke strike zone. It has always been good strategy to make a tall player have to consistently bend down and dig out low balls. I am a big Iga fan but I'm afraid developing the necessary shots is going to be difficult for her because the required grip change is so different from Iga's normal groundstroke grips.

 

[Nuclear Warhead Sinner]

I love Iga, but the tour desperately needed a Rybakina to bonk that noggin of hers from time to time.

 

[NoleFam]

The match is still being played though, lol.

 

[ghostofMecir]

I believe that Iga needs to develop some really effective slice shots (a la Ash Barty) and drop shots if she is ever going to offset the kryptonite like advantage Rybakina has over her. Iga's very high bouncing ground strokes don't bother Rybakina because she is so tall. Seems like Iga's high bouncing balls just feed in nicely to Elena's groundstroke strike zone. It has always been good strategy to make a tall player have to consistently bend down and dig out low balls. I am a big Iga fan but I'm afraid developing the necessary shots is going to be difficult for her because the required grip change is so different from Iga's normal groundstroke grips.

Even with the specific advantages Rybakina has vs. Swiatek, you would think the massive advantage in movement Swiatek has would help her win more rallies than she does vs. her.

 

[vokazu]

I wish Barty didn't retire. Such a shame. WTA needs players like Barty, or Steffi or Henin.

 

[alexio]

barty party

 

[Rovesciarete]

I believe that Iga needs to develop some really effective slice shots (a la Ash Barty) and drop shots if she is ever going to offset the kryptonite like advantage Rybakina has over her. Iga's very high bouncing ground strokes don't bother Rybakina because she is so tall. Seems like Iga's high bouncing balls just feed in nicely to Elena's groundstroke strike zone. It has always been good strategy to make a tall player have to consistently bend down and dig out low balls. I am a big Iga fan but I'm afraid developing the necessary shots is going to be difficult for her because the required grip change is so different from Iga's normal groundstroke grips.

Well stated. From what I have been seeing Iga needs to accept the bad matchup, move back a bit and embrace the defensive grind. The first adjustment must be mental and tactical, not technical.

 

[Gizo]

Rybakina's hard, flat, deep shots, especially from her forehand side, cause Swiatek all sorts of problems, and Swiatek also struggles on return against her. And clearly with every match against each other Rybakina has gained more confidence.

From Swiatek's perspective, she does look stubborn in this match-up, wanting to trade heavy groundstrokes with Rybakina from the baseline, and not willing to throw in more slices, dropshots or even sharp angles. She is clearly the better mover / athlete, but she doesn't use that as well as she should in this match-up - clearly the noticeably better mover on clay / in general out of the two hitting more UEs stands out.

 

[Friedman Whip]

I hope that Iga can make the necessary additions to her game. Giving that she has been #1 for the past 2 years it is hard to criticize her overall performance, but then again she has recently made some real improvements. Her serve is much better over the last year as is her net play. If she can just get a bit more variety in her shots ....

 

[Federev]

Go Ryba

 

[Dominic & Andrey]

Elena is a strange player as her level can fluctuate wildly within her matches, often leading to her playing lots of unnecessary long grindfests, like against Kudermetova and Paolini this week. But she seems to find her best tennis when facing Iga for some reason. With her first serve, she is able to keep Iga's return of serve at bay, and she is the only one who really has that ability, except maybe Sabalenka at her best, but then I would argue that Aryna don't find her first serves as much as Elena when she needs it in tense moments.

You could argue that her serve, when on a good day, is the biggest weapon, or at least one of the biggest weapons on the WTA currently alongside, I don't know, maybe Iga's FH on clay. See below those two examples from Miami (where unfortunately she lost to Collins in the final in the end after blowing way too many BPs chances).

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1773437950325620779

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1772823575973838911

 

[ND-13]

Elena Rybakina has a huge serve but her ground game seems inferior to Aryna, let alone Iga.

Hope she can improve her movement but don’t think you can learn at this age

 

[Connor35]

Meanwhile Iga hits her 100th week at #1.

 

[insideguy]

I just want to be patient on this. People proclaim some new rivalry all the time, and then something happens and it just dissolves. Playing each other in these semi minor tournaments is cool, and its fun, but in two years one of them could be retired or injured. . We have seen this rodeo before.

 

[norcal]

Elena Rybakina has a huge serve but her ground game seems inferior to Aryna, let alone Iga.

Hope she can improve her movement but don’t think you can learn at this age

Which makes it wild to see her beat Iga on clay. As someone above said, Iga needs to rely more on defensive skills and athleticism against Elena.

Hope Elena can pick up a couple more slams at least.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

misread! Edit

 

[Hera]

I love Elena, I would always root for her especially against Iga. However Iga really should address her approach to this match up. She really doesn’t need to add variety to her game against Elena, her athleticism should be enough to win most of her matches but she just seems to get stubborn against Ryba. Now it is true her shots sit on Elena’s strike zone big it’s also true that Iga is far superior with her movement, forehand and return. Elena does have a better first serve and has a great first strike game and I love seeing her win but Iga has the consistency and tactical acumen to have better results in this match up. But whatevs go Elena!!!

 

[Hera]

Even with the specific advantages Rybakina has vs. Swiatek, you would think the massive advantage in movement Swiatek has wouls help her win more rallies than she does vs. her.

This. And I like Elena better than Iga but I don’t deny Iga is tactically wrong here

 

[johnmccabe]

No one mentioned panko in this thread?

 

[johnmccabe]

Iga is working on her first serve and flattening out more baseline shots. But her identity will never change. She's never going to be a slicer like Barty. The chance is smaller than Barty coming out of retirement or muchova not getting injured.

I'm perfectly happy with what we have on WTA at the moment.

 

[johnmccabe]

but her ground game seems inferior to Aryna, let alone Iga.

That's like apples, pears and oranges

 

[johnmccabe]

Well stated. From what I have been seeing Iga needs to accept the bad matchup, move back a bit and embrace the defensive grind. The first adjustment must be mental and tactical, not technical.

Iga is struggling with mentally accepting the fact that number 1 still needs to win with defense sometimes. Technically she should learn how to redirect pace better, instead of looping every hard shot back with massive brushing

 

[norcal]

What?

Rybakina literally beat Iga on clay 3 days ago in the Stuttgart SF lol.

Right, I said it's wild to see Elena beat Iga on clay. Not sure what you're confused about.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Right, I said it's wild to see Elena beat Iga on clay. Not sure what you're confused about.

Apologies I completely misread your post!

 

[Subway Tennis]

Elena is a strange player as her level can fluctuate wildly within her matches, often leading to her playing lots of unnecessary long grindfests, like against Kudermetova and Paolini this week. But she seems to find her best tennis when facing Iga for some reason. With her first serve, she is able to keep Iga's return of serve at bay, and she is the only one who really has that ability, except maybe Sabalenka at her best, but then I would argue that Aryna don't find her first serves as much as Elena when she needs it in tense moments.

You could argue that her serve, when on a good day, is the biggest weapon, or at least one of the biggest weapons on the WTA currently alongside, I don't know, maybe Iga's FH on clay. See below those two examples from Miami (where unfortunately she lost to Collins in the final in the end after blowing way too many BPs chances).

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1773437950325620779

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1772823575973838911

Agree with this. I think the case could be made that Rybakina has the best serve and possibly also the best backhand on the WTA.

The weird thing for me is that there seems to be some new mental frailty in her game developed over the last 18 months that I never remember being an issue in the past. She lost that heartbreaker in Australia and has had some weird results where it feels like the mental aspect ended up being the deciding factor. When I compare that with what she was like very early in her career in things like Wimbledon finals it’s a little bit hard to square.

 

[Dominic & Andrey]

Agree with this. I think the case could be made that Rybakina has the best serve and possibly also the best backhand on the WTA.

The weird thing for me is that there seems to be some new mental frailty in her game developed over the last 18 months that I never remember being an issue in the past. She lost that heartbreaker in Australia and has had some weird results where it feels like the mental aspect ended up being the deciding factor. When I compare that with what she was like very early in her career in things like Wimbledon finals it’s a little bit hard to square.

I discovered her at WB 2022, and really been following WTA since 2023, not much before I admit. But having looked back at her career before the WB title, she had a pretty bad 2-6 record in finals. Her two biggest results were the final of Dubai in 2020, which she lost to Halep after winning the first set, and the QF of Roland Garros 2021 which she lost to Pavlyuchenkova after winning the first set as well, so it definitely seems like there was already some mental frailty beforehand.

I'd say right now she can be very clutch in some matches, like against Azarenka in Miami last month, while not all in others, like against Blinkova at the AO this year, so I'd say it's a mix bag.

 

[tennis24x7]

I believe that Iga needs to develop some really effective slice shots (a la Ash Barty) and drop shots if she is ever going to offset the kryptonite like advantage Rybakina has over her. Iga's very high bouncing ground strokes don't bother Rybakina because she is so tall. Seems like Iga's high bouncing balls just feed in nicely to Elena's groundstroke strike zone. It has always been good strategy to make a tall player have to consistently bend down and dig out low balls. I am a big Iga fan but I'm afraid developing the necessary shots is going to be difficult for her because the required grip change is so different from Iga's normal groundstroke grips.

The same applies for people playing against Pliskova who is a worser mover than Rybakina, it boggles my mind that professional tennis players can't understand this fact. I have sometimes even screamed at the TV when a lower ranked player would start getting blown away by these taller players, even going as far back to Sharapova.

 

[Gizo]

Often baseline power hitting can be 'contagious', and Iga seems to 'suffer' from that when playing against Rybakina, getting dragged into playing the matches on Rybakina's terms. And from a general perspective, clearly developing a better slice would help Iga a lot at Wimbledon as she looks to improve and become more of a serious contender there.

On a positive note for Iga, this is her 100th week as the world no. 1 (and still before her 23rd birthday), which is incredibly good going. She didn't hold any of the 4 slams during the first 9 of those 100 weeks (though she had just won 3 consecutive WTA 1000 titles at Doha, Indian Wells and Miami), but has been a reigning slam champion ever since.

 

[Subway Tennis]

I discovered her at WB 2022, and really been following WTA since 2023, not much before I admit. But having looked back at her career before the WB title, she had a pretty bad 2-6 record in finals. Her two biggest results were the final of Dubai in 2020, which she lost to Halep after winning the first set, and the QF of Roland Garros 2021 which she lost to Pavlyuchenkova after winning the first set as well, so it definitely seems like there was already some mental frailty beforehand.

I'd say right now she can be very clutch in some matches, like against Azarenka in Miami last month, while not all in others, like against Blinkova at the AO this year, so I'd say it's a mix bag.

Good point with the Dubai and RG results. I had forgotten about those.

Off topic, but where are you at with Halep? Do you think she can get back to a Top 30 level in 6 months or so?

 

[Dominic & Andrey]

Good point with the Dubai and RG results. I had forgotten about those.

Off topic, but where are you at with Halep? Do you think she can get back to a Top 30 level in 6 months or so?

I admit that I am not overly invested regarding Halep as I am not a big fan, but she came back too soon in Miami, apparently wasn't prepared enough physically and lost after playing a poor match against Badosa... And now she withdrew from Madrid, probably because of an injury or just because she isn't physically ready to play at a high level. So six months to get back into the top 30 seems quite out of her reach, but it's really hard to tell without seeing her play more, as of now we can't accurately predict whether or not she'll be able to sustain her very exhausting style of play again, personally I think it will be very tough for her but who knows.

I am not very high on Osaka either, her ballstriking is still there but her movement deteriorated dramatically from the matches I've seen. She could make it to the top 30 but more... Doubtful.

 

[Subway Tennis]

I admit that I am not overly invested regarding Halep as I am not a big fan, but she came back too soon in Miami, apparently wasn't prepared enough physically and lost after playing a poor match against Badosa... And now she withdrew from Madrid, probably because of an injury or just because she isn't physically ready to play at a high level. So six months to get back into the top 30 seems quite out of her reach, but it's really hard to tell without seeing her play more, as of now we can't accurately predict whether or not she'll be able to sustain her very exhausting style of play again, personally I think it will be very tough for her but who knows.

I am not very high on Osaka either, her ballstriking is still there but her movement deteriorated dramatically from the matches I've seen. She could make it to the top 30 but more... Doubtful.

Fair. Im a Halep fanboy. Absolutely love her. Didn’t used to be but she gradually won me over. I’m interested in what other people’s realistic expectations are for her because I’ve got an admitted bias which affects how reasonable I am with my expectations.

When she came back in Miami she looked in awesome shape, but she always looks like that really. It’s a long way between looking in great shape and actual match fitness to cope with the rigours of the WTA Tour. Particularly now. The level of movement now is absolutely brutal. It’s insane how good players have to be defensively particularly with maintaining recovery position just to stay in points past that 5+ shot threshold.

 

[Fintft]

Fair. Im a Halep fanboy. Absolutely love her. Didn’t used to be but she gradually won me over. I’m interested in what other people’s realistic expectations are for her because I’ve got an admitted bias which affects how reasonable I am with my expectations.

When she came back in Miami she looked in awesome shape, but she always looks like that really. It’s a long way between looking in great shape and actual match fitness to cope with the rigours of the WTA Tour. Particularly now. The level of movement now is absolutely brutal. It’s insane how good players have to be defensively particularly with maintaining recovery position just to stay in points past that 5+ shot threshold.

Only in her first set in Miami...
Go Simona!
Let's hope for the best.

 

[johnmccabe]

Agree with this. I think the case could be made that Rybakina has the best serve and possibly also the best backhand on the WTA.

The weird thing for me is that there seems to be some new mental frailty in her game developed over the last 18 months that I never remember being an issue in the past. She lost that heartbreaker in Australia and has had some weird results where it feels like the mental aspect ended up being the deciding factor. When I compare that with what she was like very early in her career in things like Wimbledon finals it’s a little bit hard to square.

has something to do with the rumored relationship with her coach? Maybe a female coach is better for her to get to the very top.

 

[Subway Tennis]

Only in her first set in Miami...
Go Simona!
Let's hope for the best.