Rybakina’s Tokyo Win Ignites Finals Push
With a composed straight-sets victory over Leylah Fernandez, Elena Rybakina stands one match from clinching a third consecutive WTA Finals berth, her steady game cutting through the pressure of a demanding season’s end.
In the resonant confines of Tokyo’s Ariake Coliseum, Elena Rybakina claimed a 6-4, 6-3 win over Leylah Fernandez in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, a WTA 500 event where both arrived as recent champions from Ningbo and Osaka. The Kazakh’s baseline authority turned the indoor hard courts into her territory, her flat groundstrokes skidding low to disrupt the Canadian’s scrambling returns and extend a winning streak to five matches. This result positions her on the cusp of the eighth and final spot in the WTA Finals in Riyadh, check the scores, draw, and order of play for the tournament’s rhythm.
Reversing summer’s tight defeats
The encounter recalled their July semifinal at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, where Fernandez edged Rybakina 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 7-6(3) in a three-tiebreak endurance test that left mental echoes. Here, she seized control from the outset, dropping serve only once across 1 hour and 28 minutes to even their head-to-head at 2-2. Rybakina’s one–two combinations—serve into deep crosscourt forehands—pinned Fernandez behind the baseline, forcing unforced errors from the 2021 US Open finalist’s angled counters.
Her composure amid the Race to the WTA Finals’ narrowing margins revealed a fortified mindset, each point a deliberate step past those Washington vulnerabilities. The world No. 7 varied her backhand with inside-out lashes that opened the court, absorbing the faint crowd hum without faltering. Fernandez’s underspin slices, once a weapon on hard courts, glanced harmlessly off Rybakina’s crisp footwork, underscoring the Kazakh’s adaptation to the surface’s medium pace.
“Today was a very difficult match -- it’s always not easy against Leylah, and especially the first match for me here ... I’m pretty happy with the win and looking forward for my next match,” Rybakina said afterwards. “I’m feeling a little bit tired of course, but I’m ready to make a last push. I’m very happy with the last week, and I’m trying to bring everything from last week into here.”
Redemption looms against young Canadian
Next up in the quarterfinals stands Victoria Mboko, Fernandez’s compatriot and the teenager who stunned Rybakina in Montreal’s semifinals en route to her first WTA 1000 title on home soil in August, saving a match point in that tight upset. The 2022 Wimbledon champion, now the highest-ranked player in Tokyo following Jasmine Paolini’s pre-tournament withdrawal, views this as a chance to settle the score and secure her Riyadh berth for the third straight year. Mboko’s aggressive net rushes and varied underspin had exposed second-serve wobbles before, but the indoor setup here— with its true bounce and minimal interference—should favor Rybakina’s penetrating serves and down-the-line redirects.
Forging elite consistency amid fatigue
This triumph marks Rybakina’s 50th match win on the Hologic WTA Tour this season, placing her alongside Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Jessica Pegula—all already qualified for Riyadh—as the fourth to reach that benchmark. She inches past Mirra Andreeva in the Race standings, her Ningbo title last week fueling a tactical carryover: wider serve placement to the deuce side, blending body serves with slice to disrupt return positioning. The air thickens with the event’s anticipation, her strokes carrying the quiet resolve that defined her grass-court breakthrough, now tested against the season’s accumulating wear.
As fatigue tugs at the edges, Rybakina’s focus sharpens on sustaining rhythm through the quarterfinal, where a victory over Mboko would not only avenge Montreal but lock in her elite status, propelling her toward the year-end showdown with renewed momentum.
