2025 WTA Finals – Rampant Rybakina continues stellar season-end streak
A week ago, Rybakina had shown her quality by finishing as one of the top eight women’s singles players this year. Now she has reminded the tennis world that she is not just here to make up the numbers, the 2022 Wimbledon women’s singles champion setting her sights on the 2025 WTA Finals title.
Rybakina has earned a reputation as one of the best ball strikers on the WTA tour, and she was demonstrating such prowess in Riyadh. It was her U.S. opponent who triggered the first exchange of breaks, before Pegula started to pick out her weaknesses to seal a double break.
From there on, the fifth seed did not falter. Pegula’s serving percentage was 12 per cent up on Rybakina, but it was her low rate of nine unforced errors to 25 that made the difference in taking the opening set.
World No. 6 Rybakina left the court to recompose herself at the changeover, looking far more assured in her shotmaking as she managed to break Pegula for 3-1. The Kazakhstani had found her level and was ready to serve for the set, yet errors re-emerged and she was broken at a costly moment.
Pegula had the chance to draw the set back to 5-5 – three game points arose for the American star – but Rybakina was resolute, breaking back with a backhand winner to force a decider at the King Saud University Indoor Arena.
Fine margins would decide the first finalist, and in the sixth and seventh games, the pair exchanged breaks, still with no breakthrough. When Pegula was 40-15 up on her serve, her grip slipped as the fifth seed conceded a double break, leaving Rybakina to close out the match for an outstanding victory on the purple hard courts.