Elena Rybakina will be eyeing silverware after cruising into the semi-finals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. But the 26-year-old shared a worrying message following her victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova after revealing that she had been struggling with a shoulder injury during the match.<\/p>\n
Rybakina has been in sensational form in Saudi Arabia after being drawn to play in the Serena Williams Group. She opened her tournament with a comprehensive victory over Wimbledon<\/a> and US Open<\/a> finalist Amanda Anisimova, before securing a shock victory<\/a> over world No. 2 Iga Swiatek<\/a> after fighting back from a set down. And she is preparing to face Jessica Pegula<\/a> in the semi-finals after easing past Alexandrova.<\/p>\n Rybakina was supposed to play against Madison Keys in her third match but ended up taking on Alexandrova after the American pulled out hours before the match<\/a> due to illness.<\/p>\n The Kazakh got a decisive break towards the end of the opening set before surging ahead in the second. And she ultimately closed out a 6-4, 6-4 victory in just under an hour and a quarter.<\/p>\n After the match, Rybakina said: \u201cI was just trying to of course win because each match I play I want to win and I knew that she’s a tough opponent and I need to be careful. And it’s definitely a good preparation for my next opponent, no matter who I play.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd of course, a win gives you more confidence. So yeah, it was important. A little bit tired of course, physically, but I have a day off tomorrow so it definitely will help.\u201d<\/p>\n The star then raised alarm bells as she added: \u201cAnd with the shoulder it just happened on the warm-up.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt a bit uncomfortable but we’re going to work on that. So hopefully it’s not going to be an issue for my next match. And yeah, I will try to do my best as always.\u201d<\/p>\n Rybakina and Pegula will meet in the last-four today for a place in the showpiece match, which will be played at the King Saud University Indoor Arena on Saturday.<\/p>\n Pegula booked her place in the semi-finals after overcoming Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday.<\/p>\n But the American has already tasted defeat this week, losing to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka <\/a>in her second match on Tuesday after opening her tournament with a three-set victory over Coco Gauff<\/a> on Sunday. Pegula and Sabalenka could meet for a second time in the final, with the Belarusian due to face Anisimova in the second semi-final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina will be eyeing silverware after cruising into the semi-finals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[6961,8833,101,118,12700,56,54,55,104721,87316,11572],"class_list":["post-251302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-section","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-worrying-message","tag-wta-finals","tag-wta-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}