'Threatening presence' Elena Rybakina wins again; super, spicy Saturday awaits in Rome at the Italian Open

Rybakina shrugs off rain and another former French Open champion Another day, another rain delay at the 2023 Rome Open – but there was no stopping Elena Rybakina as she swept into her fourth final of the year. Ad The Kazakhstan star isn’t a player that would immediately spring to mind when it comes to picking out the leading ladies likely to make waves on clay, but her form in Rome could well make her a dark horse at Roland-Garros.

Roland-Garros‘One match can change everything’ — Resurgent Ruud eyes Roland-Garros redemption4 HOURS AGO Notably, the 23-year-old Wimbledon champion stuck with two-time Rome winner and much-lauded Clay Queen, Iga Swiatek prior to the Pole’s injury in their quarter-final clash and she upset another former Roland-Garros champion (2017), Jelena Ostapenko here. In a recent chat with the WTA website, the legendary Martina Navratilova actually tipped Ostapenko as an ‘Under-The-Radar’ player to watch heading into the clay swing of Madrid, Rome and Paris – but one of tennis’ GOATs didn’t mention Rybakina.

It may be that she simply wasn’t on the tip of Navratilova’s tongue, but there is a caveat to that, where the 66-year-old, 18-time (singles) major winner added: “You could have 15 different women win at Roland Garros this year. Twice as many could do some damage in Madrid and Rome, too.” Let’s face it, a fit and firing Swiatek is a heavy favourite for a third French Open title, but Rybakina could well be a threatening presence in the draw and did reach the last eight in Paris back in 2021.

That discussion is for the near future; Rybakina’s present is the small matter of a WTA 1000 final against Kalinina where she will be the clear favourite for the first time in a couple of matches. Kalinina handles