Indian Wells, March 14 – Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina achieved another milestone by reaching her second Indian Wells final, defeating World No. 9 Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-4 in 1 hour and 46 minutes.
This victory marked her 12th consecutive win against Top 10 opponents, a streak that began last October in Ningbo, where she also won the trophy.
In her seventh career meeting with Svitolina, the world No. 3 initially lost her opening service game but responded with two breaks to win the first set, winning 19 of 21 first-serve points.
Rybakina quickly established a 4-0 double-break lead in the second set and overcame some challenges before securing the win. Svitolina saved two match points in consecutive games to bring the score within a break, then held serve to force Rybakina to serve for the match, according to reports from Indian Wells.
The third match point proved decisive for the 26-year-old, improving her record at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to 16-3 and overall to 17-3 in 2026. "I can't be overly satisfied with my performance today. I definitely need to improve before the final," said Rybakina.
She will now face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, whom she defeated in both the Australian Open final earlier this year and the 2023 Indian Wells championship match.
Rybakina and Sabalenka have met 16 times, with Sabalenka holding a slight 8-7 advantage.
However, when looking at their final matches, the situation is completely different. The pair have met five times in finals, with Rybakina winning four of them – including a four-match winning streak in title matches that began in the 2023 final here in Stadium 1.
"I'm so tired of losing these big finals," Sabalenka said. "I felt like I had so many opportunities, even though the players were playing incredible tennis in those finals, but I didn't take advantage of them."