Push Admin

Rybakina stuns Swiatek, leads Hawks to World Tennis League victory

Article (news)

Rosy Mina

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Elena Rybakina at the World Tennis League. Photo courtesy of WTL." src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/12/26/tennis_elena-rybakina.jpg"/><figcaption>Elena Rybakina at the World Tennis League. Photo courtesy of WTL.</figcaption></figure></div> Reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan won the crucial first match of the World Tennis League (WTL) final against World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, 6-3, 6-1, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Rybakina’s Hawks teammate, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev of Germany, then lost to World No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime of the Kites, 4-6, 3-6.The deciding mixed doubles match was won by the Hawks’ US Open champion Dominic Thiem of Austria and 2021 Roland Garros runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 7-6(4), 6-3, over World No. 11 Holger Rune of Denmark and former Doubles World No. 1 Sania Mirza of India.With a score of 32-25, the Hawks conquered the Kites on Saturday to become the champions of the inaugural WTL that was held at the Coca-Cola Arena from December 19 to 24. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/12/24/22/djokovic-ends-world-tennis-league-run-with-a-win">Djokovic ends World Tennis League run with a win</a></li></ul>Teams were given one point for every game they won, with the winning team of the day receiving five bonus points.The finalists were the top two teams with the most points after five days of round robin exhibition matches (113 points for the Kites and 106 points for the Hawks). The Eagles, featuring Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios of Australia, finished third with 89 points while the Falcons, headlined by 21-time grand slam champion and former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, were last in the standings with 84 points.The WTL final kicked off with Rybakina putting the Hawks into a commanding lead as she raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/10/22/rybakina-overpowers-jabeur-to-win-wimbledon-title">Tennis: Rybakina overpowers Jabeur to win Wimbledon title</a></li></ul>Swiatek, who won this season’s Roland Garros and US Open titles, leveled at 3-3 but was broken to trail at 3-5. Rybakina served out the set on the deciding point at deuce, 6-3, then sustained her momentum to romp to a straight-sets victory, 6-1. In the men’s singles, Auger-Aliassime was the first to break in the opening set for a 5-4 edge.At 30-30, Zverev briefly stopped play due to a concern about his left ankle, after which Auger-Aliassime served out the set, 6-4.Despite Zverev saving four break points in the seventh game to hold for 3-4, Auger-Aliassime went on to hold serve, and then broke serve to clinch the match, 6-3.As for the last match of the final, Thiem and Pavlyuchenkova edged out Rune and Mirza in the tiebreak, 7-6(4), before taking the second set and claiming the championship with just one service break in the fourth game, 6-3.Dubbed as “The Greatest Show on Court,” WTL gathered elite players and international music stars to provide daily top-notch tennis action followed by entertaining performances.Other aces who participated were former World No. 18 Andreas Seppi of Italy (Hawks); 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada and Sebastian Ofner of Austria (Kites); 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada, World No. 4 and WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia of France, and former Doubles No. 3 Rohan Bopanna of India (Eagles); and World No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, World No. 13 Paula Badosa of Spain, and World No. 28 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria (Falcons).The WTL’s musical lineup, meanwhile, featured Tiësto, Wizkid, Ne-Yo, deadmau5, Mohamed Ramadan, and Armin van Buuren. RELATED VIDEO:<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zPjZ7K34T2s?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan won the crucial first match of the World Tennis League final against World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, 6-3, 6-1, in Dubai.