The prestigious Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club continues this week as Elena Rybakina faces Elina Svitolina while Jelena Ostapenko goes up against Barbora Krejcikova. Damien Kayat previews.
2024 WTA Tour – Grand Slam Tennis
Wimbledon Championships
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
Selected Quarter-finals – 10 July
Elena Rybakina 1/3 | Elina Svitolina 9/4
Elena Rybakina sailed into this year’s quarterfinals after Anna Kalinskaya was forced to withdraw from their fourth-round match due to injury.
It’s probably a bit meaningless to look at the stats from that match but they did make for impressive reading for the unassuming Kazakh. She hit seven aces and won a breathtaking 86% of her first-serve points.
She actually hit 25 winners in the space of 12 games and I think Kalinskaya would have struggled regardless of her physical condition. Rybakina’s victory momentarily halted the exodus of top seeds in the women’s draw.
The 2022 champion is now a pretty big favourite to win her 2nd SW19 title and it will be interesting to see how she handles the pressure going forward. I just love the way that Rybakina goes about her business, operating like a ninja in an age of ostentatious grunting and social media engagement.
She just rocks up and gets the job done. She did drop the one set against Siegemund but other than that she has been spotless this fortnight. Rybakina has won three titles this season and she looks primed to land a fourth.
Yesterday was a bittersweet day for 29-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. She performed remarkably well, progressing to a third Wimbledon quarterfinal with a resounding straight-sets win over Xinyu Wang.
She won 80% of her first-serve points and struck 21 winners to just 10 unforced errors. However, Svitolina was still feeling heartbroken after a Russian airstrike decimated a hospital in Kyiv earlier this week.
Svitolina has really been a champion for the Ukrainian cause for some time and she will look to that as motivation going forward. Svitolina started the year by reaching the Auckland final but she hasn’t come within touching distance of a title since then.
But she is an accomplished grass-court operator, reaching the semi-finals of this event for the 2nd time just last season. She has added a greater degree of aggression to her game over the last 12 months or so and that could help propel her to a maiden Grand Slam final.
The Verdict: Rybakina to win in straight sets 84/100
These two have split their previous meetings with two wins apiece. But all the data is really screaming a comfy Rybakina win. The Kazakh won their only grass-court meeting in straight sets at the 2021 Eastbourne International.
Furthermore, the Kazakh won in straight sets when they last met in this year’s French Open. Rybakina’s huge serve will keep Svitolina pegged back and I think the Ukrainian is going to struggle to match Rybakina’s relentless aggression.
Jelena Ostapenko 48/100 | Barbora Krejcikova 16/10
Latvian Jelena Ostapenko is my betting nemesis. Every time I select her in the build-up to a slam- and there have been a few times- she disappoints.
So, I decided it would be best to avoid the Latvian after she came into this event with little or no form under her belt. But she has arguably looked like the best player in the tournament, not dropping a set en route to her third Wimbledon quarterfinal (she reached the semifinals here back in 2018).
She easily dismantled Yulia Putintseva in their round of 16 clash, hitting 29 winners and breaking the Kazakh on five occasions. Putintseva just couldn’t live with Ostapenko’s humungous groundstrokes and she ended up spraying errors everywhere.
The ever-mercurial Ostapenko plays a brand of all-or-nothing tennis that can be frustrating. But when she is on, she is on. And I don’t remember the last time I saw her playing this consistently well in a slam.
The 2017 French Open champion is probably one of the more fancied players remaining in the draw and she will certainly go into this match as a considerable favourite.
2021 French Open champ and former World No.2 Barbora Krejcikova has struggled for consistency over the last few years. But she has always possessed the ability to hang tough in a Grand Slam and this marks her fifth career Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance (Krejcikova has now reached the quarterfinal stage at every individual slam).
She was typically plucky in her round of 16 win over Danielle Collins, using her strategic game to outmanoeuvre the big-hitting American. Krejcikova reached the final at last year’s Birmingham Classic and she clearly has what it takes to compete on grass.
The Czech is one of the preeminent double’s players of her generation and those volleying skills have proved invaluable in her Wimbledon journey. Her slice was particularly impressive against the more one-dimensional Collins, biting into the surface to halt Collins’ rhythm.
The Verdict: Krejcikova to win in three sets 5/1
Ostapenko leads Krejcikova 5-2 in their head-to-head rivalry, winning in their most recent meeting at last year’s Rothesay Classic. This is really a clash of styles and Ostapenko’s more bombastic approach seems to have the upper hand at present.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if Krejcikova gets the job done here. Ostapenko is always due a meltdown and Krejcikova’s cunning use of slice could draw the Latvian into a plethora of errors.
