WTA 500 Abu Dhabi 2/5 - 2/11 2024

[ti-amie]

Order of Play Saturday February 10, 2024

Stadium Court
Starts at 6:00 AM

RUS D. KASATKINA (7) vs BRA B. HADDAD MAIA (6)
Followed by
KAZ E. RYBAKINA (1) vs RUS L. SAMSONOVA (8)
Followed by
USA S. KENIN/USA B. MATTEK-SANDS vs BRA B. HADDAD MAIA/BRA L. STEFANI (2)

[ashkor87]

Could be a carry-over from juniors but she is 0-4 in the past few years ...could also be that Rybakina',s defence can't handle Samsonova's power, especially the serve...

Let us see what happens here...

[meganfernandez]

Could be a carry-over from juniors but she is 0-4 in the past few years ...could also be that Rybakina',s defence can't handle Samsonova's power, especially the serve...

Let us see what happens here...

Rybankina handles Sabalenka's power and serve. Samsonova's can't be more than Sabalenka's, is it? Maybe she has a mental block against Samsonova, if they grew up playing each other.

[ashkor87]

Could be a carry-over from juniors but she is 0-4 in the past few years ...could also be that Rybakina',s defence can't handle Samsonova's power, especially the serve...

Let us see what happens here...

Rybankina handles Sabalenka's power and serve. Samsonova's can't be more than Sabalenka's, is it? Maybe she has a mental block against Samsonova, if they grew up playing each other.

Well, Samsonova's serve is probably bigger than Sabalenka',s ..that is where it all begins, maybe..

[ashkor87]

Rybakina has handed Samsonova a bagel !
Really exacting her revenge!

[ashkor87]

Back on even keel now..one set all

[ashkor87]

Delighted that Rybakina finally figured out Samsonova..anyone see the match? I can only see highlight videos, highly misleading...if you saw it,please comment

[ponchi101]

These sort of turning-tables have happened before. Pete-Chang, and Roger Vs Hewitt and Nalbandian. The better eventually got the top mark.
On the other hand: Pete-Krajicek. Pete was never able to figure Richard's power.
Some odd things in life will happen.

[ti-amie]

Sunday Order of Play

Stadium Court
Starts at 3:00 AM

Final
CZE L. NOSKOVA/GBR H. WATSON vs USA S. KENIN/USA B. MATTEK-SANDS
Followed by
Final
KAZ E. RYBAKINA (1) vs RUS D. KASATKINA (7)

[ashkor87]

from what little I could make out from Youtube, Samsonova punished Rybakina's second serve.. I imagine Rybakina got a lot of first serves in the first and third sets and not as many in the beginning of the second set.
I am reminded of the Wimbledon semifinals where Laver blasted Ashe in sets 2,3 and 4 after losing the first set.. there were several explanations at the time, which were mosly nonsense.. I saw the entire match on Youtube and it is quite clear what actually happened - Laver did not get many first serves in the first set, started getting more as the match went on. It is sometimes as simple as that.

[ashkor87]

Meanwhile, Rybakina's return of serve was exceptional, needs to be against Samsonova.. Samsonova's drop-shots were exquisite... Rybakina sometimes went to the net behind poor approach shots, got passed, she needs to fix that!

again, all this is from a 5 minute highlights video. anyone who saw the match should tell us..

[ashkor87]

awesome performance by Rybakina to beat Kasatkina.. what made me really happy is that she was mixing it up well, not the usual down the middle shots..

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]