Fourth seed Elena Rybakina booked her third round spot with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over rising Czech teenager Linda Noskova on Thursday, confirming her status as one of the front-runners for the title.
The Wimbledon champion, who reached this year’s Australian Open final, also looked at ease on clay despite her game -- a huge serve and powerful shots -- being more suited to quicker surfaces.
“I think that, first of all, my first WTA win (in 2019) was on clay, so from that point I thought I actually can play on clay,” Rybakina told reporters.
“I think it depends where, the conditions, how is the weather, balls. Even here it’s quite different from Rome, the tournament I just won.”
“But I think that I can play good. Just with experience over the years and matches I can get just better and better (on clay),” the Kazakh said.
She did not take long to pull away with a break in the third game when Noskova, ranked 50th, fired a backhand into the net.
But the 18-year-old, no stranger to the Paris clay after winning the French Open junior title two years ago, refused to go down without a fight and paid the price for some risky tactics and a double fault on her serve at 40-40 and 5-3 down.
Rybakina, a member of the new ‘Big three’ along with fellow title contenders, world number one Iga Swiatek and second seed Aryna Sabalenka, struggled with Noskova’s powerful serve and thundering forehand.
“She was playing really well, especially the serve, but from my side I wasn’t happy so much with the percentage of the serve,” Rybakina said. “A lot of mistakes.”
It was Noskova who carved out two break points at 3-3 but Rybakina, who also won the title at Indian Wells this season before reaching the Miami Open final -- both hardcourt tournaments -- saved them both.
She responded in kind at the very next game to break Noskova and go 5-3 up before clinching the match with an ace on her fourth match point.
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