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Bucharest QF: Rybakina def. (2) Kuzmova 7-6(4) 6-3

1K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  rucolo 
#1 · (Edited)
Congrats Lena :cheer: :hearts: :inlove:

Vika broke Lena's service earlier and Lena's return was nowhere right before Vika's SFS
somehow Lena hanged on the 1st set, saving 2 SPs in Vika's SFS and converted her 1st BP
totally Lena was better in crucial points, especially well saving many BPs (8/9 BP saved), while Vika threw the 1st set TB with loose stroke error and DF
 
#3 ·
Rybakina is the truth.

Quite a nice match, pretty close, Kuzmova probably should have won the first set until Rybakina turned up late, and she will rue only converting 1 of her 9 BP chances, and a few errors were creeping into the second set from her, but she still had chances. Nice flow to the match and some good ball striking from both. Hopefully Rybakina can take his first title from here - Krejcikova or Di Giuseppe next, so she'll probably fancy her chances of making her first WTA final.

Said in the comms thread, but I reckon she'll be pushing top 30 either by the end of the year or just after the Aussie Open. A great talent.
 
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#4 ·
Well done, Lena ! :hearts: :cheer:

She was the better player and has more talent than Kuzmova.
Impressive game. Very strong groundstrokes and serve. Also mentally good :yeah:
She will have a big career if she stays healthy and keeps improving.

Lena is a huge loss for Russia. She has Top 20/10 talent.
In my opinion Rybakina is clearly the biggest talent from Russia.
She is a lot more talented than Potapova, Blinkova, Anshba, Kalinskaya.
(And Zhuk keeps sucking and seems completely hopeless. Pervushina is gone.)

Viktoria :hug:

Kuzmova is another Pav or Kontaveit. Very similar.
Not smart, quite brainless, no consistency, mentally weak.
She has power but often can't control it, moves too bad and chokes.
 
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#6 ·
@ Rucolo

Indeed, Rybakina is at least one of the most talented Russians if not the most talented.
The most talented to me :)
Easy power. Clean strokes. Good depth. In forehand, backhand, serve :worship:
Such a big talent is not easy to find.

Potapova for example has a great backhand, but a very weak serve and a weak forehand.
Blinkova is a mess. No consistency. Brainless. Overall rather mediocre.
Kalinskaya is mediocre. Just a normal Top 100 player.
Zhuk and Pervushina seem not motivated enough for a (successful) tennis career.

Russia should try everything to get Rybakina back.
 
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#10 ·
Top 20 at what? Looks definitely, tennis problematic because this girl is so slow which perhaps is expected for a heavy set girl like that. She is a big hitter alright but one who can barely run and struggles to move to either side. Almost like 37 yo Serena but Serena at least can still make Slam F. Kuzmova has done nothing and, the more I watch, the less hope there is in becoming better than average scrub.
 
#8 ·
Lena has often mentioned that the Kazakh federation support her well financially, so I can't see her switching back anytime soon as she seems grateful (and the up turn in results and momentum seems to have happened pretty much since the switch), but does anybody know how that came about? Has she lived there for x amount of years, or have a Kazakh mother, father or grandparent?
 
#11 ·
Lena has often mentioned that the Kazakh federation support her well financially, do I can't see her switching back anytime soon as she seems grateful (and the up turn in results and momentum seems to have happened pretty much since the switch), but does anybody know how that came about? Has she lived there for x amount of years, or have a Kazakh mother, father or grandparent?
:grin2: Haha, they don't have. These are pure Russian sportsmen. Kazakhstan is just naturalising, buying everything with money, sometimes even titles. Astana now is called Nur-Sultan. :surprise: I guess they are rebuilding some parts of the country through that dictator, but Kazahkstan has minerals, gas and oil. A lot.

They are 18 millions, comparable with the Netherlands in Europe and almost as comparable with immigrant Romania. Most of the Kazakhs look to have mixed with the Asians though, less look like Russians. Most of the Russians look a lot more like Europeans.
 
#13 ·
I think there is no real rule regarding naturalisation in tennis, you can switch anytime? And in Kazakhstan you can get easily citizenship. Nursultan isn't a president anymore since this year, but the capital of freemasonry Astana is still called now as Nursultan (his name). This guy, a dictator, won the elections with 98%. :))

Nursultan Nazarbayev's daughter (one of the daughters) is called Dinara. They are Tatar or maybe they are not, but big fans of tennis.
 
#19 ·
Rybakina is essentially a better version of Kuzmova already. Serves and hits bigger though and seems to be more composed. I was quite impressed with her play on grass in Holland so good to see she is improving.

Kuzmova is just a typical mid-ranked ballbashing scrub. Aside from stand and hit she can't do much else. Horrible on first serve returns and doesn't anticipate well at all.
 
#22 ·
Yeah, Rybakina's composure is definitely a stand out feature - never seems to get flustered or worked up. Even HuHu's trademark profile avatar is a prime example - hit winner then just a calm, modest fist pump and move on.
 
#24 ·
She rarely shows it but the only reason she hasn't got to the top 100 already, with her incredibly smooth ballstriking and easy power, is that she isn't a top-notch competitor (yet). She's lost a few big matches in which she'd looked dominant this year (Strycova in Istanbul, Flink in Wimbledon qualies, plus Siniakova basically outgritted her at RG).

Slowly but surely she's coming though, and she's definitely a better competitor than Kuzmova.
 
#23 ·
Happy for Elena, I'd be glad to see her get the title. Won't be easy against skilled and experienced claycourters like Krejcikova or Siegemund if she gets to play them, though.

Viktoria keeps on disappointing in tight matches, totally threw away the first - although she didn't surrender as shamefully as she did in Mallorca after she bottled the opener.
 
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#26 ·
 
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