By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, January 29, 2026
Photo credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty for Australian Open Facebook
Dual danger Elena Rybakina is the WTA ace leader and a damaging returner.
Rybakina defeated Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-6(7) to advance to her second Australian Open final today.
Afterward, Pegula said Rybakina’s best weapon is the fact she’s both the calm and the storm on court.
“I think you’re always kind of on edge with her with that, because even when you break her, it’s not like she’s a terrible returner and you’re going to win free games and are like, oh, I got the set. It’s, like, oh, no, she usually plays a better return game right afterwards, and you are like, gosh, now I have to go back and try and break her again, which is impossible,” Pegula said. “I think that’s her best attributes as a player, the fact that she stays calm. I think her serve and return, she just puts so much pressure on you.”
Indeed, Rybakina saw Pegula fend off three match points in the ninth game of the second set.
The fifth-seeded Kazakh failed to serve out the match twice then faced set points at 5-6 and 6-7 in the tiebreaker. A resolute Rybakina briefly wobbled but never blinked. Rybakina ripped her sixth ace for a fourth match point and finished blasting a backhand return down the line.
Beneath her vanilla visor, a stoic Rybakina did not reveal any sign of jitters to her opponent.
“She’s always just tough. She’s so chill,” Pegula said of Rybakina. “She doesn’t really give you anything, and I think that’s hard sometimes. You’re not really sure if she’s upset or if she’s excited or what it is.
“I think in today’s game that goes a long way. You don’t really have a lot of energy to play off of, so I think that’s always kind of her No. 1 thing. You know, obviously her serve, I don’t think she served her best tonight, to be honest. I think her first-serve percentage was a little down.
“But at the same time, it’s so tough with her because you just know that she can throw in a couple aces at any time. She threw in a couple big serves at the end in that tiebreak. How she always kind of keeps you guessing with the serve I think is definitely one of her strengths.”
The 31-year-old Pegula’s maiden AO semifinal came to an end at Rybakina’s hands. Pegula lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open final, so who does she favor in Saturday’s AO final?
“We’ve already seen [Rybakina] beat Aryna before somewhat recently, and I think she’s one of the best
players in the world when she’s healthy and confident, and right now it seems like she is,” Pegula said. “Yeah, it will be an interesting final.”
