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During Elena Rybakina's trophy acceptance speech at Indian Wells, Aryna Sabalenka, the runner-up of the tournament, was caught sticking her tongue out to express her playful spite when Rybakina was congratulating her. The moment triggered laughter in the stands and was taken as a joke by both of the players.
Rybakina believes winning the 1st set brought her the trophy in Miami
Elena Rybakina won the Indian Wells final in straight sets 7-6 (11) 6-4.
This was her first trophy at the Miami Open. Nonetheless, Rybakina believes what helped her win was that she prevailed in a very tight first set. "Well, I think important was the first set. We both had chances, but in the end, it went my way.
So I think it was important this first set, and then it was a bit easier to start the second with an early break. Then the conditions also changed a bit. In the end of the second set it became very windy, so from one side it was difficult to play.
But since I had this advantage of the score I, think this was the difference today," said Rybakina. "Yeah, so of course I felt the difference, because in Australia she served really well. The second serve was, I think, same speed as the first one.
So kind of really aggressive. Here I had some chances in the first set, and then I think in the second I started a bit more aggressive. I think it’s also not easy after to find the rhythm if we are both big servers and you a little bit down already in the score," Rybakina said.
As for Sabalenka, here is her opinion about Rybakina. "I don’t know her that good, but she seems very nice and cool girl, you know. She’s really good person, I would say on and off the court. But I don’t know her that well. But seems like she’s very nice girl," Sabalenka said of Rybakina.
