Rybakina seals Riyadh Finals berth after Tokyo Open thriller
24 October 2025
Road to a Riyadh Finals berth
Elina Rybakina secured the last available spot for the season-ending Riyadh Finals by defeating Victoria Mboko in the Tokyo Open quarterfinals on Friday. The win capped a week that followed her Ningbo Open title and put the Kazakh back on track for a strong end to the season.
With the Ningbo title in her pocket, Rybakina controlled her fate in Tokyo, locking in the final 500-point final slot for Riyadh as the year winds down.
To reach Riyadh, she needed at least a semifinal run to overtake Mira Andreeva in the qualification race. She accomplished this with back-to-back wins, including a straight-sets victory over Leylah Fernandez on Wednesday and the Mboko win on Friday.
Rybakina then faced Mboko in a challenging matchup and emerged victorious with a 6-3, 7-6 scoreline, avenging a Montreal semifinal loss where Mboko had rallied from a set down to win in three sets. The result kept Rybakina in firm control of the race to Riyadh.
In the second set, Mboko led at times, but Rybakina saved a break point at 6-5 in Mboko’s favor, preventing a deciding set and sealing the win in straight sets.
The seventh-ranked player demonstrated pressure-handling form with precise serving and solid groundstrokes, easier to feel than to describe on paper, but clearly effective on the court.
Rybakina captured the first three games despite a close start, saving a break point in the opening game and defending a 30-30 point in the third game, setting the tone for the match.
In the second set, Mboko remained dangerous with her serve, and both players traded chances, each erasing a break point within the opening 12 games. The match stretched to a deciding moment before finishing in favor of the Kazakh.
The match lasted 1 hour and 32 minutes with both players committing a similar number of errors (11 apiece), but Rybakina piled up 23 winners to Mboko’s 17, underscoring her edge in clutch moments.
Rybakina commented that the battle was tough, highlighting how both players served well and how she managed to apply a bit more pressure in the decisive moments to pull through. She noted that her serve was working effectively and that adjusting her return position helped her cope with Mboko’s power.
Looking ahead, Rybakina aims to extend her seven-match winning streak and reach a second straight final at 500-point events before heading to Riyadh for the season finale.
In the semifinals, she will meet sixth seed Linda Noskova, who advanced after Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya withdrew from her quarterfinal due to a back injury, with Noskova leading 0-6, 0-1 at the time of the retirement.
Elsewhere in the quarters, Belinda Bencic, the fifth seed, defeated Karolína Moková (the eighth seed) in three sets (3-6, 7-5, 7-5). Bencic will face Sofia Kenin in the semis after Kenin defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova (6-0, 2-6, 7-6).
From the men’s side, Felix Auger-Aliassime faced a setback in Basel as he withdrew from his quarterfinal against Jaume Munar, leaving his Torino qualification hopes in flux. He trailed 3-6 when he retired after about 45 minutes due to an ongoing back issue, dropping him further in the race to Turin. Lorenzo Musetti could widen the gap by taking his quarterfinal in Vienna against Corentin Motte, potentially reshaping the final Torino lineup.
Despite the setback, Auger-Aliassime, who previously reached the 2022 Turin final, remains hopeful for a Paris Masters run next week to salvage his Torino chances, where a strong performance could still lift him back into contention for the season-ending event.
Punchlines: 1) Rybakina’s backhand is so on point that even the lines applaud. 2) In tennis, the ball always comes back for seconds, especially when the server is on a roll.
