WHAT HAPPENED: The No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina advanced to Round 2 of the 2024 US Open with a straight-sets performance against qualifier Destanee Aiava, 6-1, 7-6(1).
The 2022 Wimbledon champion began the match with an ace and, 26 minutes later, won the first set, 6-1, over Aiava, who was making her US Open debut. Rybakina broke the 24-year-old Aussie early in the match to take a 3-1 lead, and broke her again in the sixth game to go up 5-1 and serve out the set.
In the second set in the Grandstand, both players held serve through the first six games, but Rybakina took a 4-3 lead when Aiava sent a forehand into the net. Aiava broke back in the very next game to tie it at 4-all. The most critical game of the match came when Aiava was leading 6-5, which forced Rybakina to hold serve to send the match to a tiebreak. And yet, just then, Rybakina’s first serve started to falter. Six of the points started with a fault, including Rybakina’s fourth and fifth double fault of the set deep into that twelfth game. In the end, Rybakina prevailed with a service winner to send it to 6-6.
In the tiebreak, it was all Rybakina, who took a 2-0 lead with a smash volley, went up 3-0 with a forehand winner, earned her fourth point on an Aiava double fault, then took a 5-0 lead with a deep winner before allowing Aiava to score a point. At 6-1, Rybakina clinched match point when Aiava sent a forehand long.
In the end, Rybakina, the ace queen of the 2024 majors, added eight more aces to her total. She also added five double faults.
WHAT IT MEANS: In Round 2, Rybakina will play Jessika Ponchet, a 27-year-old from Bayonne, France, who is making her US Open debut. Rybakina has never advanced past the third round at the US Open, making it the only Grand Slam in which the 2023 Australian Open finalist and 2022 Wimbledon champion has not reached the fourth round.
MATCH POINT: Prior to Tuesday’s first-round match, Rybakina had served the most Grand Slam aces this season with 85 (including 31 at the French Open and 39 at Wimbledon, which was the most at both events).
