“I honestly have no idea” – Aryna Sabalenka thanks her lucky stars after incredible win vs Elena Rybakina saving 4 match points at Berlin

June 20, 2025

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Aryna Sabalenka thanked her luck after beating Elena Rybakina during the quarterfinals of the Grass Court Championships Berlin on Friday (June 20). The Belarusian went into the clash on the back of a straight sets victory over Rebeka Masarova in the Round of 16, while Rybakina defeated Katerina Siniakova.

As the match started, Sabalenka gained an early advantage in the match by winning the first-set tie break (8-6). Rybakina came back strongly to win the second set 6-3. The penultimate set went to a tiebreaker again 8-6, where the WTA No.1 prevailed by saving four match points after being 2-6 at one stage in the tiebreak.

Speaking during her on-court interview after the win against Rybakina, Sabalenka had high praise for Rybakina, and also cheekily remarked that luck was in her favor as she was able to win tiebreakers. Sabalenka said:

"Elena is a great player. We had a lot of tough battles, in the very last stages of Slams. She’s an amazing player. I honestly have no idea how I was able to win those points. I think I just got lucky to be honest."

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Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina had an evenly poised H2H contest before this match, where the former led 6-4. Their last clash was last year at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, where Rybakina had won in three sets.

After this quarterfinal victory, Sabalenka goes 7-4 over Rybakina and will now face Marketa Vondrousova in the semifinals of the Grass Court Championships Berlin.

Aryna Sabalenka on playing with Grigor Dimitrov at the US Open Mixed Doubles Championships

Aryna Sabalenka recently opened up about partnering with Grigor Dimitrov during the US Open Mixed Doubles event that will take place in August. Several of Sabalenka's major rivals, such as Iga Swiatek, will be featuring in this competition.

Sabelanka revealed that Dimitrov had made multiple times to partner with her for the tournament, which she couldn't deny. The Belarusian also mentioned that she was unsure what Dimitrov was talking about initially, as she had no idea about this competition. She said (via Tennis.com):

"He was texting me, non-stop, begging me to play. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t want to play.’ But he was begging and I was like, ‘Ok, you got it.’ I didn’t really know about the mixed doubles situation at the US Open. I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Why would we play mixed doubles? "

Notably, at the US Open 2025, Aryna Sabalenka will be entering the tournament as the defending champion, and will be aiming to make it two titles in a row. She also won the doubles event of this competition with Elise Mertens back in 2019.

About the author

Soumik is a journalist at Sportskeeda who covers US Olympics. Currently an Honors student of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has also worked for other firms as a tennis and football content writer.

Soumik’s favorite Olympian is Michael Phelps and he believes that the eight-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer has revolutionized the spectrum of Swimming. Nonetheless, the adrenaline rush that Track & Field sports offer interests him the most; and Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold-medal victory at the 2020 Tokyo Games is his favorite moment from past Olympics.

Soumik sources data and facts from credible sources like BBC and NBC for accurate and relevant reporting, and keeps up with updates on social media and news media platforms.

He feels that covering collegiate tournaments, similar to what is done in the United States can be a good way to cover the bridge the coverage gap during the Olympics off season.

When not reporting on the latest Olympics news stories, Soumik likes to play cricket and watch movies.

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