Elena Rybakina has qualified for the WTA Finals after beating Victoria Mboko in the Pan Pacific Open quarterfinals.
Rybakina was faced with a difficult task in her pursuit of securing a spot in the year-end tournament, but she defeated Mboko in straight sets, winning 6-3, 7-6.
With her victory, the Kazakh star denied Mirra Andreeva a maiden appearance at the WTA Finals, set to take place in early November in Saudi Arabia.
Andreeva’s first-round defeat at the Ningbo Open handed Rybakina a golden opportunity to close in on her in the race to Riyadh.
The former Wimbledon champion did exactly that, earning revenge against Mboko two months after losing to her in the Canadian Open semifinals.
Rybakina’s triumph has not only seen her qualify for the WTA Finals and advance to the final four in Tokyo, but it has also seen her achieve a feat no other woman has managed this season.
Elena Rybakina achieves feat no woman has managed this season
Rybakina has had an up-and-down year on the tour, but has added two more WTA titles to her name while recording a win-loss tally of 51-19.
She is the only WTA star this season to claim more than 10 wins respectively at Grand Slam, WTA 1000 and WTA 500 events in 2025.
Though Rybakina failed to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2020, she still advanced to the fourth round at three of the four majors.
| Grand Slam | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Australian Open | Third Round | Second Round | Second Round | Final | Second Round | Fourth Round |
| Roland Garros | Second Round | Quarterfinal | Third Round | Third Round | Quarterfinal | Fourth Round |
| Wimbledon | – | Fourth Round | Champion | Quarterfinal | Semifinal | Third Round |
| US Open | Second Round | Third Round | First Round | First Round | Second Round | Fourth Round |
She has made the semifinals of three WTA 1000 competitions, appearing in the final four of the Dubai Tennis Championships, the Canadian Open, and the Cincinnati Open.
Both of Rybakina’s titles this year came at WTA 500 tournaments, with the 26-year-old hoisting trophies in Strasbourg and Ningbo.
Elena Rybakina reacts to beating Victoria Mboko in Tokyo
Rybakina took a 2-1 lead in her head-to-head with Mboko after winning their clash in Tokyo.
- Washington Open 2025 Round of 16 – Rybakina beats Mboko 6-3, 7-5
- Canadian Open 2025 Semifinals – Mboko beats Rybakina 1-6, 7-5, 7-6
- Pan Pacific Open 2025 Quarterfinals – Rybakina beats Mboko 6-3, 7-6
Reacting to her victory in her on-court interview, Rybakina said: “It was a very difficult match. Against Victoria, last time it was the same battle.
“I am very happy today that I managed to win in two sets. In the second set it was so close and we were both playing really well. I am so glad I was able to push a little bit more in the tiebreak and win in two sets.
“I am happy that my serve was working pretty well, especially the last few weeks.
“On the return, I was trying to move positions a bit, but she was serving so well that it was very difficult and even the ball I would catch on the racket, and it was still too hard to put it in. It was very tough, a very close match, but I am still happy with the result.”
In the semifinals, she will face Linda Noskova, who made the China Open final earlier in the Asian swing.
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