Elena Rybakina’s red-hot form has continued at the WTA Finals, with the 26-year-old having secured her spot in the final earlier today.
However, it was no easy feat for the former Wimbledon champion, who once again had to come from a set down, this time to defeat Jessica Pegula.
With another supreme serving performance, partnered with her patented big-hitting at crucial moments, she hit her way out of trouble to great effect.
And yet, it was neither her technical not her physical skillset that drew Tim Henman’s praise.
He focused on her unflinching mentality.
Tim Henman praises Elena Rybakina’s ‘poker face’ vs Jessica Pegula
Speaking live on Sky Sports, he pointed out what he noticed about Elena Rybakina and the way in which she dealt with the adversity of falling into a one-set deficit.
The British pundit admitted: “I think this is where Rybakina’s poker face really helps her.”
He continued: “When she is playing great, there isn’t a great deal of emotion, there wasn’t a great celebration. But when she is losing, it doesn’t look like she is getting flustered.
“We saw that a bit against Swiatek, we saw it today against Pegula. She knew what she needed to do, and she had to get out there and execute it.”
Rybakina’s on-court interview after defeating Pegula saw her discuss the nature of her comeback, whilst also speaking about how she has found the crowd in Riyadh over the last week.
Elena Rybakina makes history for Asian tennis
Despite the size of the country, Asia has often struggled to produce a steady stream of truly elite tennis talents.
Fortunately, with Rybakina and Qinwen Zheng, Asian tennis fans are now spoilt for choice.
Whilst the latter continues to recover from the surgery she had on her elbow over the summer, the Kazakhstani will fly the flag, and hope to make further history for Asia as she contests the final tomorrow.
In reaching this stage, she has become just the third player representing an Asian country since the event’s inauguration in 1972 to reach the final of the WTA Finals after the aforementioned Zheng and Li Na.
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