Rybakina’s Stuttgart escape

Elena Rybakina was two points from losing in Stuttgart on Friday night, then beat Leylah Fernandez 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (6) to reach the semifinals. (wtatennis.com) The quarterfinal lasted exactly three hours, and Rybakina saved two match points in the third set before closing it out in a tiebreak. She finished with 7 aces, 8 double faults and 127 of the match’s 243 total points. (wtatennis.com; wtatennis.com) Fernandez led by a break in all three sets. She served for the match at 5-4 in the third, held one match point there, then earned another at 6-5 in the deciding tiebreak before Rybakina erased both. (wtatennis.com; tenniscanada.com) The escape kept Rybakina alive at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, a WTA 500 event played on indoor clay in Stuttgart from April 13 to April 19. She had already won the title there in 2024 and returned this week as the top seed. (wtatennis.com; wtatennis.com) It also extended a run that has kept her near the top of the tour in 2026. The WTA listed Rybakina at No. 2 entering Stuttgart, with a 21-5 year-to-date record on her player page before the tournament’s final weekend. (wtatennis.com; wtatennis.com) Fernandez’s side of the story was the pressure she created from the start. Tennis Canada said the 23-year-old was chasing her first WTA clay semifinal and had already spent nearly four and a half hours on court across her first two matches before pushing Rybakina to the edge. (tenniscanada.com) Rybakina said afterward that “nothing really worked” early and that her serve “was not working,” even as she found a way back. The WTA’s match report said Fernandez landed 71% of her first serves in the opening set and won 81% of those points. (wtatennis.com) She did not let the marathon stop there. On Saturday, Rybakina beat Mirra Andreeva in straight sets to reach her third final of 2026, with the WTA noting she had overcome “residual fatigue” from the Fernandez match. (wtatennis.com) By Sunday, the comeback against Fernandez looked less like a one-off escape and more like the hinge point of Rybakina’s Stuttgart week. She opened the quarterfinal on the brink and ended the weekend playing for another title. (wtatennis.com; wtatennis.com)