Her victory over No. 7 Rybakina gave her 60 career victories in the Top 10, which puts her third among active players behind Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka.
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Petra Kvitova ended Elena Rybakina’s 13-match winning streak to win the Miami Open. Kvitova defeated Rybakina 7-6(14), 6-2 on the strength of a strong serving effort on Saturday, earning her 30th career victory. Kvitova, 33, won the Miami Open at the oldest age since Serena Williams in 2015. Kvitova will make her first appearance in the Top 10 since September 2021 on Monday. “For sure the tiebreak was deciding today I think all the match,” Kvitova said. “I think it was the longest one I ever played in my life, and it was like, yeah, if I didn’t serve, I couldn’t be there. I mean, I got like three aces at the beginning and it was really tough.”
Kvitova won her ninth WTA 1000 championship and increased her impressive record in WTA Tour finals to 30-11 in her 99th main-draw appearance at a WTA 1000 event while competing in Miami on her 13th main-draw appearance. Her victory over No. 7 Rybakina gave her 60 career victories in the Top 10, which puts her third among active players behind Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Kvitova prevailed after a dramatic 67-minute opening frame in which she attempted to serve for the set at 5-4 but was unsuccessful before fending off five set points in a protracted tiebreak to win 16-14.
Rybakina entered the final with a perfect 7-0 record in tiebreaks, but Kvitova had good reason to be optimistic. She served well over 70% of the time in the first set and was 6-2 in tiebreaks this season. Rybakina served up five aces, but Kvitova saved five set points and won on her fifth to take the lead.
“Before our final I read yesterday that Elena didn’t lose a tiebreak yet this season,” Kvitova xaid. “So I was a break up. I was like, Okay, good. I gonna serve it out. And boom, it was a tiebreak. I was like, Oh, very nice. What are you gonna do now? But I was telling myself that she has to lose at some point one tiebreak in the season.”
Daniil Medvedev, who was competing in his fifth ATP Tour final in as many competitions, kept up his impressive form to win the Miami Open presented by Itau. With a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jannik Sinner, Medvedev increased his record to 24-1 over his previous five competitions, which have resulted in four victories. The fourth seed was unflappable against Sinner, frustrating the Italian with his thoughtful baseline game after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells final two weeks prior. Since defeating Sinner in the Rotterdam final in February, Medvedev is now 6-0 against Sinner in their head to heads.
On hard courts, Medvedev has now won five of the six ATP Masters 1000 events and advanced to the final in the sixth (Indian Wells). In addition, the 27-year-old has competed in both hard-court Grand Slam finals, winning the 2021 US Open. His success on hard courts carried over to the Nitto ATP Finals, where he took home the 2020 championship. The four tour-level championships Medvedev has won this season match his career-best total from both 2019 and 2021, giving him a good chance to surpass that mark.
“I’m really happy. Today was a tough match. It was probably the hottest day and the most humid during the day,” Medvedev said. “It was not easy conditions. I don’t know if Jannik had a small injury or cramp. I was also struggling, tried not to show it.”
