Rome 2023: Medvedev Magic, Relentless Rybakina - Issue #37

Daniil Medvedev overcame his clay court struggles to beat Holger Rune. Elena Rybakina continued her great form in 2023, but the women's final was overshadowed and spoiled by rain and poor scheduling.

Written by Dove Sallow

If you missed out on the ATP and WTA Rome Finals, have no fear. I'm here to catch you up. On the men's side, we saw Daniil Medvedev nab his first title on clay. At the start of this season, this probably wasn't a sentence you thought you'd be reading. On the women's side, Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina played a disappointing and controversial final (by no fault of their own). Here are my thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly of both of the finals.

Men’s Final

Starting with the men, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune both played some of their best tennis to reach the final. Daniil probably had a kinder draw, but he still overcame two top notch clay court players in Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas along the way. As we all know, Zverev and Tsitsipas are guys that Daniil doesn't get along with particularly well. But maybe the fact that he was playing two of his biggest adversaries gave him some extra motivation to finally find a way to play his best tennis on the clay. For years, we've watched Daniil emotionally struggle on this surface. He was battling his opponent, but also battling himself. This clay court season, it's almost as if he's accepted the fact that he's never going to enjoy this surface as much as he'll enjoy hard courts. He's okay with the fact that he's not going to get as much out of his serve or flat groundstrokes. There's a power in being content on the tennis court and I think Daniil finally realized what it feels like to be content on a clay court this year. As a result, his movement looks drastically improved. He's still not the most natural mover on clay, but he looks a lot more comfortable. His first step looks more explosive and he's sliding at the right time now when he needs to slide.

Holger had to overcome Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and Casper Ruud in the semifinals. Given Novak's track record in Rome, this was a huge win for Holger. He's now beaten Novak twice in a row, with both wins coming in Masters events. Against Ruud, Holger came back from a set a break down. Casper came out playing the best tennis he'd played all year, but Holger found a way to snatch his confidence. Once Holger got the break back in the 2nd set, he grabbed the reigns and didn't let go. There's always been so much upside to Holger's game. He's an insanely gifted athlete and has the fighting qualities to match. This past year, he's racked up wins in tough, important matches and has started to develop the experience to become a contender for Grand Slams.

With Rune being the more natural clay court player, I think a lot of people thought he'd blow Medvedev out of the water in the final. But Daniil found a way to maximize his greatest strength on clay - his consistency. His ball is not the most potent on this surface. He hits pretty flat and his ball has a tendency to sit up on a clay court, as opposed to bouncing high with a lot of action. But the improvements he made to his movement on this surface allowed him to get to so many balls. He repeatedly asked questions of Holger and forced him into errors. As well as Daniil played, it was clear that Holger didn't play anywhere near his best level. He made errors at a lot of crucial moments and it seemed like the occasion got to him a bit. When you're playing a big final and don't have a ton of experience to draw upon, Daniil is the last person you want to see on the other side of the net. He'll make you play 50 shot rallies over and over again. His consistency and tenacity will make you doubt your own abilities. A few years from now, I reckon Holger will be in another Masters final and have a lot more experience and confidence to rely on in tight moments. But that's just part of the learning curve for Rune. Medvedev was able to draw on years of experience from contending in Masters finals. Rune simply doesn't have that experience yet. But if he keeps playing the way he has been, he'll be a nightmare for everyone on every surface. Rome 2023 was about Daniil. Between beating two of his favorite frenemies (Zverev and Tsitsipas), coming up with a quirky victory dance, and finally conquering clay at the highest level... Medvedev can no longer call himself just a hard court specialist.

Women’s Final

Moving on to the women's final, Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina couldn't have had more different paths to get to the championship match. Elena had 3 retirements throughout the tournament. She beat Jasmine Paolini in straight sets, played 7 games against Anna Kalinskaya before Anna retired, and impressively beat Markéta Vondroušová in straight sets. Her quarterfinal match against Iga Świątek was interesting, to say the least. Iga came out playing her spectacular brand of clay court tennis. She was moving well and constantly making Elena move side to side. The first few games all went to deuce, but Świątek played better in the big moments. Iga just looked the more comfortable of the two in that first set, which is exactly what you'd expect. She carried her good form into the 2nd set and even went up a break, but that's when Elena came alive. Elena started to cut down on the errors and she began to find her serve. Once she broke back, the match had a different feel to it. When Rybakina found some rhythm, she didn't allow Iga the chance to move her around at will. They ended up in a tiebreak, where Elena went up 6-3. Unfortunately, Iga injured herself when running at the back of the court in the middle of a point. Elena won the 2nd set, and when they started the final set, it was clear that Iga's movement wasn't the same. She was playing much more aggressively than usual in hopes that she wouldn't have to play much defense. She played a couple good games and gave it her best effort, but retired at 2-2 in the 3rd set. Rybakina went on to beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-4 in the semifinals. The two had an interesting handshake with some inaudible words from Ostapenko's side. I'm still wondering what Jelena could've said to her. Because Rybakina didn't look happy at all as she gestured to the umpire, indicating that Jelena had said something out of line. I guess we'll never know.

On the other side of the spectrum, Kalinina played three 3 set matches in a row before reaching the final. The Ukrainian's 4th round match against Beatriz Haddad Maia was actually the longest match of the year (3 hours and 41 min). Beatriz was 2 points away from the match on two different occasions, but Kalinina just never gave in. It was one of the best matches of the year, as both women gave a superhuman effort to try to push themselves over the finish line. It felt more like a battle of sheer will than a tennis match, but that's what made it so special. I can confidently say that both players deserved to win that match. Kalinina and Haddad Maia both left the court in tears. After beating Beatriz, Anhelina had a 2 hour 51 min match against Veronika Kudermetova. The Ukrainian actually served for the match to close it out in two sets, but Kudermetova did not go quietly. Kudermetova's serve and groundstrokes were powerful as always, but Kalinina's determination was the greatest weapon on the court. She ran down every ball and made Veronika uncomfortable whenever she could. With the win, Kalinina became only the 2nd Ukrainian to reach a WTA 1000 final in history (following Elina Svitolina who reached five 1000 level finals). The achievement was indeed historic and unforgettable. But given what's happening in Ukraine right now, it was more than an achievement. Her performance in Rome was something positive for Ukrainians to cling on to during the real-life nightmare they're living through every day. It was a symbol of the resilience of every Ukrainian man, woman, and child. They're fighters in the heart and mind, just like Kalinina. She pushed herself to her physical limit in Rome over and over again. Every time she looked like she'd wither away, she found a little bit more. Her performance was unforgettable.

Anhelina broke Elena's serve in the first game of the final and seemed to be playing pretty solid tennis. But even though she was up in the score, she kept talking to her husband as if she was upset. After she chased down a drop shot by Rybakina in the first set and won the point, Anhelina looked frustrated and continued to speak to her box. That's when I knew something was off. The wear and tear of playing three 3-set matches in a row was too much for her. The match against Haddad Maia was particularly brutal. But the real travesty was the scheduling of the women's final. To make things clear, all the matches in Rome were victims of rain delays in the 2nd week of the tournament. It rained almost every single day and it was a miracle the tournament didn't fall even further behind, to be honest. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev went through several rain delays in their semifinal before finally reaching a conclusion to their match. By the time the women's final began, it was 11 p.m. local time. That's certainly not a respectable time to hold a women's final for a 1000 level event. If the match had lasted two hours, the trophy ceremony would've started at 1 a.m. That's downright unfair to the people who paid for the tickets and it's a gross injustice to both Rybakina and Kalinina. Anhelina had already played so much tennis over the last two weeks. The fact that she waited around all day and all night until 11 p.m. to have a chance to play her first WTA 1000 final is just not right. For starters, it's disrespectful to make the players and the fans play an important final so late. But it's also physically exhausting for the players to wait around all day. They had to try to stay warm and active, all the while not knowing whether they'd be playing the final that day or not. Kalinina's body had already went through several marathons throughout the tournament. By 11 p.m., I'm sure her muscles felt horrible. After all she went through to give herself the opportunity to play her first WTA 1000 final, she deserved better. The fans deserved a refund. As horribly as the final was handled, take nothing away from Rybakina. She didn't have to play a ton of tennis to win the title, but she was more than deserving of lifting the trophy. She played a brave 2nd set against Świątek to stay in the match. She went up 6-3 in that 2nd set tiebreak and put herself in a position to win the 2nd set before Iga got injured. No one can say she hasn't been playing at a seriously high level these last two weeks. Her straight sets win over Jelena Ostapenko solidified her level even more. Given the fact that she was denied her rightful place in the top 10 in 2020 due to the Covid rankings freeze and was also denied her top 10 ranking after winning Wimbledon due to the no ranking points situation, I'd say it was about time she was on the receiving end of some good luck. Every player has good luck and bad luck. Considering she was denied a top 10 ranking that she earned twice, it would be wrong for anyone to try to diminish her win in Rome. She's one of the women rising to the occasion time and time again in 2023, along with Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. Overall, Rome was an exciting tournament. But I just wished the women's final got the respect it deserved. These players dedicate their existence to this sport. It would've been nice to see a proper final that was worthy of the time and energy that Anhelina Kalinina and Elena Rybakina have been putting in all season long.