Dominant Elena Rybakina wins second Stuttgart title after outclassing Karolina Muchova

[p]Top seed [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rybakina-elena/UDzElXdm/"]Rybakina[/a], 26, snatched a tight opening set with two breaks against her seventh-seeded Czech opponent after 53 minutes on court in Germany.[/p][p]The Kazakh never looked back in the second set rushing to a 5-0 lead as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/muchova-karolina/Or4Qa1ye/"]Muchova[/a] struggled with her serve, sealing victory and the 13th title of her career after 1hr 18 min.[/p][embed guid="4b0fcefd-2f26-4ab6-a7b4-885fe9a05bca" url="https://x.com/WTA/status/2045843791421063447" social-type="twitter" /][p]Rybakina, who finished runner-up at Indian Wells last month, regained the title she won two years ago and drives off with a second Porsche sports car - the coveted prize awarded to the champion in Stuttgart.[/p][p]"I was trying to read her serve, and in the beginning everything worked," Rybakina said.[/p][p]"[b]Then she started to serve a bit better, harder, and even knowing where the ball is coming and it was kind of on the racquet, but I was missing the shots. So it went pretty tight in the first set[/b].[/p][p]"[b]In the second, I was just trying to be more solid. I think the return improved. I was managing to see where she was gonna serve[/b]."[/p][p]Muchova had lead Rybakina 2-1 in previous meetings heading into the title match having won their most recent clash on hard court in Brisbane in January.[/p][p]Rybakina had a relatively smooth run this week dropping only one set and dispatching her toughest opponent world number six [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/andreeva-mirra/lI6fOOat/"]Mirra Andreeva[/a] by the same score on Saturday.[/p][embed guid="0cfa1c50-4378-4d79-97b8-48ab65275ff3" url="https://x.com/WTA/status/2045849530365518065" social-type="twitter" /][p]The 29-year-old Muchova had eliminated French Open champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gauff-coco/f5BXmEH6/"]Coco Gauff[/a] in three sets in the quarter-finals but she was no match for two-time Grand Slam winner Rybakina.[/p][p]Rybakina dominated the early part of the first set but the former Wimbledon champion had to wait until her third set point on Muchova's serve, to clinch it.[/p][p]She then cruised to the line, winning seven games in a row between the end of the first and the second set.[/p][p]The 2024 champion has won two titles at one event for the first time in her career and her fifth title on clay in the build-up to the French Open next month.[/p][embed guid="8084daff-747f-40ff-93ed-d956e9cb1500" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu2BtcEjWww" social-type="youtube" /][p]Muchova, the 2023 Roland Garros runner-up, was playing the first 500-level final of her career.[/p][p]"It was a really good week for me," Muchova said.[/p][p]"[b]I beat players I have never beaten before. I had some tough battles. Of course, it could have been a little better but I have to give credit to Elena. I think she played really well, really fast. I was probably a little bit tired from the last two matches that I played here, but all credit to her[/b]."[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/muchova-k-Or4Qa1ye/rybakina-e-UDzElXdm/?mid=2RA2cU3T"][b]Check out the match stats here[/b][/a][/p]