The only certainty in the bottom half of the women’s singles draw at the French Open this year is the constant thrill of uncertainty. On Sunday afternoon the final top-20 player in the section fell and it was the most successful of them all as Serena Williams was thoroughly outplayed by a young Kazakh star called Elena Rybakina, who won 6-3, 7-5. With Williams’ defeat Rybakina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Tamara Zidansek and Paula Badosa remain in the bottom half of the draw. None has ever braved a major semi-final and only Pavlyuchenkova has contested a quarter-final. One will seize the moment and become the newest first-time grand-slam finalist. Rybakina may not yet be widely known beyond the confines of the tennis world but this has been coming. She has been ready to explode ever since her fast rise into the top 100 in 2019. Perpetually composed, cold-blooded and with such an imposing stature on the court, at 21 she is already one of the best servers on the tour and possesses an easy, stinging power. Finally she has harnessed it on the biggest stage. Faced with the opportunity for her biggest win, she took it wonderfully. From the beginning of the match, when she broke serve in Williams’ second service game, Rybakina put all of her vast weapons in full view. It was she who stood atop the baseline, not Williams, forcing her opponent from side to side and daring her to keep up. There were, however, still numerous moments of doubt as Williams tried to assert herself. The American desperately attempted to respond to Rybakina’s fearless ball-striking by moving her around with angles but she was initially too passive, dropping the ball short and watching as Rybakina easily cleaned up. She later over-compensated and over-hit, never finding a comfortable balance. Her short bursts of quality were insufficient against such a consistent, high level of attacking tennis from the Kazakh. Even when she wavered at times and nerves seemed on the brink of taking over, Rybakina always had an ace or a seamless down-the-line backhand winner up her sleeve to steady herself. Williams appeared to have wrestled control in the second set after recovering Rybakina’s early break but, with Williams serving at 5-5, Rybakina broke to love and she never looked back. In Rybakina’s short career on the WTA circuit she is already known for her composure and a swirling question was whether the biggest win of her career would provoke any positive emotion on victory. It did not. After seeing a Williams return go long, off one final crushing serve, to secure the victory of her career, Rybakina simply stared blankly ahead. “Everybody laughs about my reactions but for me it’s much easier like this, not to show any reactions,” she said. “I’m a really calm person but on top of this all my nerves [are] inside. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes of course it’s not, because to hold everything inside, it’s not possible. One day it’s going to explode, and who knows when, so it’s dangerous for other people, especially close ones.” For now, Rybakina is a danger to only those across the net. Williams will rue her failure to take the opportunity of the draw but she was outplayed by one of the brightest young stars. She departed with the understanding that she has made progress in Paris and a far greater chance of winning her 24th major is on the faster surfaces to come. “I’m in a much better place than when I got here,” she said. “You know, just literally trying to win a match, because it had been a really difficult season for me on the clay. And although I love the clay, I was, like, if I could just win a match.” For Rybakina, who represented Russia in her youth but switched to Kazakhstan after receiving no financial help, this is simply the first positive mark on a long road ahead. “The end goal is always to win the tournaments and dream and go of course to win the Grand Slam. So every time I step in on court I try not to think against who I play,” she said. “Just try to do my work, follow the plan which we have. If it works well, I’m winning and, if it’s not, I’m learning from the matches. It’s all experience for me.” Rybakina will next face the 31st seed, Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Victoria Azarenka 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Badosa defeated the 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and she will face Zidansek.