Elena Rybakina is about to share a court with someone she’s spent years alongside at the top of the sport. Yet, she barely knows that person as an opponent. Asked how strange it feels to face Coco Gauff for only the second time in her career despite years on tour together, the world No.2 revealed something most fans wouldn’t expect about their history. It’s a fitting twist headding into a semifinal that’s already tested her more than almost any match she’s played this week.

“We practice quite a lot on the tournament so we know each other pretty well even if we played only once, and I think it was here in Toronto but many years ago,” Rybakina said. “So yeah, she’s a fighter and I definitely need to bring my energy so well, and I think right now it’s really important to recover and somehow be fresh for tomorrow.”

That single prior meeting, a three-set battle in Toronto years back, is the only data point either player has on the other in a real match. This is despite spending years ranked near the top of the game. The rarity of that history is only part of what’s made this stretch in Toronto so eventful for Rybakina.

Her run to the semifinal has been anything but smooth. She needed a three-setter just to get past Daria Kasatkina early in the tournament, then survived arguably her toughest test of the week against Liudmila Samsonova, trailing 0-3 and down two breaks in the deciding set before winning four straight games to close it out 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. She faced break point 13 times in that match alone.

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“I knew it would be a very tough match. It’s always a battle against Liudmila,” Rybakina said afterward. “It’s really tough to find words now. I’m so tired, but I’m super happy. I was just trying to focus a point at a time. I know she’s also an aggressive player. If I don’t step in, she might be the first one.”

That win set up a first-ever meeting with Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals, and it turned into another three-set fight. Rybakina was broken in the very first game of the match, dropped the opening set, then fell behind two breaks early in the second before turning things around. She eventually closed the matchup 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

“It was a very difficult match, and also starting with the sun and then it was really night, and I actually didn’t get used straight away to these conditions because I played all of my previous matches during the day, so it was a bit difficult,” Rybakina said. “First set, a few mistakes, slow start, first game straight away she broke me, so yeah it was a really tough one, but I’m glad that I turned it around.”

Osaka had her own read on what made the match so competitive.

“She has a great attitude. She’s consistent and she will fight,” Osaka said. “She’s kind of like a bulldog.”

Rybakina has leaned on the same mindset through every escape act this week, choosing not to overthink the closeness of the scorelines while they’re happening.

“If I make mistakes, doesn’t matter, just keep going,” she said of the Samsonova comeback. “Now it’s going my way, but I’m hoping that next matches, either here or next tournaments, I can actually lead and be up in most of the matches. This is something I need to improve on.”

Gauff, by contrast, has barely been tested this week, rolling past Alina Korneeva 6-3, 6-1 in the fourth round without dropping a set on her way to the semifinal.

“My main focus today was let me try and close it out,” Gauff said. “I’m proud of how the last three matches have gone and just knowing if I have to go the distance I’m ready but obviously would prefer to cut it short if I can.”

That contrast, three straight three-set survival acts for Rybakina against a comparatively rested Gauff, sets up a real test of whether freshness matters more than momentum heading into the semifinal.

Rybakina keeps her focus off the No. 1 ranking despite being in the hunt

The win over Osaka kept Rybakina firmly in the conversation for the world No. 1 ranking, and she was asked about it directly afterward, answering with the same composure she’s shown all week.

“No, you guys are asking me all the time. Only when you ask I have to think about it,” she said. “I’m just staying in present, trying to focus so much of the time and not looking at the ranking, not following. For me it’s just important to go match by match and hopefully win titles.”

Rybakina enters the semifinal at 37-11 for the season and 24-5 on hard courts, already carrying an Australian Open title, won by beating current world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in three sets, along with a title in Stuttgart. This marks her first semifinal appearance in seven tournaments since that Stuttgart win, following a clay season and grass season that both fell short of expectations after a physically draining stretch of back-to-back events.

Whatever happens against Gauff, the deeper story of Rybakina’s week has already been told: three three-set battles in a row, each one a reminder that her toughest opponent in Toronto so far hasn’t been any specific player, it’s been closing matches out cleanly at all. The semifinal goes ahead as scheduled, with the winner moving on to face either Sabalenka or Linda Noskova for the title.