Exclusive: Elena Rybakina confident she 'can play on all surfaces' as she eyes dominance after Australian Open
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Published 08/02/2023 at 11:11 GMT
It has been an incredible 12 months for Elena Rybakina, who triumphed at Wimbledon last summer and reached the final of the 2023 Australian Open last month. Eurosport's Reem Abulleil sat down with the 23-year-old trailblazer and spoke with her about the remarkable journey she has already had in professional tennis, her reflections from Melbourne Park, and what lies ahead this season.
'I should have been more aggressive' - Rybakina after losing to Sabalenka in Australian Open final
Rafael Nadal often says that self-doubt has been a key factor in his success.
“If you don’t have doubts, it probably means you’re being arrogant,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion states. “Doubts are good because doubts make you think, make you feel alive.”
For Elena Rybakina, the doubts were there even after she fulfilled a lifelong dream and became a Wimbledon champion last summer.
“Of course, Wimbledon was a great result but you have these doubts, like, maybe it was just luck, or it was a really good draw or something. So you have kind of these thoughts,” the Kazakhstani world No. 10 told Eurosport at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open this week.
A run to the Australian Open final last month – which included a statement victory over world No.1 Iga Swiatek – helped quieten some of the self-questioning noise in her head.
“That was a great result. It just gives you more confidence to play other tournaments,” explained the 23-year-old, who fell to Aryna Sabalenka in a high-quality three-set final Down Under.
Rybakina’s maiden Grand Slam triumph came under unique circumstances.
The WTA and ATP tours withheld ranking points from Wimbledon after the tournament had decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players from participating. Rybakina walked away with a trophy but without the 2,000 points that usually come along with it, which means she didn’t vault up the rankings the way a major champion typically would.
“I think, of course, when you don’t play the way you wanted to play, you don’t have the results which you kind of expect maybe after, [the doubts creep in],” she explained.
“The scheduling was really tough for me because I didn’t get the points [from Wimbledon] so I was chasing the WTA Finals and I was trying to play many tournaments. Of course, after Wimbledon, many things happened and it was not easy to go and play everything; my preparation for hard courts was also cut. It’s just experience at the end of the day, every week we play, it’s something new you learn about yourself.”
Rybakina was unable to qualify for the WTA Finals last year and finished the 2022 season ranked just outside the top 20.
She arrived in Melbourne last month relatively under the radar, seeded No.22 for the tournament and scheduled on Court 13 for her Australian Open first round. Many fans took to social media to express their outrage at the fact the reigning Wimbledon champion was assigned an outside court. Rybakina explained why it didn’t bother her that much.
“This time, I would say I wasn’t surprised because I think I was doing really well the past three years, if you check the results, and there was always something you cannot control; whether it was Covid or something else, you can get injured here or there, so many things are always happening. So with all this experience, I would say this time I really didn’t care on which court I’ll play,” she admitted.
“Before, of course, you think, ‘Oh, I would prefer to play somewhere else’ but this time, with all the experience, I was ready to play anywhere.”
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Rybakina’s runner-up showing at Melbourne Park earned her a place in the world’s top 10 for the first time and she is seeded No.3 in the inaugural WTA 500-level tournament in Abu Dhabi this week (she opens against Karolina Pliskova on Thursday).
Is she relieved she no longer has to focus too much on chasing points now that her ranking has gone up?
“Probably yes, because you can know your schedule better [when you have a higher ranking]. For example, now in Doha, I am still in qualies, so you cannot really predict, but if you’re top 10, you can plan easier. You have this advantage sometimes not to play the first round, so you have a few more extra days to practice. If you’re travelling, that helps.”
Flying under the radar hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing for Rybakina, whose major title did not come with the same hype that followed the likes of Emma Raducanu or Naomi Osaka when they exploded onto the scene.
She says her popularity is growing at a gradual pace, which has helped her acclimatise to her new status as a Grand Slam champion.
“Outside I would say I didn’t feel it as much, after that great achievement I didn’t feel like a huge difference,” she said. “But when I went back to Kazakhstan, of course, there I felt completely different. I met so many kids, I had so much support. So it was really different, but I felt it only in Kazakhstan.
“In Melbourne, when I was playing my first match, I saw that way more people came to watch me, even though I wasn’t playing on a big court. It was really nice and slowly, slowly I was getting it.
“Maybe not as much as other players because for them it was like a change of one hour straight after the match, so for me, it was kind of slow, and I think it was also good because I had time to prepare myself and know what to expect.”
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Rybakina congratulates Sabalenka after thrilling Australian Open final
Rybakina maintains a fairly stoic expression when on court; her face gives nothing away, even after she’s won a match point.
Her coach of nearly four years, Stefano Vukov, is on the opposite side of the spectrum in that regard. He gets very animated during her matches and on the practice court. He was called out by some commentators for the way he was communicating with Rybakina during her matches at the Australian Open, where coaching from the stands was legal.
That prompted Rybakina to post a statement on her social media accounts, defending her coach and assuring she would “never accept a coach that didn’t respect me and all our hard work”.
Asked why she felt the need to make a public statement on the matter, Rybakina said: “Unfortunately, the internet is a big thing and someone can make a comment without thinking and then people just pick it up and make a mess.
“A few people made some comments; they don’t know me at all, and they don’t know my team, which I was really surprised by because if there are any problems, you can always come and talk with me directly. But people decided to post it on the internet so I kind of showed the reality, that everything is fine and everybody needs to stay in their places and not mix up.”
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Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after defeating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina (R) in the women's singles final match on day thirteen of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2023.
Image credit: Getty Images
Rybakina added that her coach often provides some much-needed energy during her matches, especially when she’s feeling flat.
“If you see me just like on the court, you don’t know what’s happening around and it’s quite a lot. Even if I look calm, of course, I always talk with my coach, it’s just not the moment, of course during a match I will just listen. Sometimes I really need energy because I’m quite calm and I can be so much thinking about myself, and focusing on myself during the match, so I need something quick to understand what’s happening around,” she said.
“He helps me a lot. We have open dialogues, and we’ve worked already for four years. Sometimes I have bad days but people might not see it. And of course, when we work on the court I respect him a lot, I’m trying to listen and get all the information I can.”
With a massive serve and a powerful game, the 6'0'' Rybakina has the potential to dominate on all surfaces if she stays healthy and in a good headspace.
She believes there is still room to improve her aggressive style and wants to work on her net approaches but feels confident she can translate her success to the other majors in due time.
“I feel pretty well on all surfaces, and for me, it’s actually also fun to change the surface; that’s the beauty of the sport, to adapt all the time,” said Rybakina.
“I feel confident on the grass, which I actually never thought I’m going to be that good on. Because as a junior I played maybe one or two times and it was not successful so when I started to work with my coach I said I don’t really like grass, I don’t know how to play on it. But in the end, it’s for now my best achievement. My first WTA trophy was on clay, so I think I can play on all surfaces.”
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