Andy Roddick Says Elena Rybakina is Ready to Challenge Aryna Sabalenka for the WTA No.1

Elena Rybakina is projected to face Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Madrid Open.

Andy Roddick Says Elena Rybakina is Ready to Challenge Aryna Sabalenka for the WTA No.1

Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, and Andy Roddick (via X/The Tennis Letter)

In Short
  • Elena Rybakina is currently ranked World No.2 and is closing the gap on World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
  • Rybakina has shown improved consistency this season, reaching three finals and winning the Australian Open and Stuttgart Open.
  • Andy Roddick believes Rybakina's performance could lead her to challenge for the No.1 ranking if she continues her strong play in upcoming tournaments.

Elena Rybakina has upped her consistency this season, which has seen her become the World No.2. With just less than 2,500 points separating Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka, who sits as World No.1, the race for the top spot is fully open this clay season, and former tennis player Andy Roddick believes Rybakina can challenge Sabalenka.

Only once this season has Rybakina not reached the quarter-finals of a tournament. That came during the Dubai Tennis Championships in February, when she sustained an injury in her third-round match that forced her to retire, despite her coach Stefano Vukov pleading with her not to.

The Kazakhstani has reached three finals this season, winning the Australian Open and Stuttgart Open. She rose to become World No.2 after the Indian Wells Open last month and closed the gap between her and Sabalenka. Sabalenka has been at the top of the WTA rankings since October 2024 and has been unchallenged.

Iga Swiatek, the former World No. 1, was inconsistent on the court last year and has been poor this season. Rybakina has less than 900 points to defend this clay season, while Sabalenka has 2,500 points to defend. At the Madrid Open, Sabalenka is the defending champion, and should she fail to win the title and Rybakina reaches at least the quarter-finals, the gap will be reduced further.

Rybakina revealed this week that she’s focused on winning Grand Slams (particularly the French Open), which is a great goal. Should she achieve that, she will be closer to No.1 than ever. During the latest Served Podcast, Roddick revealed that Rybakina has been more consistent this season than she has ever been on tour:

This consistency over a four or five-month period is not something we’ve seen from Rybakina before. We know what the top shelf looks like,I think anyone with eyeballs can watch her and say, ‘Oh, her top level is as good as anyone’s’. But the difference being she doesn’t do it every time out, you know, over the course of a year, six months, whatever it may be. This feels different from what it’s been before with her as far as I can tell.

Rybakina winning the Stuttgart Open gives her the needed confidence going into the rest of the clay season. She’s known to be a player of all surfaces, and that will give her the needed courage to fight for more titles this season. After the Madrid Open, she will return to Rome, where she won the WTA 1000 title in 2023.

Andy Roddick lists out big events Elena Rybakina might win this season

Elena Rybakina’s major problems over the years have been consistently in Grand Slams. After winning the Wimbledon Championship in 2022 and reaching the final of the Australian Open in 2023, the 26-year-old struggled to find a consistent result in major tournaments. She didn’t reach a Slam final until 2026.

Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina (Image via X/The Tennis Letter)

However, she reached the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Championships in 2024, despite being the favorite to win it. During the aforementioned podcast, Roddick revealed that if Rybakina wins Wimbledon and has a good run at the US Open, she can become the World No.1 before the season ends:

If she’s winning on clay consistently, we know she can win on grass, she’s won Wimbledon. We know maybe not her best results in in New York in the past, but I know this is going to be fun. You you want someone to come for the throne, obviously Aryna is wearing it [the crown] very comfortably right now, but this is fun. The more in the mix, the merrier.

Rybakina reached the fourth round of the French Open last year, the third round of Wimbledon, and the round of 16 of the US Open. She’s projected to face Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Madrid Open, but before that, she could face World No.4 Coco Gauff in the semi-final.

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