Elena Rybakina Sets Big Grand Slam Goals After Securing First Win of 2026 in Brisbane
Elena Rybakina won her first and only Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2022.
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Elena Rybakina (Image via X/US Open Tennis)
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The Australian summer of tennis is officially underway, and the Kazakhstani squad isn’t just participating—they’re looking to dominate the leaderboards. The head of their roster is Elena Rybakina.
The Brisbane International is currently in full swing, acting as the perfect tutorial level before the difficulty spikes at the upcoming Australian Open. And if the early rounds are anything to go by, the recently crowned WTA Finals champion has clearly spent the off-season grinding for XP. Rybakina said in her post-match interview:
I’m hoping to bring everything that I did in the past season to this one. Hopefully, I can go as far as I can in each Slam, maybe win 1 of them. We’ll see. I have big goals.
The first match of the season is usually a toss-up. It doesn’t matter if someone is ranked in the Top 5 or outside the Top 100—everyone is shaking off the rust. But Rybakina, currently sitting comfortably as the World No. 5, didn’t seem too bothered by the new year jitters.
Elena Rybakina after beating Shuai Zhang in her 1st match of 2026 in Brisbane
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 6, 2026
“I’m hoping to bring everything that I did in the past season to this one. Hopefully I can go as far as I can in each Slam, maybe win 1 of them. We’ll see. I have big goals” ❤️
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Facing off against China’s Zhang Shuai, Rybakina didn’t exactly hand out a bagel, but she kept things decidedly professional. The first set was a clean 6–3, and the second set got a little sweaty at 7–5, suggesting Zhang wasn’t going to just let Rybakina farm wins without a fight.
The “lucky loser” mechanics pay off for Yulia Putintseva in Brisbane
In tennis, Lucky Loser is one of the most oddly perfect phrases in the sport. It may sound like a backhanded compliment in any other context, but here it describes a built in second chance for players who lose in qualifying yet still reach the main draw when someone else withdraws.
That is exactly what happened to Yulia Putintseva, ranked 74 on the WTA Tour. She entered the draw as a lucky loser after Karolina Pliskova withdrew with injury. Putintseva then made full use of the opportunity, approaching her match against American Hailey Baptiste with clear intent rather than treating it as a free swing.
Putintseva took it 6–2, 6–4. That’s a solid, drama-free win for someone who wasn’t even supposed to be there 24 hours prior. Her reward? A second-round clash with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk. Kostyuk is ranked No. 26, so Putintseva is going to have to dig deep into her bag of tricks if she wants to keep this bonus life going.
Can Elena Rybakina win a Grand Slam in 2026?
The WTA 2026 season is revolving around more than just two names for the first time in a long time. The last two seasons were mainly dominated by Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. However, there are many more names in the storyline for 2026.
Firstly, there is Coco Gauff, who captured her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last year. The American defeated Sabalenka in three high-quality sets.
Secondly, there is Elena Rybakina, who finished the season strongly in 2025 by winning the WTA Finals. This is similar to how Gauff ended the 2024 season before clinching her second Grand Slam title in Paris.
Now, if Rybakina achieves a similar kind of result, it would be huge for her career. The Kazakh player has tasted Grand Slam success only once, which came at Wimbledon in 2022.
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