Former Grand Slam Finalist Puzzled by Elena Rybakina’s “Strange” Slump at Wimbledon

Elena Rybakina‘s hopes of becoming World No.1 for the first time in her career were meant to be achieved at Wimbledon, but for the second consecutive Grand Slam she crashed out early. The loss revealed the current state of her form on tour over the last four weeks. Former Grand Slam Finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reacted to her recent display on the court.

The last time Rybakina reached a tournament final was at the Stuttgart Open in early April. She defeated Karolina Muchova to win her second title of the season, and it was her third tour-level final of the year. But after that run, she has failed to reach a tournament semi-final, crashing out in the second round of the French Open.

Rybakina was dubbed the player who will challenge Aryna Sabalenka on tour this season after winning the Australian Open. She actually took her game to another level on the court, applying pressure on Sabalenka by reaching the final of the Indian Wells Open and the semi-finals of the Miami Open.

But her recent form has not been anywhere near the commitment she showed earlier this year. Sabalenka has not been in her best form lately. The Belarusian star exited the quarter-finals of the French Open and then crashed out in the fourth round of Wimbledon. If Rybakina had had a good run in those two tournaments, she would have been at the top of the WTA rankings now.

At Wimbledon, Rybakina was amongst the top favorites to win the title, having been a former champion. But she didn’t put her experience to use against Elise Mertens in the third round. In an interview with Tennis Bolshe, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova revealed that she’s disappointed with Rybakina’s strange run of poor form on tour:

I’m very disappointed that Rybakina lost relatively early in Slams, because she’s world No 2 and she has a real chance to become No 1 for the first time; the gap is small. Maybe that also puts pressure on her, because I think at Roland Garros all she needed was to win a couple of matches, and she couldn’t. Maybe clay isn’t her surface, but grass – that was strange.

Rybakina didn’t have a great grass-court season. She failed to reach the semi-finals of the Queen’s Club Championships despite being the top seed and favorite. At the Berlin Tennis Open, she fell to Alexandra Eala in the second round, finishing the grass-court swing with just three wins in three tournaments.

The gap between Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka heading into the North American hard-court swing

All hope is not lost for Elena Rybakina in terms of the World No.1 battle with Aryna Sabalenka. Currently, the gap between Sabalenka No. 1 and Rybakina No. 2 is just 407 ranking points. Sabalenka will have to defend 2,215 points in the next two months, while Rybakina just has 1,215 to defend.

Sabalenka won the US Open last year and reached the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Open. Rybakina, meanwhile, reached the semi-finals of the Washington Open before losing to Canadian sensation Victoria Mboko, while also reaching the semi-finals of the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.

However, Rybakina will not defend her 195 points at the Washington Open next week, which will then see the gap between her and Sabalenka rise to 602 ranking points. But should she win either the Cincinnati Open or the Canadian Open and get past the quarter-finals of the US Open, Rybakina has the opportunity to become World No.1.

Also, Rybakina can at least close the gap before the Asian swing, which comes after the US Open. But she will have a complicated end of the season, as she will have to defend 1,500 points at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells.

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