Elena Rybakina

Rybakina began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in December 2014, at the age of fifteen. While she was still playing on the junior circuit, she reached three ITF finals in singles and two in doubles, winning both of the doubles finals only in 2017.[12][13] She also made her WTA Tour debut in October 2017 at the Kremlin Cup, where she reached the main draw through qualifying but lost in the opening round to Irina-Camelia Begu.[14]

At her next WTA tournament in February 2018, Rybakina won her first WTA Tour match at the St. Petersburg Trophy against Timea Bacsinszky. She then upset world No. 7, Caroline Garcia, in three sets, after saving a match point in the second set.[15] Losing in the next round,[16] this quarterfinal appearance helped her rise from No. 450 to No. 268 in the world.[17] In March, Rybakina won her first ITF singles title at a $15k event in Kazan,[12] where she also won the doubles title.[13] Her next significant rankings jump came in April when she finished runner-up to Sabina Sharipova at the $60k Lale Cup in Istanbul, bringing her to No. 215. She broke into the top 200 for the first time in late May.[17] The following month, Rybakina acquired Kazakhstani citizenship and switched federations from Russia to Kazakhstan, having just turned nineteen years old at the time. The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation had offered her financial support to change her nationality, which she chose over various options to play college tennis in the United States.[2][18]

Playing for Kazakhstan, Rybakina entered her first Grand Slam qualifying draw at the 2018 US Open, but did not reach the main draw.[12][19]

Rybakina in 2019 Wimbledon qualifying

After playing mostly ITF events in the first half of 2019, Rybakina began playing primarily on the WTA Tour in the second half of the season. During the first few months of the year, she won three ITF titles, including the $60k Launceston International. She made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open as a qualifier, losing to Kateřina Siniaková. In her first WTA event on grass, Rybakina made her first semifinal at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships. Despite this success, she lost in qualifying at Wimbledon.[20] Rybakina's breakthrough came in July when she won her maiden WTA Tour title at the Bucharest Open, a month after turning 20 years old. During the event, she upset second seed Viktória Kužmová before defeating Patricia Maria Țig in the final.[20][21] With this title, she made her top 100 debut in the WTA rankings at No. 65.[17]

Rybakina qualified for her second main-draw Grand Slam match of the year at the US Open, but again lost in the first round.[20] At her next tournament, she made her second WTA Tour tournament final of the year at the Jiangxi International Open, finishing runner-up to Rebecca Peterson.[22] This result brought her into the top 50 for the first time.[17] Rybakina closed out the year strong, reaching at least the quarterfinals at her last three events of the season. In particular, she reached the quarterfinals at the Wuhan Open, her first career Premier-5 event. In the tournament, she defeated world No. 6, Simona Halep, who retired late in the first set with a lower back injury. She lost in the next round to eventual champion and world No. 14, Aryna Sabalenka.[23][24] Rybakina finished the season at No. 37 in the world.[17]

Rybakina led the WTA Tour in finals during the 2020 season, and finished tied for second in match wins.[25][26] She reached the finals at four of her first five events. Before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of the WTA Tour for more than five months, she had reached the final of every tournament except for the Australian Open and the Qatar Ladies Open, losing to world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, in both instances, the latter in a walkover due to an abductor strain in her leg.[27][28] Prior to the Australian Open, her two finals came at International events. After losing her first final of the year to Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Shenzhen Open,[29] she defeated Zhang Shuai to win her second WTA title at the Hobart International.[30] At Melbourne, she recorded her first two Grand Slam main-draw match wins against Bernarda Pera and Greet Minnen.[27] Following the tournament, she reached two Premier finals at the St. Petersburg Trophy and the Dubai Championships, finishing runner-up to No. 8 Kiki Bertens and No. 2 Simona Halep, respectively.[31] At Dubai in particular, Rybakina defeated two top-ten players in No. 7 Sofia Kenin and No. 3 Karolína Plíšková, the latter of which was the highest ranked player she had defeated to date.[32][33] These four finals helped her climb to No. 17 in the world at the time of the tour shutdown.[17] She also became the first Kazakhstani player in the top 20 in history.[34]

During the bulk of the shutdown, Rybakina stayed in Moscow and did not have the opportunity to practice for two and a half months. She eventually resumed training in Bratislava, Slovakia for five weeks.[35] When the tour resumed in New York in August, she lost her return match to Alexandrova and then only recorded one match win at the US Open.[36][37] Back in Europe, she finally defeated Alexandrova at the Italian Open in her third opportunity of the year before squandering a chance to serve out the match in a third-round loss to Yulia Putintseva.[38] At the Internationaux de Strasbourg, Rybakina reached her fifth final of the year and first since the resumption of the tour, losing in the final to No. 5, Elina Svitolina.[39] She did not carry this success to the next major, losing to Fiona Ferro in the second round at the French Open.[40]

She reached the quarterfinals of the French Open without dropping a set when she defeated Serena Williams in the fourth round.[41] At the same tournament, she also reached the quarterfinals in doubles, partnering Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; incidentally, Pavlyuchenkova was the opponent who defeated her in the quarterfinals of the singles portion of the 2021 French Open.

Rybakina was the 15th seed of the Olympic Games tennis tournament, winning her first three matches without losing a set before a semifinals defeat to Belinda Bencic. In the bronze medal match, Rybakina was defeated in a comeback by Elina Svitolina.[42]

On 1 November 2021, she made her debut in the top 15, at world No. 14, becoming the highest ranked Kazakhstani player in history.

Rybakina started the season at the Adelaide International 1, making it to the final where she was defeated by world No. 1, Ash Barty.[43] Her success continued at the Sydney Tennis Classic with a lopsided defeat of reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu, in the first round. She subsequently withdrew from the tournament citing a thigh injury.[44] She reached a career-high ranking of No. 12, on 17 January 2022.

Her remaining early hardcourt season saw little progress with a second-round retirement and a walkover at the Australian Open and St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy, respectively, and a first-round loss at the Qatar Ladies Open. Her "Sunshine Double" (Miami and Indian Wells) saw improvement with a quarterfinal appearance at the Indian Wells Open against Maria Sakkari and a third-round appearance to Jessica Pegula at the Miami Open.

Her clay-court season began with a second-round loss to Anhelina Kalinina after a first-round bye at Charleston. Following this, she represented Kazakhstan as the team's top seed and won both of her singles matches in a tie against Germany securing a berth in the finals later in the year. The remainder of her clay-court season saw little achievement as she failed to advance into the quarterfinals at the Stuttgart Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, and French Open.

Rybakina with the Venus Rosewater Dish at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships

Rybakina's grass-court season in the lead up to Wimbledon saw a second-round loss to Shelby Rogers at the Rosmalen Open followed by a first-round bye and a second-round loss to Lesia Tsurenko at the Eastbourne International. At the Wimbledon Championships, she reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinal, defeating CoCo Vandeweghe, Bianca Andreescu, Zheng Qinwen and Petra Martić. Then she reached the semifinals at a Major for the first time, defeating Ajla Tomljanović in her quarterfinal match.[45] She became the first Kazakhstani singles player (male or female) to reach the semifinal of a Grand Slam.[46][47] Then she reached her first Major final, after defeating Simona Halep in straight sets, becoming the youngest Wimbledon finalist since Garbiñe Muguruza in 2015.[48] After dropping the first set, she defeated Ons Jabeur in three sets to secure her first major title.[49] She became the youngest woman champion since the 21-year-old Petra Kvitová in 2011. She was the fourth-youngest active Grand Slam champion, older only than Iga Świątek, Bianca Andreescu and Emma Raducanu.[50] Rybakina's Russian nationality and previous international representation of Russia became a matter of public discourse in the aftermath of her success at Wimbledon 2022, where Wimbledon had banned athletes representing Russia and Belarus due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[51][52] Russian state media celebrated Rybakina's win as a national victory despite her longstanding decision not to represent the country of her birth.[53][54]

The North American hardcourt season began with early round losses at the Silicon Valley Classic (first round) and Canadian Open (second round). Her US Open preparations continued at the Cincinnati Open where she advanced to the quarterfinals and was defeated by Madison Keys. Her season continued next with an entry to the US Open as the 25th seed; however, she lost in the first round to qualifier Clara Burel.[55]

Rybakina started the season at the Adelaide International 1, defeating Danielle Collins in three sets[56] before losing to Marta Kostyuk in the second round.[57] She followed it by another loss in Adelaide International 2 to Petra Kvitová in straight sets. However, she reached the doubles final with partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. At the Australian Open, Rybakina defeated 2022 finalist Danielle Collins again in the third round,[58] world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the fourth round[59] to become the first Kazakhstani woman to reach the quarterfinals at this Major.[60] Next she defeated former French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko to reach her first Australian Open semifinal.[61] In the semifinals, she defeated former world No. 1 and two-time Australian Open champion, Victoria Azarenka, in straight sets, reaching the second Grand Slam final of her career.[62] However, despite winning the first set, Rybakina ultimately lost in the championship match to Aryna Sabalenka in a high quality encounter.[63] She reached the top 10 on 30 January 2023.[64][65]

In Abu Dhabi she reached the quarterfinals defeating Karolina Plíšková,[66] where she lost to Beatriz Haddad Maia.[67] In Dubai, she reached the third round by beating Bianca Andreescu[68] and Marie Bouzková in straight sets. She withdrew from her third round match against fifth seed Coco Gauff due to a lower-back injury. At Indian Wells, as the tenth seed, she made her second consecutive Indian Wells quarterfinal after defeating Sofia Kenin,[69] 21st seed Paula Badosa[70] and Varvara Gracheva. Then she defeated Karolína Muchová to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal.[71] In the semifinals, she moved past the defending champion Świątek, in straight sets, for the second time in 2023 to reach her first WTA 1000 final.[72] In the final, she edged second seed Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, reversing the result of their matchup in the Australian Open final for her first WTA 1000 title.[73][74] This result pushed her ranking to a new career-high of world No. 7 in the WTA singles rankings.[75]

Following the final in Miami where she lost to 15th seed Petra Kvitová who prevented her from completing the Sunshine Double,[76] and an early second round exit at the Madrid Open to Anna Kalinskaya, she reached a new career-high of world No. 6 on 8 May 2023. She reached the quarterfinals at the Italian Open and moved to a new career high ranking of world No. 5 with a win over Jasmine Paolini, Anna Kalinskaya by retirement and Markéta Vondroušová. Next she defeated world No. 1, Iga Świątek (who retired during the deciding set due to injury) for the third time to reach her first Rome semifinal.[77] Rybakina reached her third WTA 1000 final of the season defeating Jeļena Ostapenko. She became the third player in the Open Era to reach the final in the same season at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami Open plus Rome, after Monica Seles in 1991 and Maria Sharapova in 2012.[78] She won her first WTA 1000 clay title, after Anhelina Kalinina retired in the second set, and moved to a career-high ranking of world No. 4, on 22 May 2023.[79][80] At the 2023 French Open despite her walkover due to respiratory illness in the third round,[81] she reached No. 3 in the world rankings on 12 June 2023.[82] On 26 June 2023, Rybakina announced her withdrawal from the Eastbourne International event with a viral illness.[83]

At Wimbledon as defending champion, Rybakina reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Ons Jabeur in three sets.[84]

Following her quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon, she reached the semifinals at the Canadian Open for the first time in her career. She overcame Jennifer Brady and Sloane Stephens before defeating Daria Kasatkina in a match that lasted 3 hours and 27 minutes, the longest match of Rybakina's career.[85] The match finished at 2:55am local time. In the semifinals Rybakina lost to Liudmila Samsonova in three sets reporting that she felt 'destroyed' physically in the post match press conference because of the scheduling issues she faced during the tournament.[86]

She reached the third round of the US Open as the fourth seed, losing to Sorana Cîrstea in three sets.[87]

Note: Rybakina switched federations from Russian to Kazakhstani in June 2018.