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Elena Rybakina has learned her projected path to winning her second Grand Slam title at the US Open. Rybakina, seeded at No 4, faces a tricky opponent in her US Open opener as she is set to start by playing against Marta Kostyuk.
After Kostyuk, Rybakina's next opponent will likely be two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist Ajla Tomljanovic. The third round could bring Rybakina her first matchup against a seeded player as the Kazakh could meet there 30th-seeded Sorana Cirstea.
In the US Open round-of-16, Rybakina is projected to meet No 15 seed Belinda Bencic. In the US Open quarterfinal, Rybakina's projected opponent is No 8 seed Maria Sakkari, although the Kazakh could also very easily meet 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova.
The US Open semifinal is projected to bring us another showdown between Rybakina and world No 1 Iga Swiatek. If Rybakina reaches the US Open final, she will likely play there against No 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka.
How well is Rybakina feeling physically?
After suffering a Montreal semifinal exit and afterward calling out the WTA, Rybakina also said she felt "destroyed" and that she picked up "some injuries" because of poor scheduling.
Last week, Rybakina was scheduled to compete at a WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati but she pulled out of the event. "Yeah, definitely I feel destroyed just because of the scheduling and the whole situation. I'm not really happy about it, but yeah, it is what it is.
Unfortunately, players cannot do much in these situations. The decision is not really ours. Weather was not helpful," Rybakina said after exiting Montreal. In Montreal, Rybakina said it was "impossible" for her to recover properly after matches.
"Well, we finished at 3. Well, I showered, did some stretching a little bit, went back to the hotel. I think I fell asleep at 5. Yeah, I mean, I woke up at 10, and then it was impossible to sleep. So, yeah, it definitely was not enough time to recover.
The worst thing is that it's not about this tournament. It's going to be not easy to recover for the next two weeks," Rybakina said. It remains to be seen how well physically Rybakina will look at the start of the US Open.