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Elena Rybakina revealed there were self-doubts after she became a Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon but also noted that the runner-up finish at the Australian Open lifted her self-esteem. Rybakina, 23, wasn't considered among the top favorites for the 2022 Wimbledon title but she put up an outstanding run and ended up winning her first Grand Slam.
“Of course, Wimbledon was a great result but you have these doubts, like, maybe it was just luck, or it was a really good draw or something. So you have kind of these thoughts,” Rybakina told Eurosport. At the start of this season, Rybakina reached the Australian Open final - she beat world No 1 Iga Swiatek en route to making her second Grand Slam final.
In the final, Rybakina was up by a set before Aryna Sabalenka stormed back to win in three sets. “That was a great result. It just gives you more confidence to play other tournaments,” Rybakina said of reaching her second Grand Slam final at the Australian Open.
Rybakina is gradually becoming more popular
Rybakina is described by many as a quiet girl who puts in the hard work and goes about her business. Probably because of that, there wasn't that much of attention on Rybakina after she won Wimbledon.
But now that Rybakina is a two-time Grand Slam finalist and a top-10 player, she feels her popularity is gradually increasing. “Outside I would say I didn’t feel it as much, after that great achievement I didn’t feel like a huge difference.
But when I went back to Kazakhstan, of course, there I felt completely different. I met so many kids, I had so much support. So it was really different, but I felt it only in Kazakhstan. In Melbourne, when I was playing my first match, I saw that way more people came to watch me, even though I wasn’t playing on a big court.
It was really nice and slowly, slowly I was getting it. Maybe not as much as other players because for them it was like a change of one hour straight after the match, so for me, it was kind of slow, and I think it was also good because I had time to prepare myself and know what to expect," Rybakina explained.
