Elena Rybakina was not entirely happy with her victory over Paula Badosa at the Brisbane International.
Rybakina won the WTA Finals in her last tournament of 2025, where she finished the season in impressive form.
This showcased the potential that many knew the former Wimbledon champion had, with Rybakina expected to win more Grand Slams by this point in her career.
Rybakina is expected to challenge Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek in 2026, but she was left frustrated by something that happened in her match against Paula Badosa.
Elena Rybakina explains what was going wrong with her serve against Paula Badosa
For many people, Rybakina has the best serve on the WTA Tour and she hit 143 more aces than any other player last year.
However, it was not quite firing how she would have hoped in Rybakina’s 6-3 6-2 victory over Badosa, where she was able to hit just 46% of her first serves in play.
When asked about this in her post-match press conference, Rybakina admitted that it did make her ‘a bit frustrated’ that she was unable to utilise one of her best shots.
“Yeah, of course I was a bit frustrated, because one thing, when the serve is not working for couple of games, but when it’s almost the whole match, it’s not easy to deal with,” said Rybakina.
“I was trying to find my rhythm, but I think only last few games really it got better. So, we’ll try to work on it, hopefully just in my next match I’m going to serve better.”
Elena Rybakina suggests what has changed for her to find form again
Despite not being happy with how she served against Badosa, Rybakina has now won her last 13 consecutive matches on the WTA Tour.
When asked about what has clicked for her in recent months, Rybakina explained that she is feeling more confident and is trying not to focus on the past.
“Definitely end of the season gave more confidence, and I’m not really thinking about the past.” said Rybakina. “I’m trying to focus on each match here.
“We did good pre-season, I could say, and this is something hopefully I can carry on through the whole season, and yeah, just these little things of improvement we’re still working every day. Even if it’s a warm-up of 30 minutes, there is still a lot of things to do.
“So I think slowly with the matches I’m just going to get just more confidence, and I like the conditions here, so it’s a good preparation for Australian Open.”
Rybakina is a former champion at the Brisbane International, and she is now back into the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 tournament.
This is where Rybakina will play former Grand Slam finalist Karolina Muchova, who she has not played since 2023.
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