Elena Rybakina continues to face the same issues after losing to Victoria Mboko in the Canadian Open semifinals.
Rybakina is a former Wimbledon champion, having won the grass court major back in 2022.
Despite still having success on the WTA Tour, Rybakina has been unable to win a Grand Slam title again.
The world number 12 now appears to be further away from major success than she has in years, with Rybakina losing her latest match to a physically hampered Mboko.
Elena Rybakina continues to lose big matches from winning positions
Rybakina was up a break on Mboko in the third set of her Canadian Open semifinal, and actually had a match point.
However, she was unable to convert this match point and instead Rybakina lost to Mboko in a deciding set tie-break.
This is far from a one-off for Rybakina in 2025, and is actually starting to become a recurring thing for her in important matches.
According to the live standings in the race to the WTA Finals this year, Rybakina has been the eighth best player in 2025.
However, of those eight players, Rybakina is the only player to have won just one title that is not above WTA 500 level.
Rybakina has regularly been going deep in tournaments, but has suffered some big losses from winning positions.
This includes the Canadian Open semifinal, and Rybakina’s loss to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros where she was a set and a break up.
Rybakina’s coach wants to take her to world number one, but she needs to drastically change something soon if she wants that to happen.
Everyone knows that Rybakina can beat anyone at her peak level, but she needs to find a way to maintain her form in the moments that matter most at the end of matches.
Can Elena Rybakina change her fortune at the Cincinnati Open?
The next opportunity Rybakina will get to change her fortunes is at the Cincinnati Open, but her previous results at the WTA 1000 tournament suggest that could be unlikely.
After reaching the semifinals in Montreal, the Cincinnati Open has officially become Rybakina’s worst-performing WTA 1000 tournament that is still on the calendar.
Rybakina’s best result in Cincinnati came in 2022 when she reached the quarterfinals, but she has only won four matches in her four other appearances at the tournament combined.
If the Kazakhstani wants to achieve her best result at the Cincinnati Open this year, she may have to overcome both Australian Open champion Madison Keys and world number one Aryna Sabalenka in back-to-back matches.
| Cincinnati Open 2025 | Elena Rybakina’s Potential Draw |
| First Round | Receives a bye as the ninth seed |
| Second Round | Yulia Putintseva/Renata Zarazua |
| Third Round | Elise Mertens (19)/Hailey Baptiste/Clervie Ngounoue |
| Fourth Round | Madison Keys (6)/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27)/Elena-Gabriela Ruse/Eva Lys |
| Quarterfinal | Aryna Sabalenka (1)/Liudmila Samsonova (13)/Leylah Fernandez (21)/Emma Raducanu (30) |
| Semifinal | Iga Swiatek (3)/Amanda Anisimova (5)/Ekaterina Alexandrova (12)/Diana Shnaider (14) |
| Final | Coco Gauff (2)/Jessica Pegula (4)/Jasmine Paolini (7)/Emma Navarro (8) |
Rybakina has an automatic bye to the second round of the Cincinnati Open, and will next compete on Saturday, August 9.
That is where she will play either her compatriot Yulia Putintseva or Renata Zarazua.
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