Elena Rybakina avoided becoming the first women’s defending champion to lose her opening match at Wimbledon in almost 30 years by staging a valiant fight back on Tuesday.
Taking to the court to play her first round match against America’s Shelby Rogers, Rybakina bounced back from an early blip to prevail 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, on Center Court. The 24-year-old appeared tentative and nervous early on before utilizing her powerful shot-making to dictate the rallies. She has now won 13 out of her last 14 opening matches at Grand Slam tournaments.
“It was really tough for me today. I was pretty nervous, and I couldn’t even hide it,” Rybakina said during her on-court interview. “The double fault said it all at the beginning for the match. I’m really pleased to get to another round.“
The two players are familiar with each other’s game styles after previously locking horns five times on the Tour. Rogers, who is a former top-40 player, got off to a dream start by instantly breaking the third seed in their latest clash at Wimbledon. The clean hitting of the American towards the baseline troubled Rybakina who struggled to find her range early on. To add to the Kazkh’s frustrations she had an opportunity to break back in the fourth game but failed to do so. After 42 minutes of play, Rogers closed out the opener with a 107 mph ace down the centre of the court.
Heading into the second frame it was the turn of the underdog to falter. A tentative service game from Rogers opened the door for Rybakina to break and revive her chances of avoiding an almighty upset. Rapidly gaining momentum, the 2022 champion stormed to a 4-0 lead before clinching the one-sided set three games later.
In cruise control, Rynakina continued to dictate proceedings towards the closing stages against her rapidly tiring opponent who had tape around her left knee. Breaking two more times, she eased her way to a game from her 11th Wimbledon victory. She closed the match out with a serve out wide that her opponent returned into the net.
“I have experience of last year playing on Centre Court in front of the Royal Box but I was still nervous today,” said Rybakina who was being watched by Roger Federer and the Princess of Wales. “It was an amazing atmosphere and first time I play under the roof. I am really happy and just enjoying the moment here.”
Heading into this year’s tournament Rybakina admitted that she hasn’t been able to prepare as much as she wanted to but had tried her best. During the French Open, she picked up a viral virus that prevented her from playing any form of tennis for a week. She has only played two matches coming into the tournament which was at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany.
“The preparation we did, I would say it was good but still not the amount of hours and work we wanted to put in.” She said during her pre-tournament press conference on Sunday.
“Overall I think we did the maximum that we could. It wasn’t easy after the French Open because for one week I didn’t do anything, then slowly started (playing again). It’s been tough.”
“I still think that it was good preparation.”
Rybakina will play either Alize Cornet or Nao Hibo in the second round.
