WTA Dubai Open: Elena Rybakina makes it look easy in second round

Elena Rybakina’s tennis is so smooth it gives satin a fair run. The 25-year-old rips aces almost casually and steps in and hits through the court, making it all look effortless.
“It doesn’t come easy at all,” the world No. 7 said. “I’m trying to work on different things on the court. If it looks easy, I’m happy. But definitely it’s not an easy sport. I always play aggressive, today a lot of things went my way.”
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The Kazakh, 6 ft in her tennis shoes, was in and out of the court in 72 minutes, of which 10 minutes were lost to a drizzle. She was through 6-3, 6-2 against the Japanese Moyuka Uchijima in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free tennis championships.
On a rain hit day at the WTA 1000 event, where world No. 4 Jasmine Paolini’s match against German Eva Lys was paused at match point 6-2, 6-5 (30-40) for five hours – before the players returned on court and the Italian closed on the first point – Rybakina’s play provided the sunshine. She had seven aces and won 26 of 32 points on her first serve.
It might be because the 23-year-old Japanese’ play matched well with Rybakina, who was meeting
the ball in her comfort zone and striking freely. The small crowd in attendance on an outside court recognised they were watching a special talent and got behind the Kazakh, who looked a cut above, even in tricky conditions.
Next up for Rybakina, in the roundof-16 is Spain’s Paula Badosa, the other player to dodge the rain on the day. Badosa, back in the top-10, leads the headto-head 4-3, but the Moscow-born Rybakina has won their last two meetings.
Rybakina, cheered on by her new coach Davide Sanguinetti, whose calls of ‘come on Elena, let’s go’ was a constant during the hour-long affair, didn’t need any encouragement.
Rybakina, caught in a crossfire with the WTA, who investigated and suspended her coach Stefano Vukov and suspended the 37-year-old Croat for a year for the abusive nature of his conduct.
“It’s not easy of course,” Rybakina said of her situation. “(I’m) very disappointed (with) the way it’s been handled, just the outcome. But anyway, I need to focus on my tournament. It’s what I’m trying to do. Hopefully I can just keep on playing, keep on winning.”
Rybakina, who maintains she hasn’t been mistreated by Vukov, despite new information emerging in The Athletic which noted that Vukov’s behaviour prompted the Wimbledon champion’s inner circle to approach the WTA as they feared for the safety of the player.
While the top players – world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula – have refused to comment on Rybakina’s situation out of respect for the player, the Kazakh said no one
had offered support.
“I don’t need support,” Rybakina said. “There are a couple of players (with whom) I’m in touch with more, but to say that I have very, very close friends on Tour is not true just because we are competing against each other. Everybody’s surrounded by their teams.”
Asked what she does in her downtime, especially here in Dubai where she bought an apartment two years ago, Rybakina said she enjoys going to the beach and indulging herself in the shops.