MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 28, 2023

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

E. RYBAKINA/M. Trevisan

6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Elena, talk us through the match and how happy you are to keep the good form continuing after your title at Indian Wells.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, very happy to be in the semis. Tough matches here. Today was also not an easy match, but I played better in the second set, so I'm happy with that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You talked a little bit about dealing with the fatigue and had to turn around from yesterday to play another round. How did you prepare and how are you feeling physically now?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Good sleep, good food, the maximum I can get, and some treatment. Just tried to push a little bit more in the first set, and after I got the rhythm so it was a bit better. But still, of course, I feel that I'm not the freshest.

Would be better to feel better on the courts physically, but this is something I have to play with, and for now getting through, which I'm happy with.

Q. You're averaging double the amount of aces per match here than you were at Indian Wells. Do you attribute that to the surface, or do you feel like you are going more for the serve to keep points shorter?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I'm trying to go more, but I think here it's after the bounce the ball is a bit faster. That's why I can get maybe more free points. But still, I would say that it's kind of returnable, but yeah, a bit faster than in Indian Wells, yeah.

Q. Have you changed anything in your conditioning moving from California to here in Florida and dealing with the heat and dealing with some of the things that you have to deal with in Miami?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, well, we couldn't change much or prepare differently. I just had to play since I arrived and had only two days.

I would say that of course maybe I'm moving not as good as I was moving in Indian Wells, but overall I think that I'm trying to keep that level from Indian Wells. There is a lot of ups-and-downs, but I think overall it's not bad.

Q. Given your tiredness and maybe not feeling the best physically and the turnaround, are you surprised to be in the semifinals of Miami?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I won't say that I'm surprised. I knew that if I'm gonna keep working, keep fighting, it's possible, but I was just trying to focus match at a time, and first matches was very difficult three sets.

So I was not thinking about how far I can get. Just match by match, really.

Q. Looking forward, either playing Pegula or Potapova, can you just talk about the challenges of both? If you do play Jessie, in particular, what is the challenge of playing her when both of your kind of offensive games go against each other?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, we played against Jessica. It was tough matches. For sure it's gonna be tough one if we play, and she's really good player, very consistent, I will say.

Yeah, I will try just to do my best to try to be fresh somehow to that match. I have one more day. So, yeah, try to recover because it's gonna be fight.

Either it's gonna be Potapova, I think she's also playing really good tennis now, so very dangerous player, so yeah, I just try to prepare no matter who it's gonna be.

Q. I think maybe being consistent is one of the most difficult things in the current WTA Tour. Even Iga is struggling a little bit this year. You are the most consistent player in this year. Is there any reason for being this consistent? You have trained very physically strong offseason? Or is anything you find the reason?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, for sure, we did really good preseason, and maybe the start of the year was not as good as I expected, because after usually good preseason the other years I was playing really well first tournaments, but this time it's opposite, and I actually happy that my best form came to Australian Open and I played really well there.

Now we just trying to keep this level with some blocks of preparation if we have time. Yeah, for now it's going this way, but we don't know how it's gonna be after.

Iga, she did really well last year, but even this year I think she's playing really well. Just unlucky with injury.

Yeah, hopefully I can continue like this, but for sure it's gonna come the day when I'm gonna lose. Doesn't really change much.

Q. I saw some reports about how you made some big donations for some junior girls in Kazakhstan. Can you talk about why that is so important for you and how you chose those girls specifically?

ELENA RYBAKINA: We talked with the Federation actually earlier. It just happen now recently because I was traveling a lot and it's not easy. But we talked with the Federation since I don't know the girls that well since I'm traveling all the time.

So we talked. We decided that for now it's gonna be this 10 girls, 12 girls, I don't remember exactly, but it was just big help for me when I started professional, from the Federation, so I was thinking that there is going to be good way kind of to thank back. Also, I think it's important for the young girls to have some kind of support since it's not easy for everyone.

Yeah, hopefully they are gonna be soon around.

Q. On the topic of consistency, I think that at Indian Wells and Australia you said that when you had these training blocks before these big events or these big swings, that was when you played your best because you were freshest, but obviously being able to make a semifinal in Miami given maybe you don't feel as fresh, what does that tell you about your consistency at the moment? Does it teach you anything about how to kind of be consistent, given how you have been able to get this result in Miami?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, for sure. It's not only physically but also kind of like experience, because even being not fresh, you still need to push yourself to find these moments in the match where it can turn around, which is not easy to always to do, but I think for now I'm managing.

Even today I didn't serve that well, the percentage of the first serve, but in these important moments like 30-All, 30-40 or something like this, I was serving ace.

So I think it's just important to find these moments and to push, and for now is doing well even being not super fresh.

Q. The subject about giving donation to Federation and being supported by Federation, so based on your experience, what do you think is the biggest benefit for being supported by Federation? I mean, the opportunity to go abroad or having good facilities or like coaches? What do you think is the most important thing to make junior good players?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I think for sure you need to have a base, which for now I would say that in Kazakhstan we are lucky because we have very good facilities, but also, it's not easy, you need someone to travel with. So I think the coach is very important this age.

Yeah, just, I mean, it's quite expensive, everything, even traveling, I would say. There is many things where you need the support. Yeah, I think it's just, I would say, maybe to find the right person at this age would be the most important.

Q. Obviously the big topic is the so-called Sunshine Double. Having already won Indian Wells and now within reach of the Sunshine Double, do you think about that at all? With this run of wins that you have had, does that add pressure or does it in one sense also make you feel confident?

ELENA RYBAKINA: For sure I don't have any pressure. I know that it's very difficult and not many players did. Plus I was match point down the other match, so I really don't think so far in the draw.

I just need to focus match by match, and I have tough opponent. So I think that it doesn't really matter. Of course it would be amazing to achieve something like that, but it's still far away.