QATAR TOTAL ENERGIES OPEN

February 8, 2026

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back, Elena. An amazing start to the year. How are you feeling to be back in Doha?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, really happy to be back and looking forward to playing.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. How tricky was it to come back here with training, and did you have any time to relax and celebrate?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, of course we tried to celebrate after the match a little bit with the team. Of course it's been not much time since Australian Open, but I had some time to rest. Yeah, I think it's good for me to start here, to still try to keep the momentum, and hopefully I can play well here.

Q. You talked about it there, about making a quick transition after a long tournament to now. How do you immediately shift gears, especially coming off a big victory like you had last week?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, it was a long tournament in Australia, a lot of matches, and of course a lot of emotions after. But I think we get used to this kind of schedule. We are from one tournament to go to play almost straight away another one, so of course, it's a bit tricky.

On the way home I had a cold, so I had to really rest a couple days and didn't do much. But now I think, as I said, it's a good momentum to try to keep going. Hopefully this week is going to be as good in Australia, but if not we have so many tournaments ahead, and there are big ones, so we'll try to work on things, and, yeah, get good results.

Q. How did you celebrate the title?

ELENA RYBAKINA: We celebrate with the team when we went back to the hotel a little bit. Actually, then next day we had to do a lot of things. So I suppose to celebrate we did a little bit at home in Dubai. But as I said, I got a cold, so I had to really stay at home and not do much. I had to unpack my bags and the time flew like this, so I'm here (laughing).

Q. I remember when you won Wimbledon a few years ago it was a very unique situation with the ranking points and everything. Curious, now winning this slam, does the experience feel different, better, as it compares to the last one?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Of course it is different, because at Wimbledon it was, first of all, really not expected. I think I wasn't really prepared that way also, but in the end everything turned out great for me.

Of course it was a lot of emotions, different ones. In Australia I came also to the final a couple years ago, so I kind of knew the road. Of course, every day is different, new expectations and probably approach to each match is a little bit different.

So, yeah, it was different, but at the same time I feel like it's more of a job. I try to really prepare for each match differently. Of course, if we have time, we celebrate. But then again you know that there is still a lot of tournaments ahead. And another plus of all these early wins, of course, to be qualified, I'm more or less, but I think it's still already a big advantage to the final eight. It's not the same as it was last year.

Q. You spoke about the long tournament in Australia. They spoke about possibly changing it to best-of-five next year. How do you feel about that?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I would like to stick to three sets. Five, I think it's quite a lot. I'm not sure that the quality of the matches would be as good. But again, I don't know how much players will have a voice on who is going to decide all this, but I think it's quite difficult.

Q. Obviously you had success at this tournament in the past, but given how busy everything was with the Australian Open and having a cold, was there a part of you that considered maybe taking some extra time off, or was that never a question?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I think I had good momentum, and knowing coming here we can still work on some things. I think the matches is the best practices also at the end of the day. So we'll see how I'm going to feel here and how the matches will go. But again, it's a good practice, no matter what. We still try to work on some things with the team. So, yeah, I don't put too much pressure or expectations, that's for sure. I definitely want to do well, and we'll just see how it's going to go day by day.

Q. Was there a particular thing that really switched in your mindset after the WTA finals and before the Australian Open that turned that into a success?

ELENA RYBAKINA: For Wimbledon to?

Q. No, from the WTA finals to the Australian Open.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, yeah, the season last year at the beginning was not as good as this year or the previous seasons I had. It was a lot of changes, and of course through all the changes you need time to adapt, to get used to also new people, and so on and so forth. We had different preparation last season.

For this one we did things which worked well before. I think I played really well in China also to get a little bit of confidence, and then the whole momentum went to the WTA finals. So definitely winning gives you confidence.

After pre-season it was still a lot of time pass, so I was not really thinking much about the win in the finals. I just knew that everything is possible, and that was the proof also that even with a little time we can still practice well and do some adjustments, and things worked out for me really well. Of course I tried to carry good momentum for the finals to this new season. But it was different preparation, different conditions, and I was taking matches one at a time, while also talking to the team to see what we can do better each day.