THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 4, 2026

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

E. MERTENS/E. Rybakina

7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Elena, not the result you wanted today. If you could just sum up the match today.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, not the result I wanted today. Definitely not happy.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Tough loss today. In hindsight, when you look back at the match, what do you think you could have done differently to affect the outcome of the match and potentially get the win instead?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I got pretty many opportunities in the first set to break. I lost my serve very easily with too many double faults overall for the match, and also percentage of the serve. And yeah, the first serve was not really working for me today.

I feel like the energy could have been better. So yeah, a lot of things which I'm not happy with.

Q. I was going to ask about your serve. As you said, the percentage was really low and you had unforced errors from the baseline. Were you feeling okay? Was there any physical issue?

ELENA RYBAKINA: No, I don't have any physical issues.

Q. Obviously you made an incredible start to this year, and then the last six weeks or so have been less good. Do you know why that is? Have you worked it out yet?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, if I knew why, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. As soon as it happened a couple weeks ago when I was not playing my best, honestly, I don't know. I have been working well, I think, in the past weeks. I was getting a lot of opportunities since I was losing early in the tournaments.

Yeah, definitely I need to analyze and change something, because it's not working.

Q. Looking ahead, are you more optimistic about the hard-court swing and the change of surfaces?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, now it's going to be at least for a longer period of time same surface, and it's kind of one of the last pushes of the year. It's not many tournaments left.

First, I'm looking forward to change a little bit the scenario and just rest, because before I will take off, but I will still do some things. Now I completely take off a couple days and will not think about tennis.

For this, I have also some time now, and then try to prepare again.

Q. Elise said after the first set that the tiebreak gave her some confidence. Did it do the opposite effect for you? Did you feel a bit intimidated maybe?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Of course, if you win the first set, of course you feel more free to play in the second. It was quite close first set. I couldn't raise the level. And actually, I dropped with these again double faults.

On the tiebreak it wasn't easy, so I basically almost gave this set. Of course after, it's more difficult for me to come back then when you lose in first set.

Q. There have been quite a few upsets so far this tournament with Struff, Eala, Safiullin, Mochizuki, Hurkacz and now Mertens as well. Do you think this is a testament to how close the pack is in the rankings with quality being higher than ever?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Actually, I don't know, because I was not really following the other results. I'm not that sure that the level is quite high right now. So yeah, it's tough for me to judge, but I would say the level is not higher than it was before.

Q. Some losses hurt more than others. Is it one that's going to take you some time to digest or is it more just to move on?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I just try to move on. I mean, I lost so many times. I'm sure I'm still going to keep losing. It's impossible to win everything.

I'm of course upset, but it's not going to take more than one, two days.