NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 3, 2026

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started. Elena, welcome back to Canada. Just how have your preparations been coming into the hard court swing, and just your thoughts on playing in Toronto.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, really nice to be back. I was here a long time ago in Toronto, so, yeah, really happy. Practices are going well, so, yeah, excited to start.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Curious if there was any difference for you winning a second slam this year in Australia compared to the first at Wimbledon, and having won a major already, did that change how you experienced the victory this year in Australia?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Definitely it was different. Much more experience I got throughout the years, of course, knowing what actually might happen after you win, after you lose, and what to expect it's kind of easier mentally. But of course you are nervous, you want to win the title.

I would say it was different, but still an amazing achievement, and I'm happy that I finally managed to win it, because I played final before, so it was nice.

Q. Hard court's obviously a strength for you, you did well in Indian Wells and Miami as well this year. How would you assess your clay and grass court seasons, and then how does it feel to be back on the hard courts now?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, clay and grass didn't go the way I wanted. We'd been practicing well, but on the matches I couldn't show much.

I'm looking forward to this hard court season, and hopefully it's going to be much better than clay and grass.

Q. You teamed up with Taylor Fritz again earlier this year at Indian Wells and you guys won the Eisenhower Cup for the second time, I believe. What's kind of made you guys such a good mixed doubles combo, because you guys have had some pretty good success so far?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, it's always fun to play with Taylor. He has big serve, big shots, and I also play aggressive. It's nice, especially with the guys, you know, that they serve well, they can return, and basically everything is kind of on them, and you just enjoy and try to help as much as you can.

Q. With the tennis season being so long and going basically 11 months of the year, what do you do with the time off that you have after Wimbledon and before you come over to North America to get away from tennis a little bit? What are some of the things that you do for fun to escape the day-to-day grind?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, it was nice to have some time off. I actually spent like five days on the beach just relaxing, not doing much. Then I went back to my base and started slowly preparation, but five, six days I definitely enjoyed.

I also stayed for few days in London after I lost, so, yeah, it's been a good time, and hopefully a good preparation for this hard court season.

Q. Last year it was the first time they had the US Open mixed doubles, the whole new format. Curious, what did you like about it last year, and what do you think can be maybe improved to make it even better?

ELENA RYBAKINA: It was a really nice event. I feel like we came kind of late from Cincinnati, it was a bit rushed everything. Also, tough opponents, they won in the end.

Overall, I think it's a cool format, it's nice for the fans. I wouldn't change much. I think it's great. Especially that you can play some matches, even if it's a mixed event before actually the tournament starts.