US OPEN

August 29, 2026

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Welcome back to New York. Obviously the last time we saw you on court was Cincinnati where you had the unfortunate injury. Wondering how you're feeling physically heading into this tournament?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, no, I started to practice, so I feel well. We're still making some adjustments. But overall, I'm happy how we dealed with the problem. Yeah, we worked hard and likely it's all good right now, and it's just matter of couple more practices, and then, yeah, going on the match.

Q. New York during US Open is so busy and chaotic, and there's so much going on off the grounds, on the grounds. You have practices with tons of people. How do you balance as an athlete dealing with all the obligations of sponsors but then focusing on your tennis for a Grand Slam, which is a really important competition for you?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, in the beginning of the week, I was not here on-site, so I kind of had more time doing some different things, but I have to say that I have very good sponsors and team around me that we are making good scheduling and I'm not getting too, too tired.

Of course the priority is always the recovery, the training process. So with these kind of things, I have no issues.

Yeah, and as I said, this time around, I had a little bit more time off the court, so I could manage it even better.

Q. We have been talking about your possibility of being No. 1, but how much do you know? Is that your concern or do you calculate the points or something?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I don't check the ranking exactly the point situation, but from media mostly I know where I should get, how the others should play. It's all the different scenarios.

But for me, especially now when I had this injury last week, I feel like the most important just try to stay healthy, play match at a time, because this is not the last tournament of the year. Of course it's a Grand Slam, and you want to do well. But you have plenty of opportunities after if you're healthy and you keep on playing.

Yeah, I'm trying not to think about it at all, and just play match at a time.

Q. You mentioned that you're starting to feel good, you've been practicing. What has been the process since your injury?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I didn't play for exact week, and we consulted with different doctors. I have been doing the recovery. Yeah, slowly started to go on the court. Yeah, just a lot of gym.

It wasn't easy, because we didn't know exactly how the foot is gonna react, since it was very painful for me to go and serve on that match in Cincinnati, because I wanted to try once more. Then for couple of days, it was painful to even walk.

Yeah, after we managed to do everything possible for it to get better, and I'm glad how the process is going for now.

Q. What questions do you have in your mind as you progress from practices to matches?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I don't actually have any questions. I'm quite confident with the decision we are making each day how to practice, what to do, and especially what can happen worst-case scenario.

So all these things I feel quite confident. It's just also to start feeling better on the court moving-wise, and since I didn't play for almost -- not almost, the whole week. Yeah, that kind of things.

But yeah, I just feel like it's just few more days and I should be very fine (smiling).

Q. To that point, when you are dealing with that kind of pain so close to a slam, how much does experience play involved, knowing that you can recover from these things, but also knowing that you have kind of a strict deadline?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I didn't know how it's gonna be going, to be honest. Since in the moment it happened, it was very painful. As I said, I couldn't even walk for the next few days without pain.

So of course I was already upset and no one knew how it's gonna go, so we were just waiting day by day. And being here today in this situation, it's really an amazing improvement and no unexpected.

We will see what's gonna happen in the next few days, but for now it's been well. As I said, I always want to go on court when I'm 100% sure, and it's the last slam of the year, so I think everyone will want to try, yeah, try to compete.

Q. All the Grand Slams are special, of course, but what is it about the US Open you look forward to the most or that stands out the most?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I feel the crowd here is quite different from other places. It's very loud, and it's really a lot of people.

So I feel just the atmosphere itself, it's more, not chaotic, but it's really a lot compared to other slams.

Q. Speaking of the injuries, recently many top players have been talking about that injuries and tough schedule, the consequences of the schedule and the injuries. So recently, the WTA change the schedule of, like, many big tournaments. Like, Cincinnati became almost two weeks and all these big Masters tournaments get longer. So how do you think that kind of schedule affect your body situation?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, but as you see, on my, let's say past now for the couple of last tournaments and maybe some other players, yes, the tournaments became longer, but at the same time, first week you basically play maybe two, three matches, maybe two, and then the next week where actually it's getting, supposed to get harder of course with tougher opponents, you play every day, and especially a lot of tournaments want to put matches maybe in the evening, so you don't really have that much time to recover.

Even like Cincinnati being a little bit longer, I had to, not only me, of course we had to come and play straightaway in Cincinnati. They gave us extra day which basically we shouldn't be having, but we had extra day. Then we played again two matches in a row.

So for me, that's the toughest thing for the recovery. It's not even amount of hours you stay on the court. It's just all these changes, travel, and then, yeah, it's becoming longer, but the same time, you're still playing a lot in a row, and especially these late matches.