Elena Rybakina as teenager: "I was traveling alone" to tournaments at 15

The World No. 5 made a major breakthrough in the tennis world when she won Wimbledon in 2022, defeating Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Since then, she has reached a career-high ranking of World No. 3. She also achieved two WTA 1000 titles in 2023 at the Indian Wells and Italian Open.
Interestingly, Rybakina did not receive individual training being a teenager until she was a junior, instead practicing in a group of eight until 15 and a group of four until she was 18. The 24-year-old was born in Moscow in 1999 but switched federations to represent Kazakhstan in 2018.

In a recent appearance on the Mind Set Win podcast, Rybakina reflected on her teenager days of her career. She opened up on how she used to travel alone to tournaments without her parents or a coach.

"I was traveling a lot alone when I was younger. Usually when you come to a junior event or some other events when you're like 15 or 16, you're traveling with a coach or your parents.. I was traveling alone," she said.

However, the Kazakhstani No. 1 added that she took a lot of positives from these experiences. Rybakina claims they made her more "disciplined." "You have your friends, but they're with their coaches or parents. So I don't know. I think this actually helped me to be disciplined," she continued.

Most recently, Rybakina competed at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing. Here she only dropped one set as she moved past Qinwen Zheng, Tatjana Maria, Mirra Andreeva. She also beat top seed Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the semi-finals. Once there, she lost to Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets.