"I feel like it’s more of a job" - Rybakina quietly confident ahead of Australian Open victory as she looks to continue imperious form

The wait for a second Grand Slam title finally ended in the most recent Australian Open for Elena Rybakina, who backed up her 2022 Wimbledon title with a stunning run in Melbourne. She unveiled a confidence that she possessed enroute to the major triumph as she looks towards the next task.

She goes into the Qatar Open as one of the favourites to take home the first WTA 1000 title of the year. The Kazakh is currently enjoying an unbelievable purple patch. After just qualifying for the 2025 WTA Finals, Rybakina went on to produce an outstanding level to win the title against world number one Aryna Sabalenka before reproducing the goods at Melbourne Park, extracting revenge from the 2023 final defeat.

“I kind of knew the road,” Rybakina stated ahead of the Qatar Open. “But every day is different. There’s new expectations and new approach, as each match as a little bit different.”

Her first major title did not extract the same feeling out of Rybakina than the recent Australian Open. The caveat that Russian and Belarusian players were banned from the event meant that ranking points would not be added to the overall tallies. This would be costly for Rybakina, who the 2000 points she should have taken home never got delivered.

It would prove to be a huge blow for her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals, with her not being able to rack up the points needed to sneak into the top eight.

“I feel like actually I'm not the Wimbledon champion,” she said at the 2022 US Open. “I didn't get this feeling to be No. 2 or actually achieve, because it's still different treatment when you are Top 10 or Top 20. Even with the win of Wimbledon, it's kind of different feeling.”

The ranking points from the Australian Open triumph has been added to her tally. Now back up to a joint career-high world number three, she has eyes on breaking into the top two for the first time if she can gain enough points on Iga Swiatek in front.

This is a huge contrast to a few years ago, showing how far she has come in the sport. “At Wimbledon, it was really not expected. I think I wasn’t really prepared that well,” she noted. “It was a lot of emotions, different ones, in Australia. I feel like it’s more of a job. I try to really prepare for each match differently. If I have time, we celebrate, but if we don’t, there’s a lot of tournaments ahead.”

“It’s a big advantage,” Rybakina admitted as she tops the Race to Riyadh rankings. She sits on 2118 points, putting her in a very commanding position to give her a chance of defending her WTA Finals title at the end of the year.

There is still a long way to go before this tournament, however, and Rybakina will continue to focus on the task at hand, not wanting to let her foot off the gas.

“We’ll see how I’m going to feel here and how the matches will go,” Rybakina said. “It’s good practice no matter what. We’ll still try to work on some things with the team. I don’t put too much pressure or expectations, that’s for sure. But I definitely want to do well and we’ll see how it’s going to go day by day.”

The number two seed will receive a bye through the first round and will await the winner of Xinyu Wang or Emiliana Arango in the second round as she looks for a third WTA 1000 title, and first since the 2023 Italian Open.