"I was of course tired, and there is some things which in the body start hurting" - Elena Rybakina confirms reasons on why she skipped BJK Cup qualifier

The number one seed Elena Rybakina has begun her Stuttgart Open in fine form. She showed a statement of intent after taking down Diana Shnaider 6-3, 6-4 to cement her spot in the quarterfinals. She comes into this tournament fit and fresh after taking some time off away from the court, choosing not to compete for Kazakhstan in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifier as she shared her reasoning behind it.

There were just two breaks in the entire match, both going the way of the Kazakh who stamped her authority on the match, keeping control with her imperious serve not offering her opponent a single opportunity to break. Rybakina won an astonishing 91% of her first serve points which made her very hard to deal with. The two break would be enough for her to see out both sets to complete a fine victory over a tricky opponent.

Rybakina was satisfied about her showing on court. "Really happy that I won the match, of course," she told reporters. "The serve was working pretty well. Still, there is couple of things to improve, but overall, for the first match here, first match on clay, first match against Diana, is good."

Shnaider, being a left-handed player, offers a different challenge on the court. "I think I started pretty well. Of course on the return, it's a bit challenging. I would say not only because she's lefty, just these courts, they are particular, and also I needed time to get used a little bit to the light and just surrounding of the court. But definitely we don't have so many lefties, so it's always a bit tricky."

The lefties continue to come her way. Leylah Fernandez is her next challenge on court after the Canadian has finally found a little bit of form with a tight three-set win over Zeynep Sonmez. "Leylah, we played before, and I think all of the matches were on the hard court, and it's always been tough matches," she commented. "She's, yeah, lefty, which if she wins, it's good for me that I played today against Diana. It was kind of a practice. She's trying to play fast, take time on the baseline from you. Yeah, it's gonna be difficult one. Will need to focus a lot on the return, on my serve, as well."

Before the match, she wanted to get in some preparation for playing a lefty. She opted to do this by finding a left-handed player to practice with. She chose American Desirae Krawczyk and asked her whether she wanted to have a session on court. "Yes, I asked her, and she was very nice to hit with me, because as I said, it's not easy to find lefties. Also, I think all the lefties, they are in the top of the draw."

She explained how these sorts of arrangements come around. "It happened before, also. It's okay. Sometimes you just ask if they want to hit, warm up these 30 minutes. Des, she was really nice, so really thanks to her."

Right after the Sunshine swing, the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers were the next thing on many players minds. Rybakina played at this stage last year as she helped Kazakhstan get through to the finals. However, this year she has opted against competing for her country.

The world number two has played a lot of tennis in recent times. Following from her Australian Open triumph, she has played in four WTA 1000 events in the Middle East and the USA. She would go on a deep run at both Indian Wells and the Miami Open. With the clay swing fast approaching, Rybakina was desperate for a chance to rest and reset, leaving her teammates to tackle Canada by themselves in Astana. Fortunately, they managed to seal a big win to confirm their spots in the finals.

"Well, last time I played with the team in Australia, actually," she said. "We went after Miami. Yeah, after one week we went to Australia, so it was a difficult trip for all of us. This time, since I played Indian Wells till the end and also Miami was a long tournament, I needed some time to rest, to prepare my body for this clay court season."

She chose to preserve her body over risking it on court, explaining her decision to her teammates and the Federation as she shared her praise for the brilliant win. "I was of course tired, and there is some things which in the body start hurting, so you need to really take care. I discussed with the team, with the Federation, and we decided at this time I'm not going to go to play, but I'm glad that the girls won, and I'm happy that also younger girls were in the court, and they all played really well."