"It wasn’t very pleasant": Elena Rybakina opens up about role of hostile crowd in Canadian Open semifinal defeat to Victoria Mboko

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina is going through a rough patch. The 26-year-old recently featured in the ongoing Canadian Open, where her journey ended with a heartbreaking defeat in the semifinal against young sensation Victoria Mboko with a score of 1-6, 7-5, 7-6.

The defeat was an extension of what Rybakina has gone through recently. On Thursday in Montreal, Rybakina won the first set comprehensively, but her performance dipped in the second set. In the third set, Rybakina was serving for the match after being 5-4 and was leading 40-30. However, Mboko had other ideas as she not only broke Rybakina’s serve but eventually took the set and the match.

Talking after the match, Rybakina highlighted one reason which played a key role in the outcome of the match, which was the crowd’s hostility. Rybakina also highlighted that it was not the first time she was playing against a player who had enormous support from the crowd but said that it was ‘difficult’ from the beginning. "Yes, it wasn’t very pleasant, of course,” she said. “I’ve played in many situations where the crowd supported the other player, but I’d say here it was tough from the beginning. I already felt it from the first game we played, and especially when it's in between the serves. It is what it is. This is something I was kind of expecting, and definitely it didn't depend anyhow on my serve or in the mistakes I did or wrong choices. It was obvious that the crowd is going to cheer for their player”

Something similar happened about 10 days back in the semifinal of the DC Open, where Rybakina failed to convert the match points and eventually lost to another Canadian player, Leylah Fernandez, with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 7-6. Talking about it, Rybakina stated that even though the result was a difficult one for her but she is happy with how her week went. “Yeah, it was tough match,” she said. “But overall I think successful week for me. Slowly getting better on the court, so yeah.”

Rybakina then went on to praise Mboko and highlighted how the youngster was so impressive, especially during critical moments with her serve. “Well, of course, I knew that she's tough opponent,” she said. “It's very often when some players, they need just time to get back to get used to the shots also of mine. I felt like when first set was close in each game, so I didn't start well from the beginning, and there, of course, where things changed around. I think that she served really well in these important moments. The first serve was going very... For my side I think in these important moments I was going with the second, which of course, not giving me confidence in the rallies since I'm the one who likes to dictate. Of course, this is where I was a little bit down. Overall I think it was very close match, like big fight. So it could go any way, but went hers. I think she played also really well.”

Rybakina’s next assignment will be the upcoming Cincinnati Open, where she will start her campaign in the round of 64. Her first opponent will be the winner of the match between Renata Zarazua and Yulia Putintseva. Talking about it, Rybakina stated that she is looking forward to a new challenge and is eager to forget about the result.

“I mean, there is no big changes from one week to another, but definitely it's different conditions here and different round we play,” she said. “It's not beginning of the tournament. So, of course, everybody gets kind of confidence throughout the tournament, and I think she played well. Even in Washington it was a tough match. No matter the score, it was a lot of games, again, where it was very close. Just today it was for her.”