Rybakina finally sees benefits of improved ranking but set for tough draw in second round at Abu Dhabi Open

Elena Rybakina finished the 2022 season outside the top-20 despite winning Wimbledon, a tournament that did not distribute points last Year.

After the Australian Open, February brings the Middle East tournaments that have various points in contention. The run to the final who reached Rybakina in Melbourne, gave him 1,200 points and reached the top-10 for the first time in his career. Although the Kazakh won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon last year, the ban on Russian and Belarusian players led to the determination of the ATP and WTA that the tournament wouldn't distribute points.

Her new place in the ranking will allow Rybakina to enter as a seed, and in the case of the WTA Abu Dhabi Open, she will have the first round bye as she is the third seed. Despite this, in the second round she will have to face the winner of the duel between two former world No. 1: Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova.

The tournament has a competitive draw, with the Russian Daria Kasatkina and the former Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic as the best classified. The other player who will have the first round bye will be the 4th seed Veronika Kudermetova.

Other big names that will be in the draw are Paula Badosa and Anett Kontaveit (both former world No.2). Also playing in the first round are Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko, and the winner could face Chinese 20-year-old Qinwen Zheng.