Snatching defeat from jaws of victory: Elena Rybakina's unwanted streak continues after suffering another heartbreaking loss

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina was once regarded as one of the best players in the world. Not so long ago, she finished 2023 as the world number four and went as high as third in the WTA rankings. The last 18 months, however, have changed a lot of things for Rybakina. She first had to part ways with her coach Stefano Vukov after reports claimed that his behaviour towards the player was not good.

Rybakina then hired former Wimbledon winner and Novak Djokovic's coach, Goran Ivanisevic. Still, he decided to leave the post just months later, as it was reported that Rybakina was in a relationship with her previous coach, Vukov. That development shocked the tennis world, and several former players and coaches raised concerns about the well-being of Rybakina as well.

Earlier this year, WTA announced the ban of Vukov after an investigation confirmed his bad behaviour towards the player. The 37-year-old denied doing anything wrong, and Rybakina also confirmed that she was never treated in the wrong way, but WTA went ahead with the suspension after completing their own investigation. Following this process, the suspension remains in place,” read the statement. "To protect the confidentiality and integrity of the investigation and its findings, the WTA will not provide further details. We remain committed to ensuring that all matters are handled in a fair and objective manner in accordance with the WTA Code of Conduct."

All those developments had a negative impact on Rybakina’s on-court performances as well. Rybakina recently featured in the DC Open, where her journey came to an end in the semifinals after losing to Canada’s Leylah Fernandez with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 on Saturday. At one stage, Rybakina was just one game away from cementing her spot in the final of the competition, but she failed to close the game and eventually ended on the losing side. It was Rybakina’s 13th defeat in 44 matches in 2025.

The most concerning aspect of Rybakina’s performance against Fernandez was that it was not the first time she had lost from a winning position this year. At the French Open earlier this year, in the round of 16 contest against then defending champion Iga Swiatek, Rybakina won the first set with a score of 6-1 and was leading in the second (2-0) as well. However, she failed to capitalise on that and lost the contest with a score of 1-6, 6-3, 7-5. Then, in the quarterfinal of the Berlin Open, Rybakina failed to capitalise on four match points against the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, and lost the match by losing six consecutive points in the third-set tiebreak.

Those performances reveal why Rybakina made some eye-opening comments earlier in the year, where she admitted that she was struggling to trust herself. She appeared in an episode of the Tennis Insider podcast a few days before the start of Wimbledon, where she made those revelations.

"It was very different years than any other ones,” she said. “With all the things what's been happening, and also to me, it came unexpected. I was not really prepared. I was also taking some time off before, and not playing that well the previous tournaments. So I was just going match by match. In the head, coming to Wimbledon, I was thinking, 'Okay, I need to focus more on hard court,' just because the season on grass didn't start well. I didn't do the greatest preparation, so I was like, okay, let's see how it goes. Basically, one by one, I was getting closer and closer, and somehow, I made it. I remember I couldn’t sleep before semifinal. It was already big for me since I didn't expect any of that result."