"The pressure is off her a lot": Molik believes Rybakina's illness could work in her favour in Wimbledon title defence

Former world number 8 Alicia Molik looked at the upcoming Wimbledon title defence for Elena Rybakina talking about what might happen at the 3rd grand slam of the year.

Elena Rybakina surprised many last year by winning Wimbledon as nobody saw it coming. She herself didn't see it coming as she revealed in an interview recently. Her form was all over the place and she hadn't really felt that great about her chance. Well, she did really well by going all the way and ending up with the trophy.

This year will see her be the defending champion at a grand slam, something she never was before. Molik preivewd the difficulty of that:

"There'll be the hype from last year, so it's just how she handles that. That's all-encompassing and exhausting, the demands placed on her, from everyone and the media, with being the defending champion. If she came into Wimbledon with a really clean set of results and was playing well, there would be this huge expectation that she's just going to run away with it again like last year."

Molik continued:

“But on the flip side, perhaps because it's been so unusual and strange, and she's had to have more time off, and not enough time on the grass as she would like in a competition phase before Wimbledon, yes, she's the defending champion, but the pressure's off her a little bit I think. Like, a lot. The pressure is off her a lot.”

Pressure will certainly be there as Andy Roddick recently described her as the best grass player on Tour. Rybakina probably wouldn't agree but many do expect her to reach the semi-final at least. Sabalenka will be dangerous as she's considered the second favourite by all followed by Swiatek as the 3rd overall favourite at the event.