Elena Rybakina has picked up a new skill while competing at the WTA China Open in Beijing, as she learned some Chinese in order to thank her fans.

The World No. 4 has had a solid run so far at the WTA 1000 tournament, defeating home player Qinwen Zheng, Tatjana Maria, and teen talent Mirra Andreeva to set up a clash with World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-final.

Once there, Rybakina maintained control over the match to win in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2. In doing so, she set up a clash with Liudmila Samsonova in the semi-final at the National Tennis Center.

In an interview at the tournament, the Kazakhstani player was asked whether or not she knew that she had such a huge fanbase in China. This is the first year that the WTA Tour has gone to the country since 2019 after COVID-19 restrictions and the silence over Peng Shuai's disappearance meant that they did not hold tournaments there for several years.

"I knew that Chinese people, they like me here and I remember it from 2019 but of course we were not here for a couple of years and I was really surprised [by] how many people [are] actually following me and how many people want to see my practices," she said.

Rybakina was then given the chance to learn one Chinese word or sentence as the interviewer asked her what she would like to learn to say.

"Thank you to all my fans," she replied.

The interviewer then told her the phrase in Chinese and Rybakina repeated it after him several times, breaking it down along the way to help. After going over it a few times, the 24-year-old looked down the camera lens and spoke the sentence in Chinese to express her gratitude to her fans.