Elena Rybakina made a deeply honest revelation during her conversation with Jasmine Paolini and Maria Sakkari on Caroline Garcia's Tennis Insider Club as the Kazakh said her 2022 Wimbledon run was "unexpected" and she definitely didn't feel prepared for what happened.
At the start of the 2022 grass season, the current world No. 10 lost in the 's-Hertogenbosch round-of-16 before also exiting Eastbourne after only one match played. With a 1-2 record on grass, she came to The Championships without expecting much, and truth be told, no one had her as a contender for the title.
But then, Rybakina played lights out across the next two weeks as her aggressive game looked tailor-made for the Wimbledon courts. That year, the Kazakh tennis star beat CoCo Vandeweghe, Bianca Andreescu, Zheng Qinwen, Petra Martic, Ajla Tomljanovic, Simona Halep and Ons Jabeur en route to winning the title.
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Rybakina: Going into Wimbledon, my focus was more on the North American hard-court swing
"I was also taking some time off before, and not playing that well the previous tournaments... 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," the 25-year-old recalled.
After starting her run at The All England Club with three big wins, Rybakina's expectations started to gradually increase. With that, the nerves came and her anxiety was through the roof before her semifinal battle against Halep.
"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 couldnt sleep before semifinal. It was already big for me since I didn't expect any of that result," the Kazakh admitted.
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It is easy to agree with Rybakina that her 2022 Wimbledon run was unexpected. But it is also fair to say that she definitely deserved the title with the she played during that fortnight.
