Elena Rybakina faces a race to be sufficiently fit and healthy for her Wimbledon title defence after withdrawing from the Eastbourne International hours before she was due to contest her first-round match.
Since withdrawing from her third-round match at the French Open with a virus this month, Rybakina has been rushing to return to full fitness. The 24-year-old explained in her pre-tournament press conference in Eastbourne on Sunday that her virus had worsened after her withdrawal from Roland Garros and she spent a couple of days in bed before leaving Paris.
Despite her attempts to return to the court, Rybakina has continued to struggle with the lingering effects of the virus and last week lost in the second round of the WTA 500 event in Berlin.
“I am still recovering from the virus I had in Paris and after Roland Garros it was really tough. I also picked up another small issue in Berlin,” said Rybakina. “So my team and I decided it would be better to recover this week and prepare for Wimbledon. I wish the tournament here in Eastbourne a great week and I hope I can be back next year.”
These are far from ideal circumstances for Rybakina, whose transformation has been one of the most important events of the tennis season. After reaching the Australian Open final and winning Indian Wells, she narrowly missed out on the ‘Sunshine Double’ after losing to Petra Kvitova in the Miami Open final.
Rybakina also took a step forward on clay, her least effective surface, by winning her first WTA 1000 event on the surface at the Italian Open. She headed to the French Open as third favourite, behind Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, and won two matches in straight sets before being forced to withdraw. The Kazakhstani currently sits at a career high-ranking of No 3, again behind Swiatek and Sabalenka, despite receiving no points for her Wimbledon title last year.
Instead of returning to the grass-court season and for her Wimbledon defence full of confidence after a life changing 52 weeks, Rybakina will be underprepared having played only two matches on grass this year. She will have no choice but to try to gain rhythm during the tournament itself.
The late withdrawal of Rybakina left a sizeable hole on the first day of play in Eastbourne, a WTA 500 event for the women and an ATP 250 event for men, but Tuesday will see most of the top-10 in action, including Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Caroline Garcia.
Even though Eastbourne takes place only a week before the start of Wimbledon, eight of the top-10 women’s players entered the tournament this year. Their presence is a reflection of how desperate players are to gain rhythm and match practice during such a short grass-court season.
Meanwhile the British No 1, Katie Boulter, reflected on returning to the top 100 after winning her first WTA title in Nottingham at the start of the grass season. Boulter, who reached a career high-ranking of 77 last week, is a top-100 player for the first time since 2019, when she suffered a stress fracture to her back.
“My journey over the last few years has been interesting and I’ve learned a lot,” said the 26-year-old. “For three of those years I’ve had three different stress fractures. So I took a huge chunk of my time out of my years to try to recover and then gain my ranking back off again, which is not an easy task, it really isn’t.
“I finally feel like I’m in a place that I’m very strong body-wise, and it’s taken me multiple years for me to get to that point.”
Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage both reached the last 16 in Eastbourne with excellent victories. Dart defeated China’s Zhang Shuai, ranked 105 places above her, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1, while Burrage beat world No 44 Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
