Elena Rybakina believes the lack of quality in her serve played a crucial role in her quarter-final exit from Wimbledon on Wednesday.
The 2022 champion took the opening set before losing in three to Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who she beat in the final of the same tournament 12 months ago. A frustrating outcome for the Kazakh who only dropped one set in her four previous matches played at this year’s tournament. If she had won today, she would have become the first player on the WTA Tour to have beaten a top 10 player for the sixth time this season.
Following her latest match, Rybakina praised Jabeur for making ‘better decisions ‘ than she did in their previous clash. Although when it comes to her own game, she says one area let her down.
“I had a lot of opportunities, especially in the second set,” said Rybakina.
“I felt that my serve wasn’t that great. It’s my weapon and it was not working that well.’
“But she was playing good today, especially in some important moments, so that made a difference.”
Rybakina managed to get 57% of her first serves in, winning 65% of them (30/46). However, she won less than 50% of her second service points and produced three double faults.
Another notable thing about the Wimbledon showdown was the high amount of support Jabeur received which seemed to be significantly higher than Rybakina. Although she wasn’t bothered by this in any way.
“I was not focusing so much on the crowd. I knew after last year there was more support for Ons. It didn’t change my mood or attitude towards the match.” She said.
Meanwhile, Jabeur credits her win to sticking to a game plan that she drew up with her coach. She is trained on the Tour by Issam Jellali who used to represent Tunisia in the Davis Cup.
“The coach said I followed the plan 70%, which is a high percentage,” Jabeur commented during her press conference.
“Sometimes someone like Elena pushes you to play different plans. But I’m glad that I did stick to the one we agreed on. Even though there were very difficult moments, she was putting a lot of pressure on me and she was hitting amazing.”
Rybakina says her plans for the immediate future will be to take a mini break from the sport before preparing for the North American hardcover swing.
