‘I don’t feel pressure’: Elena Rybakina unfazed by Wimbledon favourite tag

When you have already won Wimbledon, perhaps the prospect of doing it again is not that daunting. “I don’t feel pressure,” said Elena Rybakina, the winner here two years ago. “Every opponent is difficult and I know that I must always bring my best and that’s what I try to do for every match. I’m just really enjoying every time I step out on the court, I am happy I am going fine in the draw and hopefully I can go to the end.”

Rybakina eased into the quarter-finals on Monday when her opponent, Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, quit owing to a wrist injury, trailing 6-3, 3-0 on Centre Court. Rybakina was in rampant form before Kalinskaya pulled out. Two years after her victory here, the Kazakh will play Elina Svitolina for a place in the last four.

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Ever since the withdrawal of Aryna Sabalenka on the eve of the event through injury, the women’s singles draw has been more open than anticipated and the defeats of Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have left Rybakina as the favourite for the title. She seems totally unaffected by any talk of her winning again. “I don’t really think about this when I go on the court,” she said. “Of course, it gives more confidence. But no matter what, there are still a lot of good players. As I say, I don’t really think about it so much.

“It feels good, of course, if people think so. I mean, it’s still far to go to the final. Still a lot of matches in front. As I always say, it’s just match by match and we see how it goes. But definitely I want to go far and try to win it.”

Rybakina deserves her favourite tag, too. Seeded fourth, her victory over Kalinskaya, who was watched by her boyfriend, the world No 1 Jannik Sinner, means she has now won 18 of her first 20 matches at Wimbledon, a ratio of 90% that only Steffi Graf and Ann Jones have achieved in the Open era. “I didn’t know about these stats,” said Rybakina, her deadpan expression not giving away whether she had heard of Jones, the 1969 champion. “I know I’ve been winning a lot on grass. It’s nice to be next to these names with these statistics. I think it’s great to be there and really happy to show good tennis on grass.”

Her aspirations for a second title in three years may be tested in the next round, though, when she plays Svitolina, the Ukrainian who continues to be on a mission to use her platform to highlight her country’s plight after Russia’s invasion in March 2022. On the day when a Russian missile hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv, Svitolina, a semi-finalist last year, showed her courage again, somehow focusing on her job and doing it well in a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Xinyu Wang.

“It was extremely tough,” she said. “Since the morning today, I felt like in a fog a little bit with my thoughts, with just my feelings inside. Normally you are thinking all day from the morning about your match, about your opponent, about how you’re going to play. Today was very quiet with my team as well because everyone is aware around me. Everyone knows what’s happening. Was very calm. It was straightforward, to the point, what I have to do; one, two, three on the court.

“Maybe also that’s why I played really, really loose and very focused on what I had to do. It was a lot of thoughts about what’s happening and how sad and all these images that I have in my head about the children, all those horrible things. Also in the same way, few things that I have to focus on the court. It worked today quite good because I think I played very well.”

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Rybakina and Svitolina have played each other four times in the past, with two wins apiece, though Rybakina won the most recent contest at Roland Garros and also won their only clash on grass. The crowd is likely to be pulling for Svitolina and Rybakina knows it will be a challenge.

“She’s a tough opponent, she reads the game well, she defends pretty good,” she said. “Some slices here and there. It’s not going to be easy, of course. But if I play aggressive, [if] I’m going to serve well, I have all the chances to win of course. I will try to focus on myself and see how it goes.”

Rybakina is not the only grand slam champion remaining. Jelena Ostapenko, a former French Open champion, beat Swiatek’s conqueror Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3.

Barbora Krejcikova, seeded 31, knocked out the No 11 seed Danielle Collins 7-5, 6-3 to set up a quarter-final against Ostapenko. The defeat ended Collins’s final Wimbledon, as she plans to retire at the end of the year to try to start a family.