Elena Rybakina suffered a shock defeat in the third round of Wimbledon.
Rybakina is a former Wimbledon champion and was one of the favourites for this year’s title.
The world number two was a big favourite for her third round match against Elise Mertens, who Rybakina had won seven of her eight previous matches against.
However, Rybakina was beaten by Mertens 7-6(4), 6-1 and she has now admitted the issues she was having in her game.
Elena Rybakina claims her serve let her down against Elise Mertens
Rybakina is regarded as one of the best servers on the entire WTA Tour, but it was the serve that the Australian Open champion believes was one of the major issues for her against Mertens.
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“Well, I got pretty many opportunities in the first set to break,” Rybakina said in her post-match press conference.
“I lost my serve very easily with too many double faults overall for the match, and also percentage of the serve. And yeah, the first serve was not really working for me today. I feel like the energy could have been better. So yeah, a lot of things which I’m not happy with.”
Rybakina hit six double faults in her defeat to Mertens and was only able to place 42% of her first serves in play, but she dismissed any suggestions of an injury.
“No, I don’t have any physical issues,” Rybakina responded when asked if she had any physical issues.
| Elena Rybakina’s serve vs Elise Mertens | |
| Aces | 2 |
| Double Faults | 6 |
| First Serve % | 42% |
| First Serve win % | 75% |
| Second serve win % | 36% |
| Games broken | 4 |
Elena Rybakina suggests how long it will take her to get over losing at Wimbledon
This is a second successive Grand Slam tournament where Rybakina has suffered an early exit, having also lost in the second round of Roland Garros.
Despite this, Rybakina has claimed that it will not take her long to get over her Wimbledon disappointment.
“I just try to move on,” said Rybakina. “I mean, I lost so many times.
“I’m sure I’m still going to keep losing. It’s impossible to win everything. I’m of course upset, but it’s not going to take more than one, two days.”
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Although Rybakina will swiftly try to move on from this defeat, this defeat now confirms that Aryna Sabalenka will remain as world number one after Wimbledon.
Rybakina will now switch her attention to the North American hard court swing, of which she is expected to begin at the Canadian Open.
