(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Elena Rybakina said being the defending Wimbledon champion was “a new challenge for her” and admitted it wasn’t easy for her in the first couple of matches. At this year’s Wimbledon, Rybakina was the top favorite and also a defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career.
In the first round, Rybakina recovered from a set down to beat Shelby Rogers. Then, Rybakina clinched straight-set wins over Alize Cornet, Katie Boulter, and Beatriz Haddad Maia before Ons Jabeur handed her a 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-1 defeat in the quarterfinal.
“As I said from the beginning, it was kind of a new challenge for me coming as a defending champion. It’s of course different feeling. Actually really proud of the first few matches because it’s not easy. I would say that every match I played was a little bit better than the other one.
I think no matter the result of today, it was a positive few weeks for me here. Yeah, I just need to work a little bit more now before the US swing. I will take a lot of positive from these two weeks,” Rybakina said.
Rybakina on how she felt about the crowd supporting Jabeur
On Wednesday, the majority of the crowd stood behind…
