Elena Rybakina acknowledged that it didn’t take long before dealing with an illness going into the Miami Open started to leave a physical toll on her body.
At the start of the Sunshine Double, Rybakina suffered a bit setback when she wasn’t able to defend her Indian Wells title due to gastrointestinal illness. After withdrawing from Indian Wells, Rybakina spent the next eight days trying to recover and didn’t have any practices.
But a few days before Miami, Rybakina was able to get some practice and decided to give it a go to the second tournament of the Sunshine Double. Early in the tournament, Rybakina was evidently far from her best but she still managed to clinch two tight three-set wins over Clara Tauson and Taylor Townsend.
After beating Madison Keys in two sets, Rybakina won another two tight three-setters after edging out Maria Sakkari in the quarterfinal and Victoria Azarenka in the semifinal, respectively. Considering the circumstances, even the 24-year-old Kazakh was left surprised about managing to win a couple of marathon three-setters in Miami.
But then in the Miami final against Danielle Collins, the tiredness and exhaustion evidently impacted Rybakina, who was making some easy mistakes and errors throughout a 5-7 3-6 loss to the…
