Elena Rybakina has decided to pull out of the Zhengzhou Open. Rybakina, ranked at No 5 in the world, was scheduled to be one of the biggest names competing in next week’s WTA 500 event in Zhengzhou. Unfortunately for the tournament organizers, their 2023 tournament edition won’t feature 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina. This week, Rybakina played her first tournament since the US Open and she made a deep run at a WTA 1000 event in Beijing. In the Chinese capital, Rybakina made the semifinal before Liudmila Samsonova upset her 7-6 (7) 6-3. After suffering a Beijing semifinal loss on Saturday, Rybakina decided to skip Zhengzhou.
Elena Rybakina© Getty Images Sport – Yanshan Zhang
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Rybakina battled illness during and after the US Open
After suffering a surprise US Open third-round defeat and withdrawing from last week’s WTA 500 event in Tokyo, Rybakina finally returned to action in Beijing. At the start of her week in Beijing, Rybakina revealed that she got sick around the US Open and it took her a couple of weeks to recover. “Well, for sure I’m focusing now just to play a little bit more matches because unfortunately I got sick again, and maybe no one knew it. Yeah, in New York was tough for me. After that, it was couple of weeks to recover. That’s why now coming even to Tokyo, it was not the best for me maybe to play there. Yeah, now I’m just looking to play some matches. Of course, all the focus is going to the WTA Finals,” Rybakina said. In her first tournament back, Rybakina played well before Samsonova ended her run. After their semifinal match, Samsonova spoke very highly of Rybakina. “Every time it’s a battle with Lena. 3-0 doesn’t mean anything for me. She’s a champion. Every time, we had so many really close battles. It’s unbelievable to be here,” Samsonova said of Rybakina after their match. Rybakina will play again later this month at the WTA Finals – the event starts on October 29th in Cancun.