Elena Rybakina will once again have an opportunity to become world No 1 for the first time in her career, but she admits she doesn’t keep a close eye on the rankings; yet she knows what she needs to do at the US Open to get the job done.
On the back of her Australian Open title run at the start of the year, Rybakina had her first chance to overtake Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the rankings at the French Open, but she stumbled in the second round.
There was another opening at Wimbledon, but she exited in the third round while more opportunities came and went at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.
With Coco Gauff winning the Cincinnati title and Jessica Pegula finishing runner-up, the battle for the No 1 spot has turned into a four-way fight at the US Open with the Americans also in the picture alongside Rybakina and Sabalenka.
However, Rybakina has her No 1 destiny in her own hands as she only needs to reach the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows to become the 30th No 1 in WTA history.
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Asked if she is aware of the No 1 battle, the two-time Grand Slam winner replied: “I don’t check the ranking exactly or the point situation, but from the media mostly I know what I should get, how the others should play; it’s all the different scenarios.
“But for me, especially now when I had this injury last week, I feel like the most important just to try to stay healthy, play one match at a time because this is not the last tournament of the year.
“Of course, it’s a Grand Slam and you want to do well, but you have plenty of opportunities after and if you’re healthy and you keep on playing. So I’m trying not to think about it at all and just play one match at a time.”
That injury Rybakina is referring to is the leg issue that forced her to retire from her quarter-final match against Iga Swiatek in Cincinnati.
She was initially unable to walk and only returned to practice in recent days, but she is confident she will be ready for her first-round match against American wildcard Theo Frodin on Tuesday.
“Well, I didn’t play for a full week and we consulted with different doctors,” she said. “I’ve been doing the recovery and slowly started to go on the court and just a lot of gym.
“It wasn’t easy because we didn’t know exactly how the foot was going to react since it was very painful for me to go and serve during that match in Cincinnati because I wanted to try once more and then for a couple of days it was painful to even walk.
“But after we managed to do everything possible for it to get better and I’m glad how the process is going for now.”
The world No 2 added: I’m quite confident with the decision we are making each day how to practice what to do and, especially, what can happen in the worst-case scenario and so [despite] all these things I feel quite confident, also start feeling better with on the court, moving wise and since I didn’t play the whole week.
“I feel like it’s just a few more days and I should be very fine.”
