Former world number nine
Julia Goerges has picked Kazakhstan’s
Elena Rybakina as her favourite player in the women’s singles category. The
25-year-old was once regarded as one of the candidates to become the best
player in the world and a candidate to
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek's crowns in women’s tennis but has struggled with fitness concerns
in the recent past.
Former world number nine Gorges has recently spoken to Tennis
365, where she talked about her favourite player in the women’s singles category.
Interestingly, the 36-year-old, who finished her career with five titles,
picked Rybakina as her favourite player ahead of the likes of the reigning
world number one Aryna Sabalenka and five-time Grand Slam winner Poland’s Iga
Swiatek.
“I really like Elena Rybakina because I can relate to her
way of playing tennis,” she said. “She plays without compromise. Unlike her
groundstrokes and her serve, she can do better at the net. I like those sharp,
saturated shots and that good serve. I think that’s how you win Grand Slam
tournaments. Rybakina doesn’t hope for it, she plays for it. I really like Iga
Swiatek athletically, with the way she moves. I haven’t seen Aryna Sabalenka
for a while. She trains incredibly hard and has been improving over the years. She
[Sabalenka] fully deserves her place at the top of the world rankings – but if
I had to pick one, it would be Rybakina.”
Rybakina had a relatively below-par outing in the 2024
season, according to her high standards. She played 53 matches across
all competitions, winning 42 and suffering defeat on 11 occasions. She won
three competitions, but all of them were held before May. Her last triumph was the Porsche
Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she defeated Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in straight
sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2.