Tracy Austin thinks Elena Rybakina’s quiet and calm demeanor is making the Kazakh fly under the radar. Rybakina, 23, made two Grand Slam finals in the last three Major events. Rybakina, who became a Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon last year, also ended runner-up at this year’s Australian Open.
Rybakina isn’t someone who really likes to be at the center of attention but she is establishing herself as a player who delivers on the Grand Slam level. Austin, a former two-time Us Open champion, thinks Rybakina can become more consistent during the calendar year and definitely win more Grand Slams in the future.
Austin on Rybakina: I definitely can see her being a threat at the Majors
“It’s so tempting for people to ask – Is Elena Rybakina one of the most underrated tennis players? For me, I think it’s more under the radar because of her demeanor.
We know that she kinda has that low pulse, she doesn’t show much emotion. When she won Wimbledon, it was kind of a gentle fist pump. The third quality that makes her under the radar is that she’s a little streaky. She is so risky in her game style, so you can have days where she’s off.
Therefore, she can beat anybody on a given day, but she can have these losses to anybody as well. What she has talked about is the desire to be more consistent. I think that she can actually find that. She’s very strong and working hard, she’s very hungry.
She’s won one Major, so why not more? I definitely see that she can be a sustainable contender for Majors in the future,” Austin said on Tennis Channel, per Sportskeeda. In one of her recent interviews, Rybakina revealed that there was a time when she didn’t like to play on grass.
But grass is now perfectly suiting up Rybakina’s game as she was absolutely impressive at Wimbledon last year.
