Defending champion Elena Rybakina comes from behind to beat Shelby Rogers 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 at Wimbledon
Defending champion Elena Rybakina survives scare by battling back from a set down to see off American Shelby Rogers to reach second round at Wimbledon
- Rybakina put a tough month behind her as she came from behind to beat Rogers
- The defending champion admitted she was nervous after not starting well
- However, Rybakina came from behind to end up winning comfortably
Defending champion Elena Rybakina survived a first-round scare as she came from a set down to beat Shelby Rogers to put a tough month behind her.
The Muscovite, who has represented Kazakhstan since her teenage years, withdrew from the French Open in the middle weekend with a virus that also wrecked her grass-court season and saw the world No 3 withdraw from Eastbourne last week.
She came here as one of the favourites but illness and hay fever proved a setback.
An allergy to grass is not ideal at the All England Club and Rybakina seemed to be struggling when she fell a set behind to American Rogers, who targeted her weaknesses and preyed on her nerves.
‘I was nervous a bit,’ said Rybakina. ‘I didn’t start that well. I was not moving great. I needed the full set to feel better and start playing my game.’
Elena Rybakina came from behind to beat Shelby Rogers comfortably at Wimbledon
Rogers, of the United States, went ahead early but was unable to hold on to win the match
Rybakina (right) admitted was nervous after going behind as Roger Federer was in attendance
But Rybakina breezed through the second set to win 6-1 and then raced an early break ahead in the decider to see out what ended up as a comfortable win at 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
She added that her early nerves might be down to the fact that a certain Roger Federer was sitting on the front row.
‘Maybe I was nervous because of Roger,’ she added. ‘Because actually I really like Roger. It was really special.’
In a wide open women’s draw there are question marks over all of the big three due to Rybakina’s lack of preparation and the lack of grass court pedigree of world No 1 Iga Swiatek and No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion.
The Belarusian eased to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Hungarian world No 82 Panna Udvardy.
There was also a win for last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur in a rain-wrecked day at SW19, as the Tunisian won 6-3, 6-3 against Poland’s Magdalena Frech.
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