I have always enjoyed following women’s tennis, especially since the era of Steffi Graf, Gabriella Sabatini, and Monica Seles. I actually witnessed the last few battles between Chris Evert-Lloyd and Martina Navratilova, but back then, I was strictly focused on John McEnroe, who was then my favorite tennis player, and the reason why I started following tennis in the first place. It was really during the Graf/Seles era, that I began to fully focus on women tennis as distinct from that of men. When Seles was on a roll, and had Graf on the ropes, before getting stabbed, by a Steffi Graf fan, Gunter Parche, on April 30, 1993, in Hamburg, I was one of her supporters. I was really disappointed at that incident, and it’s overall impact on Seles’ career, and ultimately on her rivalry with Steffi Graf. Seles was blowing Graf off the courts before that incident, but after that, and as a result of her absence from the circuit, due to the trauma, Graf went on to dominate women tennis without much difficulty.
Since that time, I have had many different favorites on the WTA tour. With Novak Djokovic being my all time favorite tennis player, my support for women tennis players was erratic and depended on many factors. As a result, I was not usually consistent. I could support one player today, and tomorrow support another.
Jessica Pegula is currently my favorite female tennis player. If you asked me why, I couldn’t tell you, but perhaps maybe because I like her personality, but I couldn’t say. I have supported Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza, Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina, Kaia Kanepi, Jelena Dokic, and many other female tennis players at one time or the other. As you can see from the above list, there is no connecting dot between these players, as they are as different from each other as night and day.
As a follower of the WTA tour, I could usually point out a talented player when I see one. I could tell that Seles had talent when I first watched her play. Same goes for Safina, Ivanovic, Anastasia Myskina and Garbine Muguruza. While some of them did not fully express their talents, a few of them actually did, and went on to do great things on the WTA circuit.
Elena Rybakina’s victory over the world number one player Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, suddenly got me reminiscing on all my years supporting the WTA tour. I have always believed that Rybakina is one of the most talented tennis players currently in the WTA circuit. Unfortunately, however, after winning her maiden grand slam title at Wimbledon in 2022, she seems to have relaxed her guard, and is simply satisfied to be on the circuit rather than gun for more grand slam titles and the number one ranking.
I say this not without taking cognizance of her injury challenges and the numerous off court issues that may have affected her performances. To me, she’s more talented than her current ranking portrays; she’s ranked number 5, at the time of writing, and as well the number of grand slam titles in her kitty. In my view, Rybakina should have added at least one more grand slam title to her shelf by now, and possibly risen to the world number one position, at least for a few weeks. I have watched her mentally surrender matches that she could have won, by playing tentatively as if she were uninterested. In a way, she reminds me of Dinara Safina, who had some mental weaknesses that prevented her from exploiting her potential to the fullest. This may not be the case with Rybakina, but she needs to watch it and try to always stay focused during matches.
I was gratified to see her smash Aryna Sabalenka off the court in Riyadh; not that I think less of Sabalenka, it’s just that I’m not very comfortable with Sabalenka’s attitude when she loses a match, especially a final. She usually presents an attitude of ‘you didn’t beat me, you stole the title from me.’ This has tended to limit my appreciation of her game. She needs to understand that no one player can win all the titles all the time. One attribute for which I credit the big three on the ATP tour -Federer/Nadal/Djokovic- is being gracious in defeat, and humble in victory. Sabalenka lacks this attribute. I believe she can learn it from Djokovic with whom she’s very good friends.
Having said that, I feel that Rybakina could give Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek a run for their money on the circuit if she puts her mind to it. The manner with which she blew Sabalenka away, especially in the second set tiebreaker in Riyadh, is testament to her all court game. It is my hope that she carries this attitude into the 2026 season, and ensure that off court issues do not distract her from being the great tennis player that she is. If she remains focused, I’m confident that one of the grand slam titles for next year will end up on her shelf, and possibly, even the year end number one ranking.
