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Elena Rybakina seems just as confident behind the wheel as she is on the court. During the ongoing Billie Jean King Cup, the Kazakh star revealed that she’s been taking full charge of her Porsche — the one she once handed over to her former coach Stefano Vukov.
Rybakina earned that Porsche thanks to her stellar run at the 2024 Stuttgart Open, where she clinched the title with a win over Marta Kostyuk in the final. At the time, though, she didn’t have a driver’s license, so she couldn’t take the car out herself. Instead, she handed the keys to Vukov, and also mentioned that her mother, Ekaterina, would be taking it for a few spins.
"Well, I don't know yet (what to do with the car). For sure I will drive it around, and we are thinking to have it in Dubai. So it's going to be for sure Stefano driving, maybe my mom, hopefully me soon," she told the reporters in 2024.
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However, a lot has changed since then. The former Wimbledon champion enrolled in a driving school in Dubai, where she currently resides, and trained under a particularly strict instructor. And it seems her hard work paid off — she finally got her driver’s license.
Speaking during an on-court interview at the Billie Jean King Cup after her win over Team Australia, Elena Rybakina said:
"Driving (is) going pretty well. I got my license. I have been doing pre-season in Dubai, so I have been going around with the team. I was dropping and taking everybody so I was kind of a driver. Yeah, it feels amazing. Super glad for the achievement last year in Stuttgart."
Yulia Putintseva set the tone for Team Kazakhstan with a commanding 6-2, 6-1 win over Maya Joint to open the tie. Elena Rybakina then sealed the deal, overcoming Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 7-6(4) in a tightly contested second match to give Kazakhstan a 2-1 victory.
Australia's lone point came in the doubles rubber, where Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez teamed up to defeat Anna Danilina and Zhibek Kulambayeva 6-3, 6-4.
Elena Rybakina set to miss out on adding another Porsche to her collection
Elena Rybakina will miss out on the chance to add another Porsche to her collection this year, as she’s set to skip the 2025 Stuttgart Open. The tournament, which runs from April 14–20, is the second WTA 500 clay-court event of the season following Charleston.
Even with the defending champion sitting out, the tournament is shaping up to be a star-studded affair. The field is stacked with top talent including Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, Danielle Collins, and Mirra Andreeva, among others.
