Elena Rybakina reveals how she struggled with self-doubt days before historic Wimbledon win

Elena Rybakina recently made a surprising revelation about her 'unexpected' Wimbledon-winning run. The Kazakh, who was seeded 17th, took the world by surprise when she defeated two Grand Slam champions and a tournament favorite en route to her title run.

Rybakina had a phenomenal start to her 2022 season, reaching the final of the Adelaide International. However, things went downhill for her from there as she failed to reach the final four of any event till the end of the European clay swing. Interestingly, she had faced an even worse start to her grass swing, losing in the second round in 's-Hertogenbosch and the opening round in Berlin.

The Kazakh player kicked off her campaign with a hard-fought straight-set win over CoCo Vandeweghe and then defeated the 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu. She clinched two more hard-fought straight-set wins against Zheng Qinwen and Petra Martic, following which she made a resilient comeback against Ajla Tomljanovic to reach the semifinals.

She then defeated two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep and turned around a one-set deficit to defeat third seed Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish.

Elena Rybakina appeared on the latest episode of the Tennis Insider Podcast, hosted by Caroline Garcia and her fiancé Borja Duran, during which she was asked to speak about her Wimbledon win, to which the Kazakh responded by opening up about the 'unexpected' nature of the result, highlighting how she was't performing on grass swing and was already think of the hardcourt swing after it.

"It was very different years than any other ones. With all the things what's been happening, and also to me, it came unexpected. I was not really prepared. I was also taking some time off before, and not playing that well the previous tournaments. So I was just going match by match. In the head, coming to Wimbledon, I was thinking, 'Okay, I need to focus more on hard court,' just because the season on grass didn't start well." (at 10:30)

"I didn't do the greatest preparation, so I was like, okay, let's see how it goes. Basically, one by one, I was getting closer and closer, and somehow, I made it."

The 25-year-old also revealed she couldn't sleep the night before her semifinal against Halep as she was overwhelmed by what she had already accomplished.

"I remember I couldn’t sleep before semifinal. It was already big for me since I didn't expect any of that result."

Elena Rybakina also talked about the never-ending nature of tennis, which never stops for anyone.

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"You just need to keep on going" - Elena Rybakina on how, in tennis, results come and go

Elena Rybakina - Source: Getty

Continuing her thoughts, Elena Rybakina said how the aftermath included some celebrations that didn't last long, as players need to go back to business due to the perpetual nature of tennis.

"It was a lot of emotions, but in the end of the day, the result comes, you celebrate a little bit, but then you need to go to another tournament, and then it's a different story. So, it comes and goes, and you just need to keep on going."

She later opened up about how winning Wimbledon increased her expectations of herself, which was detrimental as it would upset her whenever things didn't go her way.

Elena Rybakina is going through a massive slump in her form and has slipped to World No. 10 in the WTA rankings. She is slated to compete at the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers next, where she will represent Kazakhstan.