"Really strange" – Elena Rybakina reflects on unideal series of events that led to Italian Open title

Elena Rybakina’s 2023 Italian Open title victory has been a “strange” affair, as per the Kazakh's own admission.

The Italian Open women’s final between Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina, which was supposed to be contested on Saturday, May 20, at 7:00 pm local time, started after 11:00 pm, well past its original schedule, due to numerous rain delays throughout the day.

The match reached an unfortunate conclusion as Kalinina retired due to injury shortly after the commencement of the second set, gifting Rybakina the win 6-4, 1-0 (ret.) She was thus declared the winner past midnight – in a thoroughly muddled trophy ceremony.

In her post-win press conference, Rybakina reflected on the strange series of events, and stated that the extended rain delay was “really tough.”

“It wasn't easy. Was really long day. In the beginning I was fine, like, waiting, waiting. Then after maybe four hours, it was really tough. I knew that it's not going to be easy, but that's unfortunately the weather,” she confessed.

It is worth noting that three of Rybakina's opponents retired in Rome en route to her title win. Before Kalinina's retirement in the final, the 23-year-old was also granted the wins against Anna Kalinskaya [4-3 (ret.)] in the third round and against defending champion Iga Swiatek [2-6, 7-6(3), 2-2 (ret.)] in the quarterfinals.

“Pity she couldn't finish the match. I hope that it's nothing serious,” the Kazakh said about Kalinina.

The 2023 Italian Open winner also admitted that the fortnight in Rome had been “really strange,” given the walkovers and uncomfortable scheduling.

“For sure, it's really strange two weeks for me. I don't remember when I got retirement on the other tournament. Here it was like three. It's really strange,” the reigning Wimbledon champion said.

“Also with the rain delays, I think my schedule is completely different than usual. I was going to sleep really late, waking up almost like in the afternoon. Yeah, it's strange,” she added.

---

"These two weeks a lot of things went my way" – Elena Rybakina after 2023 Italian Open title victory

Elena Rybakina shares a warm embrace after Anhelina Kalinina retires in the 2023 Italian Open final.

Elena Rybakina has found plenty of success on tour in the past year, having lifted her first Grand Slam trophy at Wimbledon in 2022, a maiden WTA 1000 title in Indian Wells along with runner-up finishes in Australian Open and Miami.

While the Italian Open title is Rybakina’s second WTA 1000 trophy of the season, she admitted that her Roman success has involved a lot of “luck.”

“I'm happy that this tough two weeks also finished in a good way for me,” Rybakina said after her triumph.

She credited the unexpected rain for helping her deal with her allergies, which are otherwise unmanageable in the Italian capital.

“Actually, it's really good for me, this rain, because usually I suffer a lot here in Rome. Usually, it's quite hot here. In this case I also was lucky. When I was coming, I didn't have any expectation because usually it's really tough for me to even like practice, not even playing matches,” she disclosed.

“This was like weather good for me. I don't know how it's going to be the next years. As I said, I think these two weeks a lot of things went my way,” she added.

Thanks to her Italian Open title, Rybakina will break inside the WTA Top-5 for the first time in her career, and hold a career-high ranking of World No. 4 going into the 2023 French Open.