INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 21, 2023

Elena Rybakina

Press Conference

E. RYBAKINA/A. Kalinina

6-4, 1-0 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Elena, congratulations. Not the way you want to win, but another title. Must be happy, for sure.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, of course happy with the title. As you said, not the way I want to finish this match. But, yeah, was good two weeks for me.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you manage a day like this, very long, warmup... I think it's not easy at all.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, 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.

But I was with my team, so we tried like to talk, to kind of entertain each other for a bit. Yeah, was not easy. But I played other days also late matches. I knew that it's not going to be easy, but that's unfortunately the weather.

Q. Do you feel you can be just as effective on clay as hard courts and grass?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, well, I think with my game, overall I can play good on all the surfaces. It's just maybe for clay I need to be ready more physically and maybe have a lot of, like, preparation also, which not always have time to do after like hard court season.

Overall, yeah, I think I can play well on all the surfaces.

Q. Given all the retirements, all the rain these past few weeks, would you say this is one of the strangest weeks of your career?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, for sure, it's really strange two weeks for me. Like, I don't remember when I got retirement on the other tournament. Here it was like three. It's really strange. Also with the rain delays, I think my schedule is completely different than usually. I was going to sleep really late, waking up almost like in the afternoon. Yeah, it's strange.

But I'm happy that this tough two weeks also finished in a good way for me.

Q. Anhelina spoke highly of you. What could you say about her game? It was a breakthrough tournament for her.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, it's been great I think results for Anhelina. She played some tough battles. Yeah, really happy for her improvement. Hopefully she can continue like this.

Pity she couldn't finish the match. I hope that it's nothing serious. Yeah, so hopefully she can recover quick and she can continue like this.

Q. Anhelina also said you could contend for the title in Paris. Do you feel like you're one of the contenders going to Paris?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, the tournament is pretty long. I mean, hopefully I can go far at French Open. I have good memories playing there. Now I got more matches on clay, so it's a bit easier and a bit more confidence definitely.

Yeah, for me, as I always say, important to be healthy, be ready physically, then hopefully I can go far there.

Q. Did you feel the weather also helped you a bit? Last year you had some allergy to pollen. Maybe this weather helped you.

ELENA RYBAKINA: 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.

For sure 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.

Q. What are you most proud of this year so far?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, I proud that I can maintain this level. It's not easy, like, with all the scheduling, traveling. I think we're doing good job with the team. I can see improvements on the court, physically also. I think we're on a right way.

I think there is still a lot of room to improve. But, yeah, for now it's going well, and hopefully I can continue like this till the end of the season.

Q. You've collected some beautiful trophies. What do you do with the trophies?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, since I never home, always on the road, I have some trophies with my parents. I mean, I don't even know exactly where it is. Hopefully one day when I decide where I'm going to live, where is going to be my home, I can bring everything together.