Rybakina attributes her defeat to the heat in Paris

Elena Rybakina was eliminated from Roland Garros 2026 after a very erratic performance marked by the enormous difficulty she had in controlling the ball in the extremely fast conditions of Paris. The Wimbledon champion admitted after the match that she never managed to find comfortable sensations on the court and acknowledged that she delivered one of her worst performances throughout the clay court season.

Despite the defeat, Elena Rybakina also wanted to highlight some positive aspects of her clay court season, especially the title she won in Stuttgart. The Kazakh also spoke about the challenging playing conditions due to the extreme heat, responded with some tension to questions about her coach Stefano Vukov, and explained why her aggressive tennis struggled so much during the match.

Here's what Rybakina said after losing at Roland Garros 2026

Her disappointment after the defeat

"It's a shame because honestly I was training very well before Roland Garros. I felt good in practice and thought I could raise my level a lot here."

"But today was a very bad performance on my part. I made too many unforced errors and never managed to feel comfortable. I tried to find solutions during the match, but clearly it didn't work."

Assessing her clay court season

"Winning Stuttgart was very nice, although we know it's an indoor tournament and the conditions there are quite specific. Overall, I feel I had good moments during this season, but today I just couldn't play at my level."

Why Stefano Vukov left in the middle of the match

"Why am I not surprised this question is coming from you. Yes, Stefano was in the match and left because he had been feeling quite unwell for several days. We had talked about it before, and he told me he might have to leave during the match. There was absolutely no issue."

What her team was asking for during the match

"They were constantly telling me to raise the energy and push much more with my legs. With these conditions, the ball flies a lot, and even apparently easy shots bounce very high."

"You need to play with lightning-fast hands, and today I didn't have that speed. Even when just trying to put the ball in play, I kept making too many errors."

Why she struggled so much with the Paris conditions

"I don't think I felt particularly bad physically. There were other matches where I ended up worse physically. The real problem is that I never found the right balance on the ball. Everything was out of sync for me."

How the heat affects her aggressive tennis

"When it's so hot, the ball flies a lot, and it's very difficult to control. My style is always aggressive, trying to come into the court and play fast. But if you don't generate enough spin or don't have fast enough hands, the ball just goes everywhere."

What she needed to do tactically

"With these conditions, you need to be much more patient. You have to play with more spin, accept longer exchanges, and probably come to the net more. But honestly, I made so many errors that I couldn't even think too much about applying all those things."

Her clarification on the heat

"I wouldn't say the heat was the real issue. The problem was more how the weather affected the ball and how difficult it was to control. The ball was very light, and honestly, I struggled a lot to find the right shot throughout the match."

Following an unexpected exit at Roland Garros 2026, Elena Rybakina made it clear that the extremely fast conditions of Paris completely disrupted a game that relies heavily on aggression, precision, and early control of rallies.