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Rennae Stubbs is warning the top WTA players to "look out for" Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open as the former six-time Grand Slam doubles champion thinks the Kazakh is extremely dangerous at the Happy Slam and that she would have won it all at Melbourne Park in 2024 had she been healthy.
After becoming a Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon in 2022, Rybakina also made her maiden Australian Open final half a year later. The world No. 5 won the opening set of the final before Sabalenka mounted a three-set comeback.
In January 2024, Rybakina stormed through the Brisbane International and won the title without a set dropped in five matches played. The 26-year-old was especially impressive in the final, where she annihilated Sabalenka 6-0 6-3. But then, the Kazakh picked up an injury during an Adelaide quarterfinal loss before seeing her Australian Open campaign end with a shock second-round loss to Anna Blinkova.
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Heading into 2026, Rybakina has won her last 11 completed matches. And she is also coming off collecting her maiden WTA Finals title.
Stubbs: Look out for Rybakina in Australia
Rybakina has had a little bit of an up and down year but I think look out for her in Australia," Stubbs said on her podcast.
"She smoked Sabalenka a couple of years ago in Brisbane and then came down and decided to play Adelaide and retweaked a bit of an Achilles issue and went and lost in an epic tiebreak to Blinkova a couple of years ago. I think thats when she should have won the Australian Open after what she did to Sabalenka the week before, but she will be there and knocking on the door big time. And no player wants to play her. No player.
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She does not have a ton of weaknesses, massive serve. She has the biggest and best serve in womens tennis probably. One of the best backhands I have ever seen. So she will definitely be in the mix at the Australian Open.
This year, Rybakina didn't do particularly well at the Australian Open as she was beaten by Madison Keys in the round-of-16. However, it should be noted that she was going through a turbulent period as the WTA didn't allow Stefano Vukov to return to her team, and there were also reports about Goran Ivanisevic wanting to leave her - which ultimately happened.
