If the early returns on Elena Rybakina’s 2026 season are any indication, the rest of the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz should be on high alert.

Brisbane: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Rybakina ended 2025 on a tear, sneaking into the WTA Finals as the last qualifier before going on to win the year-end championships. She appears to have carried that momentum into the new year, following a flawless second-round win over Zhang Shuai with an equally impressive straight-sets victory over No. 15 seed Paula Badosa.

The 2024 Brisbane champion needed just 1 hour and 25 minutes to defeat the Spaniard 6-3, 6-2 at Pat Rafter Arena on Thursday, booking her spot in the quarterfinals.

“It’s always tough battles against Paula,” Rybakina said after the match. “She has great shots, she plays really fast and has a very good serve, so it was not easy. I started a little bit slow and was struggling with my serve too. But I’m happy that I managed to win.”

Rybakina did indeed get off to a slow start. Badosa won the first seven points of the match and eight of the first nine to capture an early break and a 2-0 lead. But Rybakina quickly steadied herself, breaking right back and fending off Badosa’s further advances to level the set at 2-all.

After Badosa saved a break point and held in the next game, Rybakina rattled off four straight games to close out the opening set.

That surge became part of a run of seven consecutive games, as Rybakina raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. Badosa briefly halted the slide with a hold for 3-1, but it wasn’t enough. By match end, Rybakina had won nine of the last 11 games.

“I was trying to focus one [game] at a time,” Rybakina said. “The serve was not helping so much, so I had to manage the points and stay aggressive on the return. I still have a lot of things to work on for the next match, but hopefully it will be better.”

Here are some takeaways from Rybakina’s win over Badosa:

Streaks remain intact: Three streaks continued for Rybakina on Thursday.

  • 13 straight wins: Ties her career-best winning streak, as she previously won 13 straight between February and March of 2023. Her last loss came to Aryna Sabalenka in the Wuhan quarterfinals last October.
  • Four straight wins over Badosa: The streak dates back to 2023, with this latest victory giving her the edge in their head-to-head.
  • Unbeaten in Brisbane: The 2024 champion is now a perfect 7-0 at the event.

Consummate ball-striking: On a day where she struggled on serve, Rybakina’s ball-striking carried her. Whether she was playing her forehand or her backhand, it didn’t matter, as she struck every ball with conviction, especially on big points.

She sealed the first set with a forehand winner on set point, then opened the second set with a hold before drilling a backhand down the line to convert a break point in the next game. She hit 13 winners to just 7 unforced errors in the second set and finished with 24 winners and 21 unforced errors overall.

What’s ahead: Rybakina will face No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinals. The head-to-head is level at 1-1, but their last meeting came all the way back in 2023 at Indian Wells.

Rybakina won that quarterfinal match in three sets.