Elena Rybakina and Emma Raducanu have partnered together for the first time at the Washington Open.
Rybakina and Raducanu won their first match together at the WTA 500 tournament against the fourth seeds.
Both players have also made winning starts to their singles campaigns, with Rybakina bouncing back from Wimbledon disappointment.
Raducanu has admitted she doesn’t have many friends on the WTA Tour, and now Rybakina has revealed if she would like to play with the Brit again.
Photo by Marleen Fouchier/BSR Agency/Getty ImagesElena Rybakina reveals if she will play doubles with Emma Raducanu again
Rybakina is already into the quarterfinals of the Washington Open after beating rising Canadian star Victoria Mboko.
The former Wimbledon champion is yet to play her quarterfinal match in doubles alongside Raducanu, and has already revealed that she would like to play doubles with her again.
“Yeah, I think she’s really nice girl. It was a lot of fun,” Rybakina said about Raducanu in her post-match press conference.
“Of course tough match, but I’m happy that I played doubles, and I think it’s good as a practice, preparation for singles. So it was fun, and yeah, hopefully we can play a bit more in the future too.”
At the time of her press conference, there was a possibility that Rybakina and Raducanu could have played the doubles team of Venus Williams and Hailey Baptistehttps://www.thetennisgazette.com/news/venus-williams-doubles-partner-for-the-washington-open-says-if-she-would-like-to-play-a-match-against-her/ in the semifinals.
Despite Williams’ impressive return to tennis, she was beaten in the quarterfinal of the doubles tournament.
Rybakina did still comment on Venus and Serena Williams, revealing that she would like to play the former at some point.
“Yeah, for sure I grew up watching Venus and Serena,” added Rybakina. “Yeah, it’s going to be nice opportunity for me to play against her. I played once against Serena, and it will be nice to play against her too.”
The pairing of Rybakina and Raducanu will play Giuliana Olmos and Aldila Stutjiadi on Thursday, July 24, in their Washington Open quarterfinals, with Taylor Townsend and Shuai Zhang waiting for the winners in the semifinals.
What happened when Elena Rybakina played Serena Williams?
While she is yet to play Venus, Rybakina did actually get the chance to play Serena before she retired in 2022.
The Kazakhstani actually won her only match against the 23-time Grand Slam champion, which took place at Roland Garros in 2021.
Rybakina beat Serena Williams, 6-3 7-5, in what turned out to be the latter’s final match at the clay court major.
After beating one of the greatest players of all time in Serena, Rybakina revealed in her press conference how she prepared for the match.
“So, I mean, we watched matches of Serena of course,” Rybakina said after reaching the Roland Garros quarterfinals in 2021. “We tried to make her play from the backhand side more, just because she has open stance. With open stance and, like, two hands, it’s difficult to move the ball, so I tried to attack this side.
“Sometimes I was stuck too much to the forehand. That’s why I was losing points, because forehand is better not to even play there it’s so good.
“Yes, and of course to hold my serve, to mix it up, yeah, that’s the plan, try to move and attack, because she plays aggressive but also, I mean, it’s difficult for her now also after she has a baby and everything, so I had to, like, step in and just try to move and get some shorter balls to finish the point.”