Elena Rybakina has played fabulous tennis this year, but she's also dealt with many physical issues, which prevented her from really going on a tear.
When the Kazakhstani player played this year, she played really well. For example, she won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and beat Iga Swiatek along the way to the trophy. That's a WTA 500 clay event where the Pole dominated before, and that's also what made the win impressive.
Unfortunately, she wasn't able to build upon that in recent weeks because she was dealing with some physical issues, which was very annoying for her. She's an amazing player but is starting to experience issues a lot more than recently, which halts her progress.
She was asked about it ahead of Roland Garros because last year's event was going really well for her until an illness cut her run short. She obviously wants to avoid that this year, especially with how she has struggled in recent weeks.
"Of course now I'm feeling much better, and it's always a pity to miss these big tournaments. But if the health issues are there, then you cannot do anything."
While much of the tennis discourse in recent weeks has been around Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, who admittedly have been playing superb tennis lately, Rybakina is a top-level player who can do some damage on clay.
She needs to be healthy, though, because the margins are so small that she needs to be at her peak to challenge the top two. She's seemingly healthy ahead of this event, but she'll also need to stay healthy.
Ultimately, missing a few weeks and not really playing outdoors on clay may have some impact on her. The draw favors her because she drew Greet Minnen in the first round.
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