'It's Not Like It Was Roger Or Djokovic': Rybakina Downplays WTA's Big Three

| by Balasz Virag

Elena Rybakina doesn't really understand the whole WTA Big Three narrative around Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and herself.

Six months of the WTA calendar have passed and we can conclusively say that three players performed quite a bit better than the rest of the field on the WTA Tour. If you venture to our dedicated rankings page you will see that Iga Swiatek still leads ahead of Aryna Sabalenka who is not far behind at number two, with Elena Rybakina at number three.

The first two are quite clear of the rest of the field while Rybakina is barely holding on at number three. If she had the 2000 points from Wimbledon last year she would be at 7000 which makes the Big Three talk make a lot more sense. All three of them have 30+ wins on the year making them the only WTA players to have won over 30 matches this year.

2023 Season Wins WTA Leaderboard:

Player WTA Tour-Level Wins
Iga Swiatek 36
Aryna Sabalenka 36
Elena Rybakina 32
Jelena Ostapenko 28
Djokovic Reveals Why His Documentary Keeps Getting Postponed
Djokovic Reveals Why His Documentary Keeps Getting Postponed

Besides that, you can also see the trophy wins. Those three are pretty dominant entities when it comes to big event winners this year. Even so, they don't seem to be receptive to the big three talk. Swiatek dismissed talk about it admitting that she only focuses on herself and not other players.

Elena Rybakina doesn't really understand it either as she thinks it hasn't been that long, certainly not like the Big Three Era on the ATP Tour. She also thinks that there are other great players that can disrupt the 'dominance'.

Well, I hear that only on the press conferences. I don't follow so much on the Internet. I think just from the past results people are saying that. There is still a lot of good players.

I think it's too early to say anything about just three players because it's not like it was Roger or Djokovic. It's still too far. That's why I don't really focus on that. Yeah, anyone still can beat anyone.

She's right, there are plenty of great players but we've yet to see it this year. The Australian Open was won by Sabalenka who also won Madrid. Rybakina won the Indian Wells Masters as well as the Rome Masters. Swiatek won the French Open recently leaving the Miami Open won by Kvitova and Dubai won by Krejcikova as the only big events that weren't won by the WTA Big Three.

Disrespectful Farewell: Kontaveit Moved To Court Without Seating At Wimbledon
Disrespectful Farewell: Kontaveit Moved To Court Without Seating At Wimbledon

Read the full article

Just in

Look at more articles