Elena Rybakina caused quite a stir on social media not just because of how well she performed in her opening win at Roland Garros but also because of her brazen voice in her press conference.
Rybakina played her first match in three weeks after missing her title defense at the Italian Open because of illness. But she quickly returned to winning ways as she blitzed past Greet Minnen 6-2, 6-3.
It was a perfect way to kick off her French Open campaign, although she will need to polish up her serve, which was broken three times by the Belgian. The most surprising part of the day was not Rybakina’s shaky delivery but her blunt response to calling out reporters for their way of questioning.
The 24-year-old Kazakhstani felt that she had addressed some of the questions in the previous interviews and demanded better questions. Several journalists did not take kindly to the former Wimbledon champion’s conduct, with American tennis writer Ben Rothenberg far from impressed.
“Oleg said it in my last RT, but honestly, for a player to whine about not getting prime court slots and media and then to be aggressively insolent in press when folks are trying to make her interesting…just a fundamental ignorance of how to succeed in the entertainment industry.”