Elena Rybakina breezed through her First Round match at the French Open. The No. 4-ranked tennis player in the world did not have that same ease with her post-win press conference.
She ran out of things to say because she found all of the questions to be boring and unoriginal.
Rybakina dominated Greeen Minen in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3 to face Arantxa Rus in the second round at Roland Garros on Tuesday. Not long thereafter, the Russian-born Kazakhstani took the podium to discuss her performance. It did not take long before her patience ran thin.
The 24-year-old was very dry in all of her responses and even got sassy!
Rybakina was initially triggered by an inquiry about the weather. She was forced to withdraw from last year’s French Open due to illness so her performance this year was better because she is healthy. It did/does not have anything to do with the conditions and questions of that nature have been asked of her for nearly 365 days now.
In that moment, Rybakina fired back at the media for the first time.
The questions are quite the same, so I don’t know what to say anymore.
— Elena Rybakina
Not long thereafter, a question about the roof led her to roll her eyes. And then it got testy.
Rybakina did not offer any grace to the reporters during three additional questions. She was particularly uninterested in discussing the colors of her outfit. It was legitimately awkward by the end!
Elena Rybakina not impressed with the questions in press today 😂
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 28, 2024
“The questions are quite the same, so I don’t know what to say anymore”
“Simple questions, simple answers. So,
guys, something else?”
pic.twitter.com/TVMwAJyHHe
To some extent, Rybakina is right. All of the questions lobbed in her direction were largely generic and lacked any excitement. There was not anything related to who she is as a player or the match.
Rybakina was bored by extremely boring questions. The fans who watch these press conferences and read the articles they produce are also bored of the monotonousness. Her sass is entirely warranted.
However, with that being said, Elena Rybakina won an uneventful First Round tennis match in straight sets. Reporters did not have much to pull from!