Elena Rybakina Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Elena, welcome back to Dubai. How have your past days here been?

ELENA RYBAKINA: It’s been nice. Staying calm. Today practice. Everything is fine.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you enjoy your time here?

ELENA RYBAKINA: I live here, yes. Busy, like always, especially when you go back home, there’s always things to do.

Yeah, I really loving Dubai. I’ve been practicing and doing pre-season on these courts. Of course, they resurface them. But everything is familiar. So yeah, it’s good.

Q. Mentally after the Australian Open – everything has been crammed with the schedule, Doha and here – did you give yourself a chance to absorb that you won another slam or move on really quickly?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Honestly, it’s really not enough time. When I got back home, I also got a little cold, so I was not celebrating. I was literally in bed for couple of days. Then we had to go to Doha. It’s quite busy schedule.

Of course, you can pick and choose at some point. But I think it’s pity to miss a tournament if you’re at home, that’s for sure.

Yeah, it’s been everything pretty quick. Hopefully I will, yeah, get some rest later on and, yeah, celebrate bigger (smiling).

Q. What is the surface feel most like home for your game after grass?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Which surface I like the most?

Q. After grass.

ELENA RYBAKINA: After grass? Probably the hard courts, yeah. But I think I’ve been having good results on all the surface. Clay is quite short, but also there I had some good results. I think I can play on all the surfaces. Definitely the faster ones better for me, for my game.

Q. You’re getting closer to the No. 1 or No. 2. How does it feel to go for this season not only a Grand Slam, maybe No. 1 also?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, it’s definitely a goal. But depends of course how the other players are going to compete and what results are going to be. The season is so long that I know there is no time to stop, stop working. You need to improve every day. We have so many tournaments. Yeah, you need to catch up and you need to keep on going.

Definitely that’s the goal, to go higher in the ranking, to win another Grand Slam. Yeah, we will see just how this season goes.

Q. (Question regarding demeanor on court.)

ELENA RYBAKINA: I didn’t train this mentality on the court. It’s just my character. I was trying to stay calm when I was younger, not breaking racquets, even if you really wanted.

At that time I didn’t have sponsorship, so I had to really take care of racquets which I have. I kept this probably mentality to try to not show too much emotions, especially it’s negative, yeah.

Q. Your serve is a weapon major. This is nature or…

ELENA RYBAKINA: Definitely a lot of work because it’s quite difficult shot technically. So we worked a lot to get this power and also variety. We are still improving and trying to work on the serve. It’s never enough. Yeah, it’s just the work.

Q. You talked about you didn’t have sponsorships a couple years ago.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Not couple years ago. When I was a kid, playing junior tournaments.

Q. You had to take care of your equipment. Then you have success and trophies. If you were to reflect upon that journey, does that give you a target as to what you want the future to be as well?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Having what?

Q. If you were to just reflect upon that journey, the success and the fame that has come along with you now.

ELENA RYBAKINA: Well, it’s been a lot of years from the junior tennis. Definitely it was incredible journey. Hopefully I can just keep on going and do even better. But yeah, it’s big success.

Of course, when I was young junior, I was not thinking that far. I was not expecting to get such results. But I always believed that I have a game.

It’s a lot of things should come together. You need to have a good team. I was very lucky with a coach. We are still working. After we build a bigger team. Yeah, it’s a lot of work.

Definitely when I was young, I could just dream, but not expecting any of that.

Q. You mentioned that you live here. Does this feel like a home tournament? Have you had a chance to explore and see some of the developments they’ve made with the new Court 1?

ELENA RYBAKINA: Actually, I didn’t even see the new court yet because today was my first practice after Doha. But it’s nice to stay home. Definitely you have your spots, you have some things also to do. Yeah, it’s always nice.

I like this tournament. I like the facility. So yeah…

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports