{"id":284752,"date":"2025-11-26T17:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284752\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T17:44:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:44:23","slug":"elena-rybakina-makes-feelings-clear-after-aryna-sabalenkas-alleged-wta-finals-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284752\/","title":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina makes feelings clear after Aryna Sabalenka’s alleged WTA Finals comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elena Rybakina has revealed that she has \u201cgood feelings\u201d for Aryna Sabalenka despite the Belarusian attracting criticism for an alleged remark after their WTA Finals encounter.<\/p>\n

In the final official WTA Tour match of the season, Rybakina<\/a> produced a clinical display to beat world No 1 Sabalenka<\/a> 6-3, 7-6(0) and lift the WTA Finals title in Riyadh, triumphing at the event for the first time.<\/p>\n

It was Rybakina\u2019s first \u2018big\u2019 title since her triumph at the 2023 Italian Open, and her unbeaten campaign saw her take home a historic $5,235,000 in prize money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both women had embarked on impressive campaigns heading into the final, with top seed Sabalenka picked by many as the favourite ahead of sixth seed Rybakina.<\/p>\n

However, while she was the US Open champion in 2025<\/a>, Sabalenka was handed another big final defeat after prior losses at the Australian Open and French Open earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

The four-time Grand Slam champion was evidently disgruntled after losing the final in Riyadh, and went over to her player\u2019s box to vent her frustrations.<\/p>\n

Russian speakers on social media revealed that Sabalenka appeared to mutter the Russian saying \u201conce a year even the stick shoots\u201d when talking to her team.<\/p>\n

The phrase was apparently said in reference to the nature of Rybakina\u2019s performance, and attracted criticism from some quarters online \u2014 though some also came to Sabalenka\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

Tennis News<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff topped 2025 WTA double fault count by a staggering amount<\/a><\/p>\n

The historic prize money milestone hit by Aryna Sabalenka & Iga Swiatek in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

However, speaking to Tengri News<\/a> in a new interview, world No 5 Rybakina revealed that she had not taken offence to the world No 1\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

She said (translated from Russian): \u201cThey told me after the match, but it was in context.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played with Aryna many times, and more than once this year, so I don\u2019t really focus on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have good feelings for both Aryna and her team, so I don\u2019t take it to heart, even if it was actually said to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was also playing for a record payday of $5,235,000 at the WTA Finals, having also made the championship match unbeaten.<\/p>\n

However, it was Rybakina who made history, with the Kazakh\u2019s prize money payout the biggest ever awarded at an official tennis event.<\/p>\n

It topped the $5,000,000 awarded to Carlos Alcaraz and Sabalenka for their US Open triumphs in September, and remained ahead of Jannik Sinner\u2019s payday for his ATP Finals triumph.<\/p>\n

Rybakina was asked if she felt it was fair that the WTA Finals offered more prize money than the four Grand Slams, and responded by suggesting that tennis\u2019 biggest events were set to increase their offerings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow fair is this? I think we\u2019re aiming for more tournaments to increase their prize pools,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think it\u2019s just a matter of time. In a couple of years, I\u2019m sure other tournaments will follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, of course, the prize money is very large, and I\u2019m incredibly happy that I managed to achieve this result. The previous generation\u2019s struggle to raise the prize money has now begun to bear fruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that everything is moving in one direction, and it will become more stable in the future, maybe not in a year or two, but in the future 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of her WTA Finals triumph, Rybakina was also the champion at two WTA 500 events in 2025, lifting the Strasbourg International and Ningbo Open titles.<\/p>\n

However, it was a challenging year at times across the biggest events, with the 26-year-old failing to reach a WTA 1000 final or make a Grand Slam quarter-final.<\/p>\n

After her stunning triumph in Riyadh, all eyes will be on whether the Kazakh can again establish herself as a significant force in the women\u2019s game in 2026.<\/p>\n

Read Next: Aryna Sabalenka 2026 tennis schedule: Can world No 1 hold on to top spot?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina has revealed that she has \u201cgood feelings\u201d for Aryna Sabalenka despite the Belarusian attracting criticism for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-284752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}