Former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has broken down why he thinks Elena Rybakina will find it difficult to play her best tennis at the 2026 Miami Open.<\/p>\n
Rybakina<\/a> climbed to a new career-high ranking of world No 2 on Monday after she was a runner-up at the Indian Wells Open last week.<\/p>\n The two-time Grand Slam champion was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) by world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in a thrilling championship match in Tennis Paradise after having a match point in the third set tiebreak.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old Kazakh will aim to win her maiden title at the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, where she will face either Janice Tjen or Yulia Putintseva in her opening match.<\/p>\n Rybakina was a Miami Open runner-up in 2023 and 2024, and she holds a 12-5 record from her five previous appearances at the event.<\/p>\n Speaking on the Hard Court podcast, Kafelnikov gave his verdict on the favourites to win the Miami Open women\u2019s singles title.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in [the Indian Wells] final, it was noticeable that she (Sabalenka) was a little out of control,\u201d said the two-time Grand Slam winner.\u00a0\u201cThat won\u2019t happen in Miami. In Miami, if you hit it there, the ball will always go inside the court.<\/p>\n Former world No 9 reveals \u2018fantasy for women\u2019s tennis\u2019 as she names potential Big Four<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Miami Open: Alex Eala gets candid about her huge popularity as she makes \u2018surprising\u2019 confession<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more inclined to say Sabalenka will win than, let\u2019s say, [Elena] Rybakina.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that Sabalenka\u2019s chances are preferable. Even [Iga] Swiatek has better chances than Elena.<\/p>\n \u201cElena will have a bit of a hard time because the balls will be heavy, and they\u2019re going to get heavier and heavier with every point.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very hard for her to hit those flat shots.\u201d<\/p>\n Rybakina is seeded third in Miami as the seedings were determined before the latest WTA Rankings update, and she is projected to meet Sabalenka in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n Sabalenka, who is the defending Miami Open champion, is vying to complete the Sunshine Double for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek, the world No 3 and second seed in Miami, is chasing her second title at the tournament in South Florida after her victory in 2022.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Gauff backs Sabalenka, Eala & Fonseca star treatment, Medvedev \u2018third-best player\u2019: Miami Open roundup<\/a> The post Elena Rybakina told she will have \u2018a hard time\u2019 at Miami Open as title favourite revealed<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has broken down why he thinks Elena Rybakina will find it difficult to play her best tennis at the 2026 Miami Open. Rybakina climbed to a new career-high ranking of world No 2 on Monday after she was a runner-up at the Indian Wells Open last week. The two-time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA Tour News<\/h2>\n
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