“Tough day at the office today for me,” Magdalena Rybarikova posted on Instagram, her disappointment tempered by the chance to pose for a selfie with Roger Federer beside the competitors’ transport desk before she left the All England Club. “[He] made my day a little easier,” she added with a smile.
It may have been tough for the Slovakian to sleep on Thursday night after the swift conclusion to her semi-final run at the hands of Garbiñe Muguruza. But when she reflects on all she has achieved since she returned to action in February after a lengthy lay-off, bouncing back from No.453 in the world to the best five weeks of her career on the grass courts of Surbiton, Nottingham, Ilkley and Wimbledon, she’ll soon realise her good night’s sleep is well-earned.
Nerves got the better of her in the biggest match of her career to date, but Rybarikova was the first to admit that even her best might not have been enough to stay with the in-form Spaniard, who surged to a 6-1, 6-1 win in 64 minutes.
“Obviously I'm a little bit disappointed,” the 28-year-old conceded. “But it’s still great. Maybe it's even better – can you imagine [if] I would lose 8-6 in the third? That would be crazy for me. I would be so close. But I was not that close today. She deserved to win completely this match. Next time, for sure, I would like to play better – also for the crowd, obviously.
“I have to say Garbiñe was playing amazing. I never saw her playing that well. Even when I played against her, she never played that good.”
Nevertheless, Magdalena Rybarikova will go down in tennis history as a Wimbledon semi-finalist – a fine return for the world No.87, who missed seven months from July 2016 after undergoing surgeries on her left wrist and right knee.“If somebody would tell me before, I would take it,” said Rybarikova, who is projected to rise to No.33 in the WTA rankings on Monday, two spots short of her career best. “It's for sure good tournament for me.
“I didn't expect I'm going to be semi-final here, but I think I played really good matches. I beat Karolina Pliskova, she's No.1 right now – and with my game. As she also said, she didn't play a bad match, which is great for me.
“I didn't play that well today. But Garbiñe played amazing. I was a little bit nervous, a little bit tired also in my legs. I just wanted to make the game, I wanted to play better, and I could not. So I was not really that relaxed like before.”
Pressure is a privilege, as Billie Jean King famously put it, and Rybarikova hopes she gets the chance to put what she learnt from Thursday’s match into practice by backing up her deep run at The Championships on the sport’s other grand stages.
“The next time I have to be more focused, more prepared for that – it can come like this, she can play that well. Sometimes in practice I play really amazing, so I would like to sometimes play that well on the court during the match.”
