Rybakina Chases Repeat Glory In Stuttgart

Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina (photo: Porsche AG)

STUTTGART/WASHINGTON, April 16, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Finally, World No. 2 Elena Rybakina has returned to defend her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title.

Although Jelena Ostapenko is the defending champion of the event, having won last year’s title (and was eliminated in the first round on Wednesday), Rybakina missed coming to Stuttgart last year to defend her 2024 Porsche title. Thus, she enters this year’s event as the top seed and will bring a four-match winning streak in the WTA 500 indoor clay-court event onto Porsche Arena when she faces Diana Shnaider of Russia in her first match Thursday afternoon.

“Yeah, it’s really nice to be back. I didn’t play last year, but yeah, really excited to start here my clay court season,” Rybakina said during her pre-tournament news conference on Tuesday.

“Well, I think indoor, it’s easier to play, no conditions, no sun, no wind. Honestly, I have been practicing now mostly indoor also.

“I think it’s great to start here. Even if it’s not outdoor and maybe not real clay, you still slide, and as a start, I think it’s really nice.”

Rybakina has been idle since playing in the Sunshine Double at Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open. The Russian-born Kazakh, who brings a 21-5 win-loss record into play in Stuttgart, lost both the Indian Wells final to World No. 1 and fell in the Miami semifinals to World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka, a four-time finalist in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, pulled out of the tournament last week due to an undisclosed injury that paved the way for Rybakina to ascend to the top seed in this year’s event.

The 26-year-old Rybakina, whose goal is to reach the No. 1 ranking, was asked if Sabalenka’s absence gives her any extra motivation to win the Stuttgart title.

“I don’t really think about it so much, because she’s not here, but I still need to perform,” she said. “That’s the first thing. And if I do the right things, I think the most important to get, achieve this and somehow to maintain, and it’s very difficult, yeah, difficult goal, and I’m working for it, so hopefully it will happen.

“But I don’t really look at the points each tournament. I just know that I need to do well, at this point to come almost till the end of the tournament no matter what I play. Yeah, it’s mostly about improvement and consistency. If it happens, it’s great.”

Rybakina is coming off a stellar 56-19 season in 2025, in which she won titles at Strasbourg, France; Ningbo, China; and the WTA Finals season-ender in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This year, she’s won the Australian Open.

“Well, of course I’m proud of the work we did with the team,” Rybakina said. “For now, it’s been consistent, the result, and the way I played from end of last year and this year too.

“I played also after Australia, which was really short time, but I played Doha, Dubai. Wasn’t feeling the best, but overall, I’m really happy with all the tournaments, all the matches I played.

“Some matches was really close, but in the end, the consistency for now is there, and I’m just hoping to maintain and keep on going.”

Turkey’s Sonmez earns first Top-10 victory

In her Stuttgart debut, 79th-ranked Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey scored the first Top-10 win of her career with her 6-2, 6-2 victory over World No. 8 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, in one hour and 15 minutes to start the day on Centre Court.

Sonmez hit 19 winners, made just nine unforced errors, saved the only break point she faced from the fifth-seeded Paolini and broke her opponent four times in 12 opportunities. She outpointed Paolini 64-46. The Italian No. 1 struck 15 winners but committed 25 unforced errors.

“I think from the first point till the last point, I was feeling the ball well,” Sonmez said during her post-match news conference. “Even from the first game, I felt like it’s going to be a good match, you know. I was feeling the ball. I was feeling good on the court when I was moving, when I was going to the net or serving and everything.”

During her on-court interview, Sonmez gave props to Paolini. “It was a pleasure to share the court with Jasmine; she’s a great player,” she said. “I really enjoyed playing against her. This was the biggest win in my career, so I am very happy.”

The victory leveled Sonmez’s WTA Tour-level win-loss record in 2026 at 7-7. In all competitions, she’s 13-8. Earlier this season, Sonmez became the first Turkish woman to reach the third round of the Australian Open.

“This is just the second time I’ve played against a Top-10 player, so I’m not very experienced about it,” Sonmez admitted. “I’m trying to focus on my game and what I need to do. I’m trying to focus on my game, focus on my plan, focus on myself. I’m trying to lift my level up every point, every match. I thought I did it very well today.”

On Thursday, Sonmez will face No. 25 Leylah Fernandez of Canada for a berth in the quarterfinal round.

Swiatek garners first win under Roig partnership

World No. 4 and third seed Iga Swiatek, a two-time Stuttgart champion, earned her 104th career victory on clay – and her first of this season – with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 51 Laura Siegemund of Germany in 90 minutes, during a featured Wednesday evening match on Centre Court.

The victory for the former World No. 1 was her 14th lifetime against German opponents, whom she’s never lost a tour-level match to, and it was her first match and victory under the partnership of new coach Francisco Roig. She’s now 104-15 lifetime on red clay.

“Even though I’m an experienced player, it’s still a new thing for me,” Swiatek said during her on-court interview, after improving her win-loss record this season to 13-6. “I haven’t changed coaches often in my career, but I feel it’s always exciting because you get to know different points of view from a person that is supposed to be with you every day on the court.

“So, I think you need to be open-minded and try to soak in this new approach. And I feel like with Francisco, we have a similar view in terms of how I should play. The other thing is actually doing it on court. So, this will, I think, take a little bit more time, but the idea is there, the attitude and work are there, so I’m happy to start this process.”

Against Siegemund, Swiatek dropped just six first-serve points, winning 78 percent (21 of 27) of her first serves. She converted five of 11 break-point opportunities and outpointed her opponent 62-42.

Swiatek said she’s happy to be back on clay, especially in Stuttgart.  “I love playing here, so it’s really nice to be back,” she said. “It wasn’t the easiest match because Laura wants to change the rhythm a lot, so it wasn’t like the practices. It was the opposite, with a lot of drop shots and slices that you need to adjust to. So, I’m happy that I did well and kept focused on my tasks.”

In the quarterfinals on Friday, Swiatek will face either qualifier Alycia Parks of the United States or World No. 9 Mirra Andreeva of Russia, who play on Thursday.

Around Porsche Arena

• Qualifier Alycia Parks of the United States ended the hopes of 195th-ranked German wild card Noma Noha Akugue, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the second round against World No. 9 Mirra Andreeva after the 18-year-old sixth-seeded Russian rallied to defeat defending champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, in two hours and 22 minutes – the longest match of the day.

The 95th-ranked Parks, who qualified for the main draw with earlier wins over Eva Bennemann of Germany and Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria, picked up her eighth tour-level win in 17 matches this season and is 13-11 in all competitions. Meanwhile, Noha Akugue, who won a pair of ITF titles earlier this year in Altenkirchen, Germany and Helsinki, Finland, fell to 0-1 tour-level (5-6 tour-level lifetime) and is 19-8 in all competitions in 2026. She was appearing in her first WTA 500 main draw.

The 25-year-old Parks, who hit five aces and struck 22 winners overall, broke her opponent four times in 10 opportunities. She outpointed the 22-year-old Noha Akugue 57-48.

• Andreeva overcame 10 double faults and five breaks of her serve by hitting 11 aces and broke Ostapenko’s serve seven times during their first-round match. Andreeva, who was on court just three days after winning her second WTA Tour title of the season at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Sunday, outpointed Ostapenko 107-99 to collect her 19th  victory of the season.

“This match was tough today,” Andreeva said in her news conference. “She’s a very tough opponent to face, especially in the first round. Yeah, the match was tricky. I felt like I obviously didn’t play as good as I wanted, but just super happy with the win and happy to advance further.”

Andreeva added: “If the week in Linz showed me one thing, it’s that I always have to believe in myself.”

• No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina needed just 54 minutes to defeat No. 78 Eva Lys of Germany, 6-1, 6-0, and move into the quarterfinals at Stuttgart for the third time. She dropped just seven points on her first serve, saved all four break points she faced and converted six of 12 break-point opportunities against Lys. Svitolina outpointed her opponent 60-33. 

After an emotional first-round win against former World No. 2 Paula Badosa of Spain on Tuesday, Lys said of her loss to Svitolina: “It’s naturally annoying that things didn’t go better today as I hadn’t completely recovered. But my knee stood up and that’s the most important thing.”

Next, Svitolina will face either World No. 13 and eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia or World No. 14 Linda Noskova of Czechia, who play Thursday afternoon.

• In doubles, Linz runners-up Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Quinn Gleason of the United States upset No. 3 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Desirae Krawcyzk of the United States, 6-2, 6-2, to move into the quarterfinal round. Next, they will face Americans Alycia Parks and Alana Smith.

No. 2 seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 comeback victory over Eri Hozumi of Japan and Fang-Hsieh Wu of Taiwan. Next, they will face Alexandra Panova of Russia and Yang Zhaoxuan of China.

No. 4 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Liudmila Samsonova of Russia advanced to the semifinals with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 victory over Leylah Fernandez of Canada and Fanny Stollar of Hungary.

Wednesday’s Stuttgart results

Thursday’s Stuttgart order of play

By the numbers

In the 49th edition of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Zeynep Sonmez is the first player from Turkey to be featured in the main draw of the event.

“Quotable …”

“I’ve not gone [home] very much lately because I’m traveling a lot [playing the Tour]. But when I go back, sometimes in a supermarket, [people] recognize me and it’s pretty crazy to me. I’m not used to that. However, it feels great when I go back home. People know me sometimes and they want to take a picture or they want an autograph. It feels great, of course.”

– Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey, during her on-court interview after upsetting World No. 8 and fifth seed Jasmine Paolini, on dealing with being the top professional tennis player at home in Turkey.

 

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