Tennis News: Elena Rybakina, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal

Elena Rybakina is not going to be in the WTA Finals semifinals after she lost her first two matches of the event. Still, she saved some face and gained some confidence for 2025 by defeating WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in her third and final match. That included her dominating the third set 6-1.

Rybakina should have a fresh approach next season as she dismissed her long-time coach and recently hired Goran Ivanisevic to replace Stefano Vukov. The Croatian should be able to make the Kazakh's serve even more of a weapon. The task will be to fully rebuild her confidence after years of Vukov tearing Rybakina down.

By defeating top-ranked Sabalenka, Rybakina became the fourth woman since the WTA rankings were introduced to defeat a No. 1 ranked player at least six times over a two year span. The other players to complete the feat were Tracy Austin (1979-80), Venus Williams (1999-2000), and Lindsay Davenport (2000-2001). Clearly, Rybakina is capable of greatness, and she just needs to be more consistent overall.

Elena Rybakina ends her year well and Novak Djokovic will be missed

Another former pupil of Ivanisevic's, Novak Djokovic, is nearing the end of his career. He might still play an abbreviated schedule next year, but one event he won't be playing soon is the ATP Finals. The Serb decided to withdraw from the tournament citing injury concerns. He had previously made it known that the ATP Finals were not a priority of his anymore.

Jannik Sinner said that Djokovic "will be missed by everyone" at the event, though. Speaking to an audience at a recent Lavazza event, Sinner said, "Nole gave so much to the Italian public and people wanted to see him play. We are very sorry that he is not here but this is sport, it happens that a player misses tournaments. The season has been long and in any case here there are eight great players, we hope it will be a great tournament. Nole will be missed by everyone."

Rafael Nadal's send-off might be awkward

Another player who isn't involved in the ATP Finals is the retiring Rafael Nadal. He previously announced that his last tournament would be the Davis Cup at the end of November. The complication with his send-off, though, is that no one knows exactly what date it will be. Spain could lose early in the finals which means Nadal's retirement ceremony would be days before the final.

This causes scheduling conflicts for the many players and fellow athletes who might want to attend the goodbye to Nadal. This includes Djokovic and Roger Federer, as well as well-known athletes from other sports. Let's just hope the send-off goes smoothly and timely because Nadal deserves that.

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