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Elena Rybakina has shared her plans for the off-season after concluding her year with a stellar victory at the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh. The Kazakh revealed that she had some lingering health concerns to address before she could relax and unwind with her family.After a mad dash to secure her spot in the WTA Finals, Rybakina triumphed over Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova and Ekaterina Alexandrova to go undefeated in the group stage. The World No. 5 then overcame Jessica Pegula in the semifinals and claimed a 6-3 7-6(0) victory over Aryna Sabalenka in the final to clinch the year-end championships title for the first time in her career.Speaking to the WTA about her post-win plans, Elena Rybakina disclosed that she intended to spend a few days in Europe to undergo some medical tests for recurring illness issues. After that, the Kazakh planned to finally spend some quality time with her family before heading home to Dubai to unwind and gradually resume training."I’m going to spend a couple of days in Europe, different cities. Mostly for the health, some tests. I’ve been having some [illness] issues that went away and are coming back. And then I’ll see my family. Since I live in Dubai, there are good places to train. So I think I’m going to stay there, in one place. Looking forward to a rest," Rybakina said.Rybakina revealed her plans to visit her family shortly after fans expressed concern about her family being "missing" from her player's box and celebrations at the WTA Finals. Fans were especially alarmed by the 26-year-old's sister Anna's absence, since she used to be a regular fixture at tournaments. Instead, Rybakina commemorated the victory with her controversial coach Stefano Vukov and team."It's definitely a huge amount" - Elena Rybakina on taking home record $5.2 million prize after WTA Finals winElena Rybakina with her WTA Finals trophy - Source: GettyBy triumphing at the 2025 WTA Finals, Elena Rybakina earned a record $5,235,000 in prize money. In her post-match press conference, the Kazakh said that she hadn't paid any mind to the "huge" amount on the line during the final but planned to celebrate the feat with her team and family."Well it's definitely a huge amount and honestly I didn't think about any of that so much but of course it's great and we definitely need to celebrate really well with the team, family and everyone," Elena Rybakina said.Rybakina also shared that her triumph at the year-end championships has given her the motivation to work even harder and make a strong start to the 2026 season."Well, I hope so. All that happened this week, I can bring to the next season. It gives me so much more motivation to work even more because we did good progress in the little blocks between the tournaments. Physically, even when I wasn’t at my best, we did a good job," she said in the aforementioned interview with the WTA.Elena Rybakina ended the 2025 season as the World No. 5 with three titles under her belt. She will be on the hunt for her second Grand Slam title when she returns to action in Australia next year.
