Every week Baseline will select a “Player of the Week.” That athlete may not always win the highest category tournament that week, but perform the best compared to their recent playing history.
To understand Magdalena Rybarikova’s journey in 2017 takes going back to where it started in February: Altenkirchen—a town of about 6,000 people in western Germany. There, she opened her season playing a $25,000 event that paid her $1,144 before taxes for reaching the semifinals.
The former world No. 31 was down to No. 200 following wrist and knee surgeries, and while it wasn’t glamorous, an ITF Pro Circuit event was a start, and not as easy start at that.
“Eight years ago, playing at that level, it was much more different and the girls didn’t play that well. Right now, they really play quite well,” Rybarikova told WTA Insider last week. “I lost easily there [in the semifinals], but my body was destroyed. I had a few tough matches along the way, but I was happy with how I played. I was positive and really glad to have no pain.”
It was not about making the semifinals, winning the title or even losing in the first round, which the Slovakian said “wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world.” It was about playing pain-free, and beginning the road back to where she once was, despite the total prize fund in Altenkirchen being significantly less than the check a first-round loser receives at Wimbledon.
