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WASHINGTON, D.C. – A 500 event, for both the men and women who are top seeds, is always heavily backloaded.

For the seeded men who played their first match on Wednesday in a 48-player draw it means nothing… nothing … and then five matches in five days in in the searing heat if they aspire to the Mubadalala Citi DC Open champion.

For the women, most of the WTA 500 tournaments are 28 draws. Which means the top four seeds have byes.

Which meant that Elena Rybakina, the No. 3 seed, was still sitting in the player lounge at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night waiting to start her tournament.

She would face 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, who straight-setted Anastasia Potapova in the first round Monday after getting a wild card into the main draw.

Finally, afer 8 p.m., they got on court. Rybakina was the last of the 28 players in singles to finally see action.

A lot of practicing

That means a lot of waiting, and practicing through the weekend and well into the week.

So in Rybakina’s case, she decided to play doubles here – a rare appearance in recent years.

Rybakina made the same choice at the new Queen’s Club tournament just before Wimbledon, which was also a WTA 500 with a smaller draw in which she was the No. 4 seed. Before that, it had been more than two years – since the Madrid Open in April, 2023 (which was the fifth of five events she played that year).

While she’s not had a regular partner recently, she’s playing this week with … Emma Raducanu.

Emma Raducanu in D.C. – then (2022) and now (2025)

Yup, that’s about as random as you can get.

They actually practiced together once on the weekend, which set off a few fires on social media before the doubles draw came out because of the incongruity.

It was was pretty amusing, actually. Raducanu was a few minutes late (this is not that unusual), so Rybakina started hitting with … Cameron Norrie.

Norrie’s practice partner showed up, and so Rybakina began hitting with coach Davide Sanguiinetti.

Finally, Raducanu appeared. The two didn’t even exchange glaces. Like not even a hello. Good start for the partnership!

Here’s what it looked like.

The fascinating thing about this hit was the difference in effort required in every stroke.

Raducanu is all muscular swinging – almost a violent swing – to get the power she wants. Meanwhile, Rybakina barely looks like she’s even touching the ball, and it has the same effect.

That’s why tennis is so fascinating. Different sizes and body types and strength levels, but the same playing field.

Doubles rules

A couple of days later on Monday, Rybakina and Raducanu went out to try their luck on the doubles court, ilkely with few expectations.

They faced a seasoned doubles pairing in Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Barnett, Raducanu’s countrywoman. And while Raducanu was quite adept at finishing off smashes at the net whenever Rybakina would hit a dominant serve, the rest of it was a little .. here and there.

And yet, on the strength of that, they ended up winning in a match tiebreak (after almost letting it get away when they were up 9-5, with loads of match points to come.

They will face Giuliana Olmos and Aldila Sutiadji for a spot in the doubles semifinals – but not before a blockbuster showdown on the stadium court between Raducanu and Naomi Osaka.