Seeing Federer made me nervous

BUT ELENA BEATS JITTERS

- Alex Spink

ELENA RYBAKINA suffered an attack of nerves in front of Roger Federer before making a winning start to her title defence. 

The Kazakh was taken the distance by Shelby Rogers on her return to the scene of last year’s final triumph against Ons Jabeur.

Afterwards she admitted being watched by her idol had brought on a wobble and left her needing to dig deep to win 4-6 6-1 6-2.

“I was really nervous, I couldn’t hide it,” said Rybakina, whose match followed a tribute to eighttime champion Federer and a standing ovation that lasted several minutes as he took his seat.