Elena Rybakina forced to move man's unwanted hand off her body in awkward moment

Tennis star Elena Rybakina appeared to move a man's hand off her body during an awkward moment at Indian Wells.

Rybakina, 26, has enjoyed a stellar start to the 2026 season, having won the Australian Open back in January.

The Kazakhstan star got the better of world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final in Melbourne, winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

On Wednesday, Rybakina teamed up with American Taylor Fritz as they won the Eisenhower Cup ahead of the Indian Wells tournament, earning a cheque for $200,000 (£150,000).

As reported by the Daily Mail, Rybakina and Fritz were joined by David Renker, senior vice president of Eisenhower Health, during the trophy presentation.

From footage that went viral on social media, Renker was seen putting his arm around Rybakina, who appeared to nudge Renker's hand away.

Rybakina was then seen turning to Renker's direction, who then took a step backwards.

As per the report, Rybakina has yet to address the matter and took to social media to post a selection of photos featuring Fritz.

SPORTbible has contacted Eisenhower Health for comment.

Where are the WTA, Pam Shriver and the other woke pundits now. They allegedly care about Rybakina 😠 This old fella is clearly inappropriately touching Elena pic.twitter.com/QTwSsgfiFD

— Nick Ally ✝️ (@nick_ally1986) March 4, 2026

Rybakina and Sabalenka speak out on five-set matches at Grand Slams

Ahead of Indian Wells, one of the major talking points has been whether women's matches in the second week of a Grand Slam should be extended to best-of-five sets.

Speaking about the matter, Rybakina said: "I think it's a huge [proposed] change, to be honest, even if it's only second week.

"You start in one format and then it gets longer, so mentally you also need to be ready to play so many sets if it goes to that point."

She continued: "I also don't think it would be interesting for the people [fans], because maintaining the level for so many sets is going to be quite difficult.

"As a player, I would say I wouldn't want to play three out of five, to be honest."

However, Sabalenka was all for the change. She said: "Yeah, let's ⁠do that.

"I feel like I would have probably more Grand Slams. I feel like physically I'm really strong, and I'm pretty confident that my body can handle that. So let's do it."