Instead of celebrating the achievement of winning her first major title after defeating Tunisian Anas Jaber in the final of Wimbledon, the third of the four tennis tournaments, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina collapsed, as a result of the barrage of questions about her Russian roots to reply, “I did not choose the place where she was born.”
“They would be super proud” ????
Elena Rybakina was asked how her parents would react to her being crowned Wimbledon champion#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/HOKUL4pFfQ
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2022
Wimbledon was held in the absence of the Russians and Belarusians due to the ban imposed on them by the organizers due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Born in Moscow but representing Kazakhstan since 2018, Rybakina defended her colors at the Tokyo Olympics last summer and the Fed Cup, which is now named after former American star Billie Jean King.
After reaching the fourth round last year in her first participation in the main draw of the English Championship, Rybakina made a giant stride in this version by reaching her first final in the “Grand Slam”, which made the English media in particular focus on her Russian roots.
In the press conference that followed her crowning the title after her victory in the final against Tunisia’s second in the world Anas Jaber 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, Rybakina was asked whether the Russian government would politicize her victory in the English championship.
Her answer was, “I don’t know what will happen. The news is always there, but I can’t do anything about it. I’ve been playing for Kazakhstan for a long time. I represent them in the biggest tournaments, in the Olympics, which was a dream come true.”
The “product” of Russian tennis
But Russia soon adopted this victory through the head of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarbyshev, who had previously described Rybakina as a “product” of Russian tennis.
Commenting on Rybakina’s achievement, Tarbyshev was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency, saying, “It’s great! Well done Rybakina! We won Wimbledon.”
Since Rybakina qualified, Tarbyshev has been very enthusiastic. “It’s good that Elena qualified for the Wimbledon final, she is the product of Russian tennis. Of course, it would be even better if she won the title. We will support her.”
Rybakina’s parents live in Moscow, and throughout the tournament she was reluctant to explain how much time she was spending in Russia.
When pressed Saturday at the press conference by calling for her to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, Rybakina demanded that people understand her situation.
“I didn’t choose where I was born. People believed in me. Kazakhstan supported me a lot. Until today I heard a lot of support. I saw the flags. So I don’t know how to answer these questions,” she said with great emotion.
Routine handshake on the net
Rybakina wept towards the end of her press conference when asked to describe her parents’ reaction to their daughter’s Grand Slam win, saying, “Maybe they will be very proud. You wanted me to show emotion… She held out for so long” before showing emotion and tears in her eyes.
Rybakina celebrated the first major title of her career with a routine handshake on the net without much emotion.
Jaber commented that she will have to teach the new heroine how to celebrate this important moment.
But Rybakina explained, “I’m always very calm. Maybe because I believed in myself that I could do it (win the title).”
Rybakina admitted that she was very nervous in the first set, on Saturday, when she dropped serve twice and committed 17 direct faults.
But she regained her composure to dominate the confrontation in the second and third sets and win 12 out of 16 games.
“Today I was very nervous. I think I didn’t enjoy the match as much as I should. I enjoyed more in the semi-finals,” she said, when she eliminated 2019 champion Simona Halep.
Rybakina earned $2.4 million for winning the title, but what interests her more than anything is to become a life member of the All England Club, a privilege reserved for all champions, and “that sounds great”.