No one could have predicted the success Elena Rybakina would have when she chose to play tennis for Kazakhstan four years ago. Her decision was rewarded in the summer of 2022 and has been seen as a fortunate one.
Elena Rybakina triumphed against Ons Jabeur to secure the Wimbledon singles title with a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. This victory gives the native Russian the top honor in the sport only a couple of months after tournament organizers prohibited Russian athletes from taking part.
Rybakina started playing for Kazakhstan five years ago when the ex-Soviet nation offered to cover her expenses. She outplayed Jabeur, who was unable to keep up the momentum after starting out strong and eventually succumbed to inconsistency.
Elena Rybakina, aged 23, was somewhat flustered to start, missing shots that would normally be easy and having trouble getting her strong first serve in. However, as the match went on, she was able to build up her momentum and Jabeur was unable to find a response.
Jabeur had the opportunity to even out the set at 3-2 when Rybakina dropped to 0-40, but she was unable to close out the game. From that point, Rybakina was able to breeze through to the end of the match.
At the conclusion of the match, Rybakina strode to the net with a restrained display of emotion as Jabeur, the second-ranked player in the world, missed her final backhand return. Following the match, she ascended the stairs to her box and embraced her team.
Elena Rybakina achieved a historic milestone when she became the first singles player from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam title. Rybakina has competed in eight other championship matches on the WTA Tour, including three at the highest WTA 500 level, and emerged victorious in two of them.
Today on 28 January 2023, Aryna Sabalenka pulled off a remarkable turnaround to defeat Elena Rybakina and secure the Australian Open championship, claiming her first Grand Slam title. Despite dropping the initial set, the powerful Belarusian managed to get the better of her opponent in the final match.
When did Elena Rybakina start playing Tennis?
Elena Rybakina was born in Moscow on 17 June 1999. She began participating in sports with her older sister at a very young age, beginning with gymnastics and ice skating. When it was realized that her height would limit her abilities in those two sports, her father suggested she try tennis due to his own interest in the sport. Rybakina began playing tennis when she was just six years old.
Rybakina left the Dynamo Sports Club and joined Spartak Tennis Club, where she was coached by some of the best coaches in the sport: ex-top-10 player Andrey Chesnokov, ex-top-100 player Evgenia Kulikovskaya and fitness coach Irina Kiseleva, a World Championship gold medalist in modern pentathlon.
Elena Rybakina did not receive specialized training until she was a junior. For the first 15 years of her career, she practiced within a group of approximately eight people; that number decreased to four people when she was 18.
Her daily schedule was split into two parts, with two hours devoted to tennis and three hours dedicated to fitness. As she was attending a conventional high school rather than a school designed for athletes, Rybakina had to find a way to reconcile tennis and academics.
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