Elena Rybakina wins Wimbledon, for herself and for Kazakhstan, the country she has been competing for since 2018. Russian professionals were not allowed to compete in London, the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, but Moscow is still celebrating.
Elena Rybakina is the 2022 Wimbledon winner, the 23-year-old beat the favorite Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2 and celebrated the greatest success of her career. It was not only the first victory in a Grand Slam tournament for the world number 21, but also the first Grand Slam victory for her country: Rybakina has been starting for Kazakhstan since 2018 and with great conviction: "I've been playing since for Kazakhstan for a long time. They believed in me. There's no doubt about how I feel and I've already competed in the Olympics as a Kazakh," Rybakina said during the tournament. "Kazakhstan supported me so much. Also today there was so much support, I saw the flags."
The problem: Rybakina was born in Russia in 1999, her parents still live in Moscow, where her own center of life is said to be. In response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the organizers of Wimbledon had banned Russian and Belarusian professionals from starting at the tournament. Also knowing that Duchess Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince William, will present the trophies to the winners of the most traditional of all major tennis tournaments. Rybakina holds a Kazakh passport. She is not affected by the ban that made it impossible for Daniil Medvedev, world number one for men, to start.
It would be a highly complicated diplomatic moment for Great Britain and a propaganda success for Russia if a high-ranking member of the royal family congratulated a Russian player on Wimbledon's Center Court on their triumph.
Rybakina's victory is the closest thing to a Russian victory at the Sacred Lawn on Church Road. Tennis legend John McEnroe commented on Rybakina's victory at the BBC: "I don't want to get involved in politics, but she's Russian. It's kind of strange because Russians aren't allowed to play." Britain's Telegraph grumbled, "Wimbledon ended with the very image it had been trying so desperately to prevent. This women's final produced a photo opportunity that had everyone at the Russian Embassy in London roaring over their vodka glasses laughed."
When asked if she feared her victory in Russia could be used politically, Rybakina replied: "I don't know what's going to happen. There will always be some news, but I can't do anything about it." Well, the answer from Moscow was not long in coming: "We contributed a lot to their development," Shamil Tarpishchev, head of the Russian Tennis Union, told the Russian newspaper "Sport-Express". Even before reaching the final, Tarpishechev had made it clear: "She is our product. Of course we care about her." The news agency RIA quoted a euphoric association boss: "It's great! Well done Rybakina! We won Wimbledon."
Rybakina once said that Kazakhstan had created the economic conditions for her to become a professional. "I was looking for help. They believed in me. So I think it was a very good combination. We just found each other. They believed in me. They gave me everything so I could keep playing and improve. I had all the conditions to train and so on. Of course that helped a lot," explained Rybakina of her change of nationality at the age of 19. That wasn't a problem for the Russian association: "Are there any grudges against you? No. It's sport. Everyone chooses their own path. That's their right," assured Tarpishchev.
"From my side I can only say that I represent Kazakhstan. I didn't choose where I was born," said Rybakina, who publicly leaves no doubt about her loyalty to Kazakhstan. It is still emotionally complicated whether she feels Russian or Kazakh: "I mean, that's a difficult question. I was born in Russia, but of course I represent Kazakhstan. It's been a long journey for me." She hugged the President of the Kazakh Tennis Association, Bulat Utemuratov, in the stands. The head of state of the Central Asian country, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, congratulated from a distance on a "historic victory" and the first Grand Slam singles title for Kazakhstan.
Asked about the war earlier in the tournament, she said she wanted it "to be over as soon as possible". In the press conference after the final, she, who is on the professional tour around the world for most of the year, did not want to reveal her opinion on the war in Ukraine instigated by Vladimir Putin: "I don't understand the question, my English is not very good ."
