Elena Rybakina overturned all predictions and won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon by beating Ons Jabeur in the final with a score of 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. The 23-year-old born in Moscow was able to avoid the embargo imposed by the organizers of the Championships thanks to the choice made four years ago, when she decided to leave Russia and take the passport of Kazakhstan.
Despite the statements made by Rybakina during the last press conferences held in London, her success on the lawsns of the All England Club has become a topic of strong discussion and has sparked a real controversy between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Leaving aside the political aspects of the story, the success achieved by Rybakina seems to have changed the mentality of a large number of Russian athletes. The Vice President of the Kazakh Tennis Federation Yuriy Polskiy has announced that more than Russian players under 18 have submitted an official request to change their citizenship.
Numerous Russian athletes in the footsteps of Elena Rybakina
Polskiy explained: “To date, we have recorded more than thirty questions. They are mostly children aged 12 and up. There are also professionals, adult tennis players who would like to change citizenship.
But not everyone can, because if you’ve represented the biggest team in one country in the Davis Cup or the Billie Jean King Cup, you can’t play for another country. Of the current Russian team, I mean both male and female, many athletes have thought of becoming Kazakhs.
But some requests were not accepted for several reasons. It is an ongoing process. It happened a month ago and will happen in five or ten years. Right now we have received a lot of requests from players from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
We are smart enough to choose only the players we are interested in, because our tennis players remain the priority.” Rybakina’s exploit has certainly prompted many tennis players from her own country to move in this direction.