Russian-born champion was able to compete at Wimbledon thanks to her switch of national allegiance in 2018
yesterday on Saturday as Elena Rybakina became the first player from Kazakhstan to win a grand slam singles title. Nervous initially, her 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Ons Jabeur means her name will be forever associated with Wimbledon.
“For sure,” her coach, Stefano Vukov, said. “Hopefully not only in Kazakhstan but all over the world. I mean she showed what she can do. And hopefully all around the world people are going to start recognising her.” “This is the least of the problems – obviously, there are bigger problems. But we were expecting all of this. It’s normal.
“I remember that the [club] memberships and kids signing up for the sport of tennis, which definitely wasn’t at the top of people’s list [of things] for kids to do, that just skyrocketed when Justine [Henin, another former world No 1] and I started to do well,” she said. “That had a huge impact.”