By Scoop Malinowski
Elena Rybakina executed one of the greatest displays of poetic justice in the history of sport as she overcame Ons Jabeur to win Wimbledon 36 62 62.
The Russian born who now plays for Kazakhstan, showed nerves of steel in outplaying the media and crowd darling no. 3 seed Ons Jabeur with superior play in the pressure moments. The flamboyant Tunisian was the first Arab woman to compete in a Grand Slam final.
Wimbledon decided to ban all Russian and Belarussian players from competing in the tournament so it’s an intriguing irony and poetic justice of sorts, that the Russian born and educated Rybakina was able to rise to the occasion to win Wimbledon and make her silent statement.
This was Rybakina’s second appearance at Wimbledon – she reached the fourth round last year. Since 2019, and before today, Rybakina’s best result in a Grand Slam was QF at Roland Garros last year.
The historic victory unfortunately will not improve Rybakina’s world no. 23 ranking as the WTA has decided to cancel all ranking points from the tournament.
Elena Rybakina · Kazakhstan · Russia · Wimbledon
catherine · July 9, 2022 at 12:02 pm
Kazakhstan, under various names, has been sending junior players to Wimbledon for many years, usually transplanted Russians, but Rybakina is the first to come through. It would be nice to see ethnic Kazakhs taking up the game. Football is the big sport there.
Overall this was a poor W’don for the WTA, many unavoidable absences and then underpar performances. Swiatek’s departure made a big difference IMO. After that there was no dominant player.
Scoop Malinowski · July 9, 2022 at 12:55 pm
Catherine, it definitely was a diluted Wimbledon, but both finals have produced finals the establishment certainly did not want. Very disapppinting for Gauff, Anisimov, Fritz, Alcaraz who blew big opportunities to become Grand Slam champions. Federer showing up for a an hour or two then leaving without watching or supporting any matches from the royal box sums up this Wimbledon. McEnroe implied Rafa would withdraw before the semi because he felt a rested Kyrgios would have the better chance to knock off Novak, also McEnroe implied that Kyrgios is feeling scared before the final vs Novak. McEnroe dropping some interesting comments lately.
catherine · July 12, 2022 at 12:09 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/11/ash-barty-a-lot-of-people-may-still-not-understand-my-decision-to-retire
Words of wisdom from One Who Walked Away.
Scoop Malinowski · July 14, 2022 at 7:15 am
To walk away from the throne and palace as the dominant and happy tennis queen earning easy millions will never make sense to me. We can only speculate on the real reason… “The truth is never told, it has to be learned…”