Elena Rybakina stated that she did not feel like a top tennis player in the world after winning the 2022 Wimbledon title.
The world number 5 tennis player made a surprising appearance at the All England Club, London with a fairy tale story that he wrote and ended up winning the first Grand Slam title in his career. Appearing as the 17th seed, she defeated Grand Slam champions Bianca Andreescu and Simona Halep en route to the 2022 Wimbledon final before defeating Ons Jabeur in the final in three sets. At that time, she had only won three WTA tournament titles.
The Kazakh national’s victory occurred when Wimbledon was in a unique situation due to the war in Ukraine. Tennis players of Russian and Belarusian nationality were banned from participating in the Grand Slam, a move that was criticized by the ATP and WTA so that they finally decided to remove ranking points from the Grand Slam. A bit of a bitter blow for a player who could have earned 2,000 points if he had won in another season.
READ ALSO : Stan Wawrinka Jumps First Hurdle In Stockholm
“It’s not easy to get over that win, because after winning a title, you’re like, ‘Wow, I hope it wasn’t just a mistake or luck or whatever’. “In my case, it’s a little different that I didn’t get any points, so I don’t feel that I’m the top tennis player in the world,” said Rybakina.
After victory at Wimbledon, the 24-year-old advanced to one more final in the 2022 season in Slovenia. However, this season she proved her status as the world’s top tennis player by winning two WTA 1000 level tournaments and qualifying for the second Grand Slam final of her career at the Australian Open (losing to Aryna Sabalenka).
“There are a lot of expectations from you and a lot of people are looking at you waiting to see what you will do in the next tournament,” added Rybakina. “But at the same time, you are not treated as a top player in the world because you don’t get points. So, I would say that period was not an easy period for sure.”
Rybakina is currently ranked 5th in the world, two places below her career-high ranking to date. In her last tournament, she reached the semifinals of the China Open in Beijing before losing in straight sets to Liudmila Samsonova.
