LONDON — You would never have known Elena Rybakina had just won Wimbledon.
As Ons Jabeur pushed the forehand wide, sealing Rybakina’s first Grand Slam, she clenched her left fist in celebration in the direction of her box. The new champion met with Jabeur at the net, gave the crowd one wave and that was it, save for a relieved exhale. Nothing else, as if this was a first-round match.
Meanwhile, those in her box were clapping, hugging, crying and smiling.
“It’s so unexpectable these two weeks, what happened,” Rybakina said. “It was such a tough match mentally and physically, so in the end I was just super happy that it finished. In this moment I just didn’t believe that I made it. But same time it’s, like, too many emotions. I was just trying to keep myself calm. Maybe one day you will see huge reaction from me, but unfortunately not today. Today I was too stressed out.”
As the presentation was being arranged, she stayed in her seat. Then a couple of minutes later after finishing the match, it dawned on her she’d just won Wimbledon, and she made the trip up to the stands, via the nearest gangway, to hug those closest to her. It was all very muted as she became the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles title.
“I need to teach her how to celebrate,” Jabeur said.
FROM 100-1 ODDS! WHAT A COMEBACK!
Elena Rybakina becomes the youngest Wimbledon women’s champion since 2011 🏆 pic.twitter.com/sKSu7xQ3yV
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 9, 2022
She said to the press later that she had bottled up her emotions, and the whole time she was on court doing her interview she was telling herself not to cry. Perhaps those tears would come later when she had her first moment alone, she said. But it was near the end of the news conference when they pushed through, after she was asked what that victory would mean for her parents.
“You wanted to see emotion,” she said, tears on her cheeks. “I kept it too long.”
For the past two weeks she has picked her way through the draw, but the questions she faced were as much about her tournament run as they were heritage. Here she was representing Kazakhstan, having switched allegiance from Russia in 2018. She has fielded plenty of questions on her nationality, having been born in Moscow, in a time in tennis where players from Russia and Belarus are banned from competing because of the invasion of Ukraine. Each time she deflected that line away, talking instead of her pride at playing for…
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