WIMBLEDON, England — Elena Rybakina defeated Ons Jaber to win the Wimbledon singles title on Saturday, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, giving a player born and raised in Russia the sport’s most prestigious championship for a while more than two months after the tournament, organizers banned players representing Russia from participating.
Rybakina, who began representing Kazakhstan four years ago after the former Soviet republic agreed to fund her career, beat Jabert, who faltered and succumbed to inconsistency after taking an early lead.
The 23-year-old Rybakina was nervous and erratic at the start, missing long seemingly easy rally balls and struggling to get her dangerous first serve down the court, but settled down as the match wore on. After finding his rhythm, Jabert had few answers. She had a chance to draw even in the third set when Rybakina was 0-40 down, serving at 3-2, but Jabert was unable to close out the game and Rybakina crossed the finish line from there.
On the final point, Rybakina saw Jaber, the world No. 2, send one final backhand return wide and pounce at the net in barely jubilant celebration. A few minutes later she walked up the stairs to her box to hug her team.
It was Rybakina’s first Grand Slam title and the first for a player representing Kazakhstan, which has hired several men and women from Russia to represent it in tennis over the past 15 years, funding their development as part of efforts to make the country more attractive to The West.
This was a match that was never going to lack history, no matter who won.
Jaber, 27, from Tunisia, was the first Arab woman and the first African woman to reach a Wimbledon final, as well as the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final. She is Muslim and the match fell on Kurban Bayram – the holiday of sacrifice. The holiday commemorates the story of how Allah asked Abraham to sacrifice his son as a sign of faith.
There was a time when it seemed like every year an American would play for that championship on the 4th of July. But the sport and its calendar have changed. The Wimbledon final takes place a week later, and American players, like those from every other country that has dominated tennis for most of the last 100 years, face far greater competition from places where the sport has only just taken off. recently.
“I feel very sad, but that’s tennis. There is only one winner,” Jabert said while holding the runner-up trophy. “I’m trying to inspire many generations for my country.”
Rybakina told the crowd on Center Court that it was an honor to play in front of the royal box. She also thanked Bulat Utemuratov, the billionaire president of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation, for believing in her.
“I’ve never felt anything like this,” she said as Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, stood a few feet away. Prince William did not attend the match. Kate was accompanied on court by Ian Hewitt, chairman of the All England Club and the man responsible for explaining the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players in April.
Rybakina, the 23rd-ranked player in the world, had never reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam before this week. Tall, long and powerful with one of the most dangerous serves in the game, she was born in Russia and lived there until she came of age. Her parents still live in Russia.
After turning 18, she accepted the opportunity to receive funding for her tennis career from Kazakhstan. She represented Kazakhstan at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Her run to the final led to an awkward tournament, bringing politics into the fray after tournament organizers tried to keep them at bay by barring a Russian and Belarusian player due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The organizers took this step at the behest of the British government and the royal family. The Duchess of Cambridge traditionally presents the trophy to the Wimbledon winner. Few in Britain wanted to see her give it to a Russian, while Britain was among the leaders in providing aid and arms to Ukraine.
On the court, Jaber and Rybakina also promised one of the biggest contrasts in styles in the sport. Jabeur’s name is rarely mentioned without a “cunning” a few words later. Her game is filled with almost every type of tennis shot there is.
At any moment, she can slice the ball with an angle and spin that causes her to wobble as she clears the net and finds the unguarded area of the court or hits a forehand down the line. For her, tennis is a profession and a sport, but also a game and a means of expressing her innate creativity.
The question was whether Rybakina would give Jabert the chance to return her shots, or whether the power of her serve and her slingshots would send Jabur off the court.
At first, finesse prevailed over power. Jaber drew first blood, forcing a nervous Rybakina to hit from deep on the court. Rybakina struggled with her forehand as Jabeur danced across the grass, showing off the array of her arsenal. In the fourth game, she sliced one of her signature backhands past Rybakina, who had closed in at the net. A game later, she pounced on a second serve and sent a searing forehand that sent Rybakina back down.
Jabeur is no puncher, but when she likes a winner she just hit, especially one on the move, she runs to the grass like a basketball player who just sank a three. She did a lot of jogging in the first set, which she won when Rybakina sent a forehand into the middle of the net.
However, Jabeur rarely plays full games, and even when she does, she heads for a quick afternoon. Especially in pressure situations, there is often a hesitation, sometimes fatal, and it arrived early in the second set on Saturday.
Whether the idea of being a set away from becoming Wimbledon champion suddenly seems too much, only she knows. But in an instant, the ease and poise she showed in the first set disappeared.
Rybakina broke Jaber’s serve in the first game of the second set and Jaber was never able to recover. She tried to lighten the mood by tipping a foul ball to a ball player late in the match and attempted a between-the-legs shot while chasing a lob, but became increasingly erratic as the set progressed.
Meanwhile, Rybakina shook off her early anxiety. She started shooting from her first serve. Forehands that had floated long at the start began to dive into the corners and hit the edges of the lines. She forced the net to close points and sealed the set with an ace that Jabeur could only watch.
The third set brought more of the same, even as the crowd roared every time she started a service game, and when she had three chances to level the set midway through, she desperately tried to pick it up and keep the Duchess sitting in the front row of the royal box in the -the bright yellow dress all over Center Court from her starring role in the weirdest of post-match trophy ceremonies.
But nothing was going to stop Rybakina this year at Wimbledon: not Jabert, not the audience, and not even a decree from the government not to allow players from Russia to participate.
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