No. 17 seed Elena Rybakina became the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles championship with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win against No. 3 Ons Jabeur.
After sealing her first championship point with a service winner, Rybakina celebrated the victory in 1 hour 48 minutes with a fist pump.
In the first Wimbledon title match between Grand Slam finalists for the first time in the Open Era, the 23-year-old Rybakina also became the youngest woman to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish since 21-year-old Petra Kvitova in 2011. She is now the fourth most the young active Hologic WTA Tour major champion, older only than Iga Svetek, Bianca Andreescu and Emma Raducanu.
Elena Rybakina’s road to the Wimbledon R1 title: [LL] CoCo Vandeweghe 7-6(2), 7-5R2: Bianca Andreescu 6-4, 7-6(5)R3: Zheng Qinwen 7-6(4), 7-5R4: Petra Martic 7-5, 6-3QF: Ayla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3SF: [16] Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3F: [3] Ons Jaber 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Wimbledon is Rybakina’s third career title and first since Hobart 2020. In between, she has lost four straight finals, as well as last year’s bronze medal playoff at the Tokyo Olympics.
Wimbledon Reaction:
Rybakina defeated two previous Slam winners, Andreescu in the second round and Simona Halep in the semifinals. Her win against Jabeur was her first win against a Top 10 player since defeating Garbiñe Muguruza in the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Rybakina’s previous best Grand Slam performance was at Roland Garros 2021, where she beat Serena Williams to reach the quarterfinals before losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. This year’s Wimbledon was only the second time she played in the main draw of the Championships. In her debut last year, Rybakina reached the fourth round before falling to Aryna Sabalenka.
Jabeur also leaves Wimbledon after making history. She has spent much of her career as a pioneer for her country and region and is the first Tunisian and Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final.
Match Management: The higher ranked Jabeur wasted little time establishing themselves in the match. In the first set, her drop shot and serves were executed and she used her versatility to put Rybakina in uncomfortable positions.
Rybakina made 17 unforced errors in the opener, several of which led to her serve being conceded, to fall behind 2-1. Meanwhile, a good serving performance from Jabeur did not provide many opportunities to turn the set around. The world No. 2 lost just four service points in total during the opener. And although Rybakina looked settled in the middle, she fell with another series of cheap errors to lose the last eight points.
Rybakina’s comeback in the second set was as much about raising her attacking game as it was about delivering some of the best defense of her career. She raised her first serve percentage from 58% to 63%, but her movement was crucial component of this passage.
During the second set, Rybakina repeatedly chased down Jabeur’s drop shots – and then applied the necessary touch to hit fine-angled winners off them. After breaking Jabeur in the first game of the set, Rybakina avoided a momentum shift, surviving three break points to hold for 3-1.
It was now Jabeur’s turn to drop, letting in impatient errors to fall behind on a double break. Rybakina tied the match with minimal effort, hitting four unreturned serves to close out the set.
With the tension building on center court, Rybakina kept her level at the start of the third set. She promptly fell apart, once again outrunning Jabeur at a point that is more often the Tunisian’s territory. Jabeur dragged Rybakina into the forecourt with a clever short cut, but Rybakina was still able to put away the volley.
As in the second set, Rybakina faced her biggest challenge to take the lead midway through the decider. Jabeur reached triple break point after a drop shot that skipped over the net and a perfect lob – but Rybakina’s serve was up to the task of fending them off and she held for 4-2 with a confident volley.
After passing that test, Rybakina cruised to victory, again breaking Jabeur 5-2 and then serving out the match at her first opportunity. She finished the day with four aces to take her tournament total to 53 and 29 winners to 33 unforced errors.
Rybakina on overcoming nerves: “I was super nervous. I had a good workout yesterday. But in the evening I already started to feel like I was too nervous. In the morning too. But I was just trying to tell myself that this is a match and I already had experience. I mean, for me, the worse thing is if you’re up, then you lose the game. Unfortunately I’ve had a lot of matches like this so maybe it helped me a bit.
“I was trying to convince myself that it could happen again and hopefully it’s not the last time I’m in the final. Not the first; not the last one. I have already done a great job with my team. With these words I tried to calm down.
“Oh, she played well. I needed time to adjust to her game. But after thinking that I will fight till the end no matter what. I just tried to focus on each point because it was very difficult. It was super hot. I think because I was nervous physically, I thought I couldn’t do it anymore. But I ended up just running to all these dropshots.
“I think it was really the first time I’ve run so much to all those tough shots from Ons.”
Rybakina on her calm reactions to the victory: “I’m always very calm. I don’t know what should happen. When I was giving my speech at the end, I was thinking, “I’m going to cry now,” but somehow I keep at it. Maybe later, when I’m alone in the room, I’ll cry non-stop. I do not know.
“Maybe because I believe I can do it deep down. But at the same time there are too many emotions. I was just trying to stay calm. Maybe one day you’ll see a huge reaction from me, but unfortunately not today.”
Rybakina on what he proved: “Maybe I proved that you don’t always have to have a great team from a young age, because I didn’t do it until I was 17-18 years old. So I think that’s the most important thing that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, regardless of who they are, they can play and achieve very great results.
“And for myself that I can actually win a Grand Slam. Believe in yourself more and maybe I can win more Grand Slams. Who knows? But that’s certainly the goal and that’s what I’m going to work towards.”
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