Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina is a Russian-born professional tennis player who has represented Kazakstan since 2018.

Elena Andreyevna Rybakina was born on June 17, 1999, in Moscow, Russia, she was originally a gymnast, but after she became too tall for the sport, she started fully focusing on tennis.

That's why the Russian-born player started playing tennis at the age of six. Unlike many other players, throughout her junior years, Rybakina was always practicing in group sessions, and she didn't have individual coaching.

Competing on the ITF Junior Circuit, she reached a world no. 3 spot, and her first professional tournament on the WTA Tour was the 2017 Kremlin Cup, at which she still represented Russia.

After playing a few tournaments in 2018, Rybakina made a significant decision when she acquired Kazakhstani citizenship and switched federations, representing Kazakhstan due to the financial support that was offered to her by the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation.

Already, as a Kazakhstani player, Rybakina had started climbing up the ranks. She showed a lot of promise in 2020, and in 2021, she made it to her maiden quarterfinal on a Grand Slam level when she advanced to these stages at the Roland Garros.

Throughout the remainder of the 2021 season and early 2022, Rybakina consistently stayed around the 20th place in the WTA Rankings, and at the 2022 Wimbledon, she won her first major, winning the Wimbledon.

However, her success was overshadowed by the fact that there were no points awarded at the tournament that year because of the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian players, so the Kazakhstani player didn't make the expected jump in the rankings.

But in 2023, she reached yet another major final, this time losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final, and this time, after her success, she finally entered the Top 10 and climbed up to her career-high third place.