Elena Rybakina won the biggest trophy of her career at Wimbledon by beating Ons Jabeur in the final yet it's not the main story.
Unfortunately for Elena Rybakina, the place where she was born is a bigger topic for most than her brilliant play at Wimbledon. She played consistent tennis and deservedly ended up with the Wimbledon trophy. However, nobody seems to care, or at least not in the way she had hoped. Even at the press conference, Rybakina was grilled hard by journalists who wanted her to slip up and say something wrong.
Being a Russian and playing for Kazakhstan is complicated enough, let alone winning Wimbledon in the year of the Russian ban. Things did not go much better for her after the press conference as several persons from the Russian side of tennis seemingly took credit for Rybakina's triumph at Wimbledon even calling her a Russian product.
The biggest moment of her life was turned into a propaganda tool dehumanizing her down to 'a product'. As expected she was greeted by many fans when she returned to Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan where reporters once again asked the wrong type of questions. To be fair, it's kind of pertinent to their perspective as native Kazakhs.
She was asked about the comments from Russian tennis officials and as expected she pushed back on the topic albeit lightly.
"The transition from a junior to a professional career is very difficult. A good team is needed. Not everyone is able to continue at professional level and achieve some successes. Only a small number (can) and in this way I am very lucky. So I am of course not really in agreement with that phrasing."
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