ELOFAN EFFORT
Champion who £2m cannot
AS Elena Rybakina made her way to the net with a little fist pump, a puff of the cheeks and barely a smile, she looked more like a girl who had just beaten a mate on a public court than a first-time Grand Slam winner.
Yet the 23-year-old had seconds earlier secured the biggest win of her career after coming from behind to beat Ons Jabeur 3-6 6-2 6-2 – and bank a £2million cheque for her efforts yesterday.
“Someone tell her she won this thing,” quipped John Mcenroe on the BBC, as Rybakina waved politely to the cheering Centre Court crowd.
It was as understated a celebration as you’ll see in the moment of victory from a Wimbledon champion.
But, as she explained later, there will be plenty of smiles and probably a few tears when her achievement sinks in.
Unexpected
“It’s so unexpected, these two weeks, what happened,” she said. “It was such a tough match mentally and physically, so in the end I was just super-happy that it finished.
“In the moment, I just didn’t believe that I made it, but for sure I’m going to celebrate with my team, with my friends and family.
“When I was giving the speech, in the end I was thinking, ‘I’m going to cry right now’, but somehow I held it together.
“Maybe later, when I’m going to be alone in the room, I’m going to cry nonstop. I don’t know.”
It took a question about Rybakina’s parents and what their reaction will be for the emotion to show.
“Probably they’re going to be superproud,” she said, tearing up.
“You wanted to see emotion,” she added, laughing. “I kept it in too long.”
Earlier, Rybakina faced uneasy questions about her citizenship given the Moscow-born player had just won a tournament from which Russian and Belarusian players were banned. “I can only say that I’m representing Kazakhstan,” she said.
“I didn’t choose where I was born.”
It is a shame for her that her win will be politicised.
And you can only but imagine that there were howls of laughter inside the Kremlin as the pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge handing over the Venus Rosewater Dish to the winner zipped around the world.
Merited Rybakina thoroughly merited her victory, holding her nerve and getting to grips with Jabeur’s game after a difficult first set.
Jabeur had looked like she would go on to achieve her dream of becoming the first Arab winner of a Grand Slam tournament.
Rybakina, though, fought back with the powerful brand of tennis which had seen her march to the final.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” said Jabeur. I don’t regret anything.
”I gave it my all.”