Elena Rybakina Wins Wimbledon, Captures First Grand Slam Title

The Kazakhstani beat No. 2 Ons Jabeur in three sets on Saturday to win the major title.

In her first Grand Slam final appearance, Elena Rybakina beat Ons Jabeur 3–6, 6–2, 6–2 in the Wimbledon women’s singles final on Saturday to capture the first major title of her career.

The moment Elena Rybakina became a Wimbledon champion ​👏​ #Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/gVCU9oqxx5

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2022

The 23-year-old becomes the youngest Wimbledon champion since Petra Kvitova in 2011. She also becomes the only player representing Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam title in history.

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The player from Kazakhstan has two previous singles titles to her name—winning the Hobart International in 2020 and the Bucharest Open in 2019.

Her career high ranking came earlier this year, when she ranked No. 12 in the world. Entering Wimbledon, she ranked No. 23. This makes her the only player other than Venus Williams to win a Grand Slam while being ranked outside the Top 20 since 1975. 

Despite winning the Grand Slam title, she will not earn any ranking points as the WTA stripped ranking points away from Wimbledon after the tournament banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing. Rybakina was born in Russia, but changed her playing federation to Kazakhstan in 2018.

Jabeur also made history, becoming the first Arab woman and the first woman representing Africa (Tunisia) to reach a Grand Slam final.

This was the fourth time these two players have faced off in their careers. Each player has won a match against the other, with the third previous match ending with a Rybakina retirement from injury.

The first set started out as a back-and-forth battle before Jabeur was able to break Rybakina on her second serving game to take a 2–1 lead. The No. 17 seed couldn’t catch up to the No. 3 in the set, as Jabeur won 6–3 to take the early lead.

.@Ons_Jabeur takes the first set 6-3 😤#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/aP9F1huHYW

— ESPN (@espn) July 9, 2022

Rybakina flipped the storyline in the second set, as she broke Jabeur in the first service game. The 23-year-old then took a demanding 5–1 lead. Jabeur was able to win one more game before Rybakina captured the second set 6–2.

Elena Rybakina takes the second set with AUTHORITY 👀#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/y961SHWWlx

— ESPN (@espn) July 9, 2022

Rybakina continued to dominate to start the third set, as she led 3–1. Jabeur attempted to make a comeback, even winning 40–0 in Rybakina’s service game, but the Tunisian wasn’t able to capture the game or the set. The champion won the final set 6–2.

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