A two hours story: Nervous wreck to Wimbledon Title by Elena Rybakina
A two hours story: Nervous wreck to Wimbledon Title by Elena Rybakina. “Unbelievable,” was the reaction of Elena Rybakina when taking the Venus Rosewater Dish from the Duchess of Cambridge.
“Unbelievable,” she said after finding her name carved into the winners’ list. Her name was there with Hall of Famers like Ash Barty, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova.
“I can’t believe it,” were the words of Rybakina in the press conference after the match. She recalled the way she handled this sensuous experience of playing in the Wimbledon final. It was the second appearance of Elena on Centre Court.
Rybakina said, “Maybe one day, in a few days, I’ll sit down, and will realize what I did.” “But for now, I’m super proud of myself.” The score was 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to win over world No. 2 Ons Jabeur.
The women’s segment witnessed a new high standard with “unbelievable” first-time Grand Slam champions in 2022. Last year unseeded doubles specialist, Barbora Strycova, bagged Roland Garros. Another teenage qualifier, Emma Raducanu, bagged the US Open in her first professional event.
Rybakina’s win was not as shocking as others. She ranked 17th and beat Serena to reach the quarters of the French Open 2021. Pandemic brought a halt in the spring of 2020, and she was among the hottest player on the women’s tour.
A few weeks back Rybakina was not that popular even among WTA followers. She is known for staying calm after victories. She visualizes the future, but not in a fortnight. In her two tune-up appearances in Wimbledon, she bagged one match.
Rybakina made a fantastic contribution when she served at 3-2 in the final set and went down 0-40. Jabeur began like a perfect planned drop-set winner.
In the last six matches, Jabeur met every challenge and served well. She improved her game in every match. Jabeur looked promising to emerge as the first Arab woman to bag the Grand Slam title.
The push was from Rybakina. She kept saving the breakpoints one after another. Rybakina was up 4-2; and qualified final title test.
Rybakina said, “Maybe the first set, I was too nervous.” “Of course, Ons, she played well. I needed time to adjust to her game. But, then after [that], I thought that I’m going to fight till the end no matter what.”
“Just tried to focus on every point because it was very tough. It was super-hot. I think, because I was nervous physically, I thought I cannot [run] anymore. But, in the end, I was just running to all these drop shots. I think it was the first time really when I run so much to all these tricky shots.”
Disappointed Jabeur commented in the award ceremony, “Elena stole my title, but it’s OK.” The words came with a smile. Jabeur remained the favorite, and the first set proved her excellence. In the first set, Rybakina looked tight and struggled with her moves.
Jabeur was behind with 0-2 in set 2. But that showed no sign of panic. She tried a tweener and landed in the net. At the time, it appeared she was confident. But, in the second and third sets, Jabeur repeated the wrong shots.
One-time Jabeur got her choice of shots. She took the call to give a delicate lob, and that landed long. She misused a break point with a pinpoint drop. It landed just wide. In the middle of this set, Tunisia’s “Minister of Happiness” was found screaming out of frustration.
Philosophical Jabeur later said, “I didn’t play my best tennis, let’s say, second and third set,” “She started to be more aggressive. I think she stepped onto the court and put a lot of pressure on me. That I didn’t find a solution for, unfortunately.”
“I was expecting to do better. It’s very frustrating because sometimes you have a lot of opportunities, but you give her a little bit of space, she does very well.”
Rybakina was outstanding as a player. She is a new personality, whom tennis lovers will love to know. She keeps her emotions under control in court. Later the press discovered that she holds plenty of them within. She talked about her emotion and made people laugh.
In the first set, it seemed Wimbledon will be for the first Arab singles champion. There was a ban for the Russian players due to the Ukraine war. But, the Russian-born Kazakhstan representative bagged the winner’s dish.
The match turned into an example that tennis widened its global reach. One of the leading tennis championships proved this expansion of tennis popularity.
Rybakina said, “Maybe I proved that [you don’t always] have to have a great team from a young age, because I didn’t till the age of 17, 18.” “So, I think this is the most important thing, that everybody, no matter their financial situation, no matter who they are, they can play and achieve many great results.”
All she needs is some more days to believe it herself.