Ons Jabeur

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan recovered from a first-set loss to beat Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and claim the Wimbledon championship, her first major title.

Russian and Belarusian players were denied entry to the tournament because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Jabeur, a Tunisian who was also playing in her first Grand Slam final, was the first Arab woman to get that far in a major. As for Jabeur, her parents were unable to attend the match because their visas could not be processed in time.

After dropping the first set, Elena Rybakina regained her footing with her big serve and powerful forehand to beat Ons Jabeur and win the Wimbledon women's ...

Now she was just a game away from the biggest victory of her career -- and she got to serve for it. Jabeur appeared to give herself an opportunity to really change the course of things while down 3-2 in the third. She broke once more to begin the third, and went up 3-1. When another forehand went awry, Jabeur broke at love to take the opening set and threw an uppercut as she walked to the sideline. Rybakina is a 23-year-old who was born in Moscow and has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, when that country offered her funding to support her tennis career. There were glimpses of both in the opening game, including a 119 mph service winner on the match's initial point.

Jabeur had aimed to become the first player from the Arab world and the first African woman to win a Slam singles title.

“I love this tournament. “She deserved this. I think you are an inspiration for everybody.

One of the bravest things any athlete can do is face the music immediately after a crushing loss in a prominent spot. The first understandable human ...

… I’m trying to inspire the next generations from my country . I hope they’re listening.” The first understandable human instinct for a person is probably to turtle and get some privacy. “I love this tournament so much, and I feel really sad but it’s tennis, there is only one winner.

Rybakina, 23, won her first Grand Slam title Saturday. She was born in Moscow but switched her nationality in 2018.

Born in Moscow, Rybakina would have missed this tournament had she retained the tennis federation of her birth and early development, Russia. Yet way back in June 2018, when Russia was serving as the world’s host during the World Cup, Rybakina switched her tennis nationality to Kazakh. “They believed in me,” she said here and elsewhere. Most crucially, she dug out of love-40 while serving at 3-2 in the third set, and she did it with driving forehands and two closing volleys on the final point, the second one into an open court. He had watched her solve her nerves just enough, even as she had committed at least six point-blank errors, the kind that could keep a player up nights, against Jabeur’s drop shots and other tennis goodies. “Yeah, it was very tough because I was going just up … It was just going always my way,” she said after her thundering 6-3, 6-3 semifinal win over Simona Halep, the 2019 champion and two-time Grand Slam winner. “I’m actually speechless,” Rybakina said on court afterward in the traditional interview. After corona, after this long period, it was very difficult to come back.

The 27-year-old is the first woman of north African or Arab descent to reach a grand slam final – and determined more compatriots will soon follow.

She’s walked in the footsteps of all those women and paved the way for a lot of young girls to follow. To the millions of young Tunisian girls watching, the message Jabeur sends is resoundingly clear. I chose to be the person that I am. “I see myself like I’m on a mission,” she said. “She loves all the little kids. This year she won the Madrid Open, becoming the first Arab or north African woman to win a WTA 1000 event.