Elena Rybakina beats Ons Jabeur to win Wimbledon title
Elena Rybakina is the women's singles Wimbledon champion after roaring back from a first set loss for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Ons Jabeur in the tournament final Saturday.
Rybakina, 23, struggled early in the match with one double fault and 17 unforced errors in the first set. In her dominating wins in the next two sets, Rybakina recorded four aces and successfully fought off all seven of Jabeur's break points.
Rybakina was born in Moscow, Russia, but has represented Kazakhstan since June 2018. She's now the first athlete from Kazakhstan to win a singles Grand Slam title. If she represented Russia, Rybakina would've been barred from competition due to Wimbledon's decision to ban players from the country because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Jabeur was also seeking to make history as no Tunisian player has ever won a Grand Slam title. Still, Jabeur became the first player from Tunisian to make a Grand Slam final, as well as the first Arab woman and African player in the Open era.
Rybakina entered the tournament ranked 23rd in the world and won't skyrocket up the ranks, as the ATP and WTA elected not to award ranking points for Wimbledon. Jabeur is ranked second in the world behind only Iga Swiatek.
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