This Wimbledon fortnight more than ever became one of culture wars. In that Ons Jabeur won hearts and minds but lost on Centre court 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. John McEnroe said it straight to camera on BBC as if the UK right leaning press had not been doing so all week. Elena Rybakina, said the three times Wimbledon winner, “is Russian, right.”
After her win the Express ran the story with the headline “Wimbledon mocked as Elena Rybakina wins title”.
The 23-year-old Rybakina, who had changed nationality to Kazakh in 2018 but is still reported to be living in Moscow, although she consistently evades that question, had lost the Centre Court tribe from the first serve. Not so much hostile towards her, they were cheering for the possibility of a first ever African winner, who in the end didn’t have enough in her locker to offset the power of her opponent.
The Sun newspaper also caught up with Dave Miley, the former Irish tennis player who ran for the CEO job in Tennis Ireland following the late Des Allen’s retirement. Miley is now tennis director at the Kazakhstan Federation. It was the Irishman who stepped out to bat for Rybakina.
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[ Elena Rybakina keeps calm amid Wimbledon storm to lift titleOpens in new window ]
“I understand that people are asking questions,” said Miley. “Cameron Norrie chose to represent Great Britain, not New Zealand. Greg Rusedski played juniors for Canada before switching to Great Britain.
“Martina Navratilova was born in the Czech Republic and then adopted America. Garbine Mugruza was born in Venezuela but plays for Spain. Ask them why they did it? They obviously thought it was better for their careers, whether that be for funding or for sponsorship reasons.
“There are lots of examples in this sport of players doing this sort of thing. She wanted to change country and the International Tennis Federation approved it.”
Truthfully there was also the aspect of Rybakina, the calculating career player who knows what is good for her, as a counterpoint to Jabeur’s natural, altruistic streak. Her playful personality and constant flow of positivity towards Arab and African players and wanting to be inspirational to a tennis underclass captured the zeitgeist. In that sub-narrative the Tunisian defeated the Kazakhstan player.
You obviously have Russian links, Rybakina was told, then asked if there is a concern that Russia may try to politicise the win.
“I don’t know,” she said. “For me, as I said on the previous interviews, I’m playing for Kazakhstan a very, very long time. I represent on the biggest tournaments. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, it’s always some news, but I cannot do anything about this, so ...”
The adoration of the crowd couldn’t save Jabeur from too many errors and to big a game from her opponent. Having won the first set against a nervous Rybakina, the 27-year-old didn’t sustain or improve her level as the serving coming at her got better and the error count went down.
“I didn’t play my best tennis, let’s say, second and third set,” said Jabeur. “She started to be more aggressive that I didn’t find a solution for, unfortunately, today. She really deserved to win today.
“This is just the beginning of so many things. I’m very positive about it,” she added. “Like Bob Marley said, Don’t worry, be happy.”
The 17th seed clinched victory with her first match point when Jabeur pulled a backhand wide. That was the story of the second and third sets, pressurised into error. Initially there was little emotion from the new champion, who simply raised her right arm in the air as part of a muted celebration. She then sat in her chair as if it were another change over. That invited more scorn.
“I didn’t know what to do. It was shocking,” said Rybakina. “Maybe one day you will see huge reaction from me, but unfortunately not today.”
A more bitter sweet day than it might have been for a player making her way and not a good week for the first Wimbledon title to go to a former Russian playing for Kazakhstan.
