WIMBLEDON, England – After all the debate over whether to ban Russian and Belarusian players from Wimbledon, and under pressure from the British government, Saturday’s women’s singles title could still be won by a Russian-born player.
Elena Rybakina is the 23rd player in the world, and prior to this week she had never progressed past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. She is tall (6ft) and strong, an imposing presence on the tennis court. She long seemed to lack the consistency needed to win the six straight games needed to fight for one of the most important titles, and when she was later in her teens her national tennis association told her she was on her own have to create.
This tennis federation was Russia’s. Rybakina was born in Russia and spent her first 18 years there. Her parents still live in Russia.
But four years ago, when Russia wasn’t willing to invest in her career, Rybakina did what several other Russian players had done before her. She made a deal with Kazakhstan.
“It’s been a long journey for me,” Rybakina, 23, said during one of her increasingly tense news conferences this week when asked if she saw herself as Russian or Kazakh. “I got so much help and support.”
Rybakina’s trip to Saturday’s women’s final against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur has raised politics and questions about what it means to represent a country at a tournament she would rather avoid. It has also highlighted what many athletes have long considered fruitless, punishing athletes for the behavior of their governments.
“The exclusion is fraught with problems, not least as of some legal basis, not to mention the precedent it sets,” said Michael Payne, former director of marketing and broadcasting for the International Olympic Committee, which has long favored participation over politics.
Kazakhstan’s citizens have typically preferred sports that involve hand-to-hand combat – wrestling, kickboxing, taekwondo, judo, and karate. But 15 years ago, Bulat Utemuratov, a Kazakh billionaire, joined forces with his government to make tennis a mass sport, in part to improve the image of the remote former Soviet republic in the western world.
This included offering citizenship and funding to talented young Russian players if they agreed to represent Kazakhstan when they play. Qatar has done the same for track and field athletes and footballers. Russia, too, managed to collect gold medals at the Olympics, won by South Korean-born speed skater Viktor Ahn.
The Russians playing for Kazakhstan has long been one of the accepted details of the sport, like the worn, brown grass around the baseline in the second week of Wimbledon. And no one thought much about it when the organizer of the tournament expelled Russian players in April.
Britain, which has provided arms and money to Ukraine and condemned the invasion, did not want to give Russia an opportunity to claim one of its most prized trophies right now, which could give Russian President Vladimir V. Putin a propaganda opportunity to get involved Member of the Russian royal family celebrate during an awards ceremony.
“The UK Government has issued guidance for sports bodies and events in the UK, with the specific aim of limiting Russia’s influence,” said Ian Hewitt, chairman of the All England Club. “We have taken this direction into account, as we must as a high-profile event and a leading UK institution.”
He said the combination of the scale and severity of Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state, the UN’s condemnation of more than 140 nations, and the “specific and directional guidance on how to handle matters” made it a “very, very… extraordinary situation”.
Players from Ukraine welcomed the move. Lesia Tsurenko said last week that she felt much more comfortable playing a tournament without worrying about running into Russian players, who she said had not come forward to express empathy for their country.
Nobody asked about the Russian-born players representing Kazakhstan until this week, when everyone started asking Rybakina about it.
Does she still feel Russian?
“That’s a tough question,” she said.
Did she communicate with any of the suspended Russian players? She didn’t check her phone often, she said.
Where does she live?
“I think I orientate myself on the tour because I’m on the road every week,” she said. “I think I spend most of my time on tour. Between tournaments I train in Slovakia. I had camps in Dubai. So I don’t live anywhere.”
Maybe, but everyone comes from somewhere. Rybakina comes from Russia – and somehow from Kazakhstan for the time being.