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Elena Rybakina
Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP
Jelena Rybakina has won the Wimbledon final and can celebrate the first Grand Slam title of her career.
Against Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, Rybakina, who is playing for Kazakhstan, came back after falling behind in a set and won a varied match 3:6, 6:2, 6:2.
Everything was still going well for Jabeur in the first set: The number two in the WTA world rankings, who was the first player from the Arab world to make it into a Grand Slam final by beating Tatjana Maria in the semifinals, dominated at will at the beginning of the match , played aggressive tennis and kept increasing the pace.
With the second break of the day to win the set, Jabeur punished Rybakina's game, which was prone to errors at the time, and took the lead.
Rybakina's early breaks become key
The second set started directly with a break - but for the previously inferior Kazakh, who overwhelmed Jabeur with a backhand slice.
Jabeur did not recover from the early setback, when the score was 1: 2 in the second set, the 27-year-old missed three of her own breakballs and then never regained her dominance from the first set.
Rybakina had no problems with her other service games, another break paved the way for equalizing the set.
The third set was similar to the second: Although Rybakina Jabeur again took the first service game thanks to a well-used challenge with the Hawkeye, the favorite from Tunisia again missed numerous breakballs afterwards.
After a second break point, Rybakina, who had only defeated a seeded player in the course of the tournament with semi-final opponent Simona Halep, confidently served to win the title.
Born in Russia, still eligible to start
Rybakina's success also has a political component.
No world ranking points will be awarded in Wimbledon this year, WTA and ATP had withdrawn these from the grass classic due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes issued in the course of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
Although Rybakina has started for Kazakhstan since 2018, she was born in Moscow and previously represented Russia.
The men's final is on Sunday.
Then the Serbian Novak Djoković and the Australian Nick Kyrgios duel for the title.
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