In 99% of cases, when a player has the talent to win Grand Slams and become world No. 1, brands and support arrive early. Everyone wants a slice of the golden goose.
Elena Rybakina, however, represents the 1% who had to swim against the tide.
“She was not receiving sufficient financial support in Russia, and her family was reaching the limits of what they could personally afford to cover the steadily increasing costs of professional tennis. Kazakhstan was suggested to her as a reliable base for the next stage of her development,” Bulat Utemuratov, president of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation, told CLAY.
The problems Rybakina was facing before 2018, when she decided to take Kazakh citizenship at the age of 18 while ranked world No. 200, had left her career at a crossroads.
She travelled to tournaments alone, they were unable to secure commercial deals with investors or brands and, together with her family, she even seriously considered leaving professional tennis to take up a university scholarship in Malibu.
“In Russia, we have many talented tennis players and it’s impossible to help them all. The president did many things and, on the one hand, it’s good to create that internal competition, but on the other, I remember that at one point the federation sent us a contract and, when I saw it, I felt sad. The essence of the contract was: ‘There’s no money, but you have to hang in there,’” her father, Andrey Rybakin, told Russian outlet Sport Express in 2022.
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That was when the option of Kazakhstan changed the balance of the equation.
“For us, it was about more than simply supporting a promising young player. We were impressed by Elena’s professional approach, her work ethic and her character. She showed remarkable maturity, independence and a clear determination to succeed. She was willing to take responsibility for her career and build a strong professional team around herself. This level of independence is a rare quality that usually comes much later.” Utemuratov told CLAY.
In 2019, she broke into the Top 100; in 2021, she reached the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics; and in 2022, she became a star by winning Wimbledon, in a year when Russian players were banned from competing.
In 2023, as one of the strongest players on tour, she reached the Australian Open final and won the WTA 1000 titles in Indian Wells and Rome. She finished 2025 with the WTA Finals title, and this season she has broken every barrier: Australian Open champion, US Open champion and the new world No. 1.
“Looking back today, we recognize that our decision to support Elena in 2018 was an important milestone not only in her career but also for tennis in Kazakhstan. Her ascent to the top of global rankings and performance at the US Open is a historic moment for Kazakhstan,” the president of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation told CLAY.
But even with that support and a career that continued to improve, Rybakina went through difficult moments in her development.
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The first came in 2022, when, just months before winning the Wimbledon title, she considered quitting tennis.
“You give your maximum effort and there is no escape when things don’t work out. There was a moment when she couldn’t take it any more and stopped competing. We talked as a family for five or six days and she managed to calm down and return to training,” her father said in that interview with Sport Express.
The other came at the beginning of 2025, when the WTA launched an investigation and provisional suspension against the Kazakh’s coach, Stefano Vukov, over a potential violation of the women’s tour’s code of conduct.
Rybakina repeatedly defended the coach, who remains by her side to this day, but the media pressure that year was intense.
Even after winning the WTA Finals, the player chose not to pose for the official photographs alongside Portia Archer, the organisation’s CEO and the signatory of the letter outlining the alleged violations by her coach.
On 8 August that year, the sanction against Vukov was lifted after an independent tribunal determined that the punishment had no basis.
It was precisely after that process came to an end that the 14-time WTA champion began playing her best tennis. Her complete consolidation at the top of the women’s game came after a dominant season in which she now holds a lead of more than 2,000 points over Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 2.
