Rivakina wins first major at Wimbledon… First time as a Kazakh player
Enter 2022.07.10 (07:53)
yunhap news
Elena Rivakina (23rd) made a new history in Kazakhstan tennis by winning the women’s singles championship at the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament (total prize of £435 million, regarding 64.23 billion won).
Rivakina 2-1 (3-6, 6-2, 6-2) in 1 hour 47 minutes once morest Ons Javert (2nd place, Tunisia) in the women’s singles final on the 13th day of the tournament held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, England on the 9th. came back victorious with
Rivakina became the first Kazakh to win a tennis major.
Until before, no Kazakhstan player, both male and female, had achieved more than the quarterfinals in a major tournament.
Rivakina, who had previously had the best performance in a major following being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2021, lifted the trophy for the first time in her career.
In addition, Rivakina, who was born in June 1999 and is 23 years old, becomes the youngest player to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon following Petra Kvitova (26th, Czech Republic), who won the singles title at the age of 21 in 2011.
Although they won the championship, Rivakina’s ranking, currently 23rd, is not expected to change much next week.
This is because the WTA and ATP, which opposed the Wimbledon organizer’s ban on players from Russia and Belarus who invaded Ukraine, decided not to award ranking points to this tournament.
Rivakina was originally born in Russia, but changed her nationality to Kazakhstan in 2018.
Like Rivakina, Javert, who had the best record in major tournaments in the quarterfinals (Australian Open in 2020 and Wimbledon in 2021), postponed his first major championship to the next opportunity.
If Javert had won that day, he would have been the first Arab player from Tunisia to win a major championship.
Both appeared in the major finals for the first time, but Javert, who was born in 1994 and is five years older than Rivakina, played the first set more stably.
Javert built up points one by one by shaking Rivakina with his elaborate shot and net play.
On the other hand, Rivakina struggled because her main weapon, the sub, did not listen. In the first set, Javert took a 2-0 lead on the serve ace.
In the end, Javert broke Rivakina’s second and fifth subgames to win the first set.
Rivakina, who finished the first set with a firm expression, set the zero point for the serve from the second set and pushed Javert strongly.
Javert struggled with the addition of sophistication to the strong serve with a maximum speed of 193 km/h, and this time Rivakina took the set score with ease.
Rivakina continued the momentum by breaking the opponent’s subgame first in the third set.
In his own sub game, which he hit with a game score of 3-2, he was pushed 0-40 and faced a risk of being hit, but he showed his back and kept the points following a deuce match.
Rivakina broke the Javert subgame that followed and pulled the weight of victory towards her.
Rivakina, who confirmed the victory following Javert’s last shot went off the line, organized equipment with a calm expression for a player who won the first major championship in her early 20s, and simply shared joy with the coaches and family.
If Javert requested a challenge (video review), he was disappointed that he gave up points twice in a situation where he might change the decision to his advantage.
[사진 출처 : AP=연합뉴스]
