Elena Rybakina, Russian-born and Kazakh nationalized in 2018, has once again put her current country on the tennis map. The 2022 Wimbledon champion won her second Grand Slam title on Saturday.The setting was the Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open, which looked with the roof on because of the rain. She could not have chosen a better victim as she defeated the number one, Aryna Sabalenka, who had been her executioner in the 2023 final. She closed a favorable score of 6-4, 4-6 and 6-4, in two hours and 18 minutes. Rybakina was able to come back from 0-3 down in the tiebreaker. The best tennis player on the planet is starting to look like a loser in finals.
It was the perfect script for Rybakina, who has justified the $2.3 billion investment since 2007 by Kazakhstan Tennis Federation president Bulat Utemuratov.
The millionaire’s plan was to have a great champion in a span of 15 years and he has succeeded. Utemuratov was appointed as Kazakhstan’s deputy minister for foreign economic affairs after independence
In 1995, he founded the Bank of Commerce and Finance in Almaty. In 2007, they sold the entire institution to the Italian group UniCredit for $2.3 billion.
The successful businessman built 38 tennis centers in the 17 regions of his country and multiplied the licenses: they went from 1,800 to 33,000. All Russian players of a medium profile, both men and women, were assured of a Kazakh passport in record time.
In that list of Russians was Rybakina, WTA champion in Riyadh and from today the new champion of Australia.Utemuratov watched the final from Elena’s bench. A personal gamble in which he has also been successful and which she rewarded by greeting him after first going to her team’s bench.
The return of Vukov
There was Stefano Vukov, who a year ago was denied accreditation to the Open for alleged psychological abuse of the player he has taken to the top.
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