Rybakina overcame competitors like Dayana Yastremska, Viktoria Kuzmova, Claire Liu, Olesya Pervushina, Katarina Zavatska, Iga Swiatek, and Amanda Anisimova to win her first professional title in Kazan in March. In the WTA rankings, she is currently ranked 191.

]A Moscow native made it into the main draw of a challenging Premier tournament in St. Petersburg, where she beat Julia Goerges in the quarterfinals.

Before opting to change her nationality and pursue a career overseas, Elena competed in a number of events in her native Moscow.

She played in the Antalya final of just her third professional competition in 2015.

Why did Elena Rybakina change Nationality?

In order to represent Kazakhstan and gain more support from the tennis federation, Elena changed her nationality.

Kazakhstan has invested a lot of money in their tennis development over the past 10 years, hosting a number of tournaments and competing in the Davis Cup World Group for seven of the previous eight seasons, when they five times reached the quarterfinals.

Kazakhstan has been able to enlist a number of elite players from the adjacent former USSR states, notably from Russia.