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Elena Rybakina is giving back to Kazakhstan as she has donated a total of 35 million KZT (around $77,000) to 14 promising and talented Kazakh girls. Rybakina, 23, donated 2.5 million KZT to every girl, which is around $5,500.
Rybakina, who is by far the biggest name in Kazakh tennis, is determined to help the game grow in Kazakhstan. "I think it would be the right thing to organize a tournament or to establish grants for junior players because I myself got a lot of support in Kazakhstan.
Now, it's my turn to help the younger generation grow," Rybakina told Qazmonitor.
Rybakina hopes more Kazakh girls will make it in tennis
Rybakina, who was born in Moscow, switched her nationality in 2018 when the Kazakh Tennis Federation offered to support her career.
Now that Rybakina is a Grand Slam champion and one of the best players in the game, she is giving back to Kazakhstan. Since last year's Wimbledon, Rybakina's career has been trending in a very positive direction. At this past Indian Wells edition, Rybakina lifted her first WTA 1000 title.
By winning Indian Wells, Rybakina also achieved a new career-high ranking of No 7 in the world. For Rybakina, it was a nice accomplishment but she underlined that reaching the world No 1 spot remains her biggest goal. "I think the biggest goal is of course to be No.
1. There is still long way to go. So this is the kind of end goal, I would say. For now, I’m 7, but you know how quickly the ranking change. So I need to always focus on the next tournament I play. Yeah, I’m just trying not to think so much about the ranking, especially now since it’s a long way to go (smiling)," Rybakina said.
Rybakina is off to a strong start to 2023 and she is now widely considered one of the best in the game. It remains to be seen if Rybakina can reach the top spot in the remainder of 2023.