The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation has rejected the Russian Tennis Federation chief\u2019s claim that Elena Rybakina is still a Russian citizen despite her competing for Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
Rybakina<\/a>, who was born in Moscow, changed her nationality from Russian to start representing Kazakhstan in 2018, having previously played for her country of birth.<\/p>\n The 2022 Wimbledon winner was offered funding, support, money and access to training facilities in return for representing Kazakhstan, having received no financial support from Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everything came together in that moment,\u201d Rybakina told The Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Kazakhstan Federation, they were looking for players, and I was looking for some help. So we found each other in the perfect moment and this is how I started [my] professional career, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n While Rybakina made the switch to Kazakhstan over seven years ago, there have been 10 Russian tennis players who have changed their sporting nationality since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n Shamil Tarpischev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF), was asked about the \u201cnegative trend\u201d of Russian players changing their citizenship.<\/p>\n \u201cIt goes in cycles. The first factor is that the athlete wants to play. And in that case, they don\u2019t become unpatriotic to their country,\u201d Tarpischev said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey left for other countries because they want to play. Primarily at the Olympic Games. And it\u2019s not the leaders who left, but those who don\u2019t qualify for the Olympic Games. Plus, the youth are being bought out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Maybe 2026 is her time\u2019 \u2013 Elena Rybakina told she \u2018should have won 2-3 more Grand Slams\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Latest Russian tennis player changes sporting nationality as notable trend continues<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Rybakina, the current world No 5, would be the highest-ranked Russian player if she still competed for her home nation.<\/p>\n Tarpischev commented on the case of Rybakina and said that the 26-year-old still lives in Moscow and only has a \u201csporting citizenship\u201d in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey also like to remind us of Rybakina. But we can be blamed for not realising she would shine,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she left, she was seventh in age. But she lives in Moscow and has Russian citizenship. Her sporting citizenship is Kazakhstani. It was made for her athletic career.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement given to Sport KZ, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation (KTF) firmly denied Tarpishchev\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe disseminated information, accompanied by a comment from Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpishchev, regarding Elena Rybakina\u2019s citizenship, is untrue,\u201d the KTF said.<\/p>\n \u201cElena Rybakina does not reside in Moscow. She is a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, holds a Kazakh passport, and is registered in the capital, Astana. Elena has repeatedly stated this.<\/p>\n \u201cClaims of her having \u2018Russian citizenship\u2019 or some kind of \u2018sports citizenship\u2019 are not factual \u2014 the concept of \u2018sports citizenship\u2019 does not exist in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n \u201cElena Rybakina has officially represented Kazakhstan at all international tournaments since 2018 and is a member of the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: What made Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova & Justine Henin so good? WTA star who played them reveals<\/a> The post Tennis chiefs disagree over Elena Rybakina\u2019s citizenship amid Russian nationality change trend<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation has rejected the Russian Tennis Federation chief\u2019s claim that Elena Rybakina is still a Russian citizen despite her competing for Kazakhstan. Rybakina, who was born in Moscow, changed her nationality from Russian to start representing Kazakhstan in 2018, having previously played for her country of birth. The 2022 Wimbledon winner was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What did the Russian Tennis Federation president say about Elena Rybakina?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n
What did the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation say about Shamil Tarpischev\u2019s comments?<\/h2>\n
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