Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina almost quit tennis months before title win

Elena Rybakina's father has revealed that the Wimbledon champion wanted to "quit tennis" just half a year before lifting the title at the All England Club. The 23-year-old surprised one of the title favourites Ons Jabeur in the final to lift the biggest title of her career last month but was considering hanging up her racket at the start of the season.

Rybakina made waves when she won Wimbledon last month - not only for her monumental achievement but because she was born and raised in Russia but switched allegiances to Kazakhstan in 2018, while those representing her home country were banned from the tournament.

Despite the extra interest surrounding her origin, the world No 25 proved she was a worthy winner by beating 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the second round and stunning former world No 1 Simona Halep in the semi-final 6-3 6-3, in what was the Romanian's first Championships since she won the title in 2019.

She then came from a set down against third seed Jabeur to become this year's Wimbledon champion but it has now been revealed that the Kazakh almost stopped before she had the chance to become a Grand Slam champion. Rybakina's father has confessed that the three-time title winner wanted to retire just six months earlier, something he said a lot of players experienced.

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In lifting the Wimbledon trophy, Rybakina became the first player from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles title, something her dad explained was a childhood dream before joking that she wouldn't be trying to quit again. "When she was little, she once said to her grandfather the following phrase: 'I want to be the first!' And she goes to this goal,"