World No. 25 Elena Rybakina said she does not feel like a Wimbledon champion.
Rybakina, who won the grass court Slam this year, said in a press conference on Friday that she calculated she would have been ranked No. 2 in the world if the event had not stripped ranking points.
The 23-year-old of Kazakhstan also revealed she would be “receiving better treatment” if she was a top-10 player, pointing to playing No. 9 Garbine Muguruza on court 4 at the Western & Southern Open last week.
“I feel like I'm not a Wimbledon champion,” she said. “The point situation, we cannot change, but … it's not fair. Many players are paying for these decisions.”
In April, the All England Club announced they would be banning Russians and Belarusians from the grass court event.
In response, the ATP and WTA made the decision to strip ranking points from this year’s event. Competitors were granted prize money out of a record-setting purse of 40.3 million pounds ($50.5 million).
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“It was always my dream to win Wimbledon and I did not get the winning feeling,” Rybakina said.
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Rybakina is set to face a qualifier who is TBD in the first round of the US Open on Monday, Aug. 29.
