Elena Rybakina to donate hefty amount to animal charity and Kazakhstan tennis programs following Wimbledon

Elena Rykina opted to donate a large sum of money to causes that er close to her heart after collecting a high amount of prize money at Wimbledon.

The 23-year-old defeated Simona Halep and Ons Jabeur in back-to-back matches to win her first Grand Slam championship at The All England Club. The win did not see her improve her ranking dramatically (would have ranked inside the top 10) but she was still able to collect the biggest prize money a Wimbledon champion ever got.

She won't keep all of it because she opted to donate part of that prize money to animal charities after visiting an animal shelter recently and seeing what it looked like. Rybakina was also set to earn a hefty bonus from the Federation by becoming the first player from Kazakhstan to win a major but she declined that money preferring it to go to the junior programs of the country.

She said:

"First of all, of course, I would like to help the juniors, most of it (money) will go to them. And the second important point for me: I was at the shelter, and I was very much moved by it, so I would like to allocate money for the animal shelter."

Elaborating furhter on why supporting young players is imporatnt to her, she noted her own journey:

"The transition from juniors to an adult professional career is very difficult. Besides the fact that you have to have a good team around you, not everyone is able to continue at the professional level and only a few people reach the top. I’ve been very lucky in that respect."

She continued:

"At that moment, which was almost five years ago, it so happened that I had an acute question: what to do next? I was about 17-18 years old. I had to decide whether I would try to play and stay in professional sports or go studying. We found each other, and at the end of the day, I am very happy that my journey continues exactly with Kazakhstan. History is happening together thanks to Kazakhstan. Thank you very much for your support.”