Rybakina's father reveals she wanted to walk away from tennis six months ago

The father of the reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina revealed that his daughter wanted to walk away from tennis six months ago.

Rybakina sat down with a Russian newspaper to speak about the career of his daughter and he made a shocking revelation that could have impacted the history of tennis forever:

"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. Time will tell. It seems to me that she should still surprise everyone with her game. It's good that she is now lowered to the ground. She understands everything perfectly and tries. Now she is definitely not going to quit tennis, although she had such moments six months ago."

Rybakin did not go into too much detail about why she wanted to walk away from tennis but he did not that it's something many players go through:

"Many tennis players go through this. It happens that you put maximum efforts, but there is no exhaust. Even just before Wimbledon, it was like that. She could not stand it, she left the competition, we talked with her in the family for five or six days. My daughter calmed down and began to train again."