Stories about sportspersons moving from their country of birth to another country before becoming famous in their fields are loitered across all sports. It helps many players to get what they deserve perhaps after being deprived of financial and administrative support perhaps. Mostly with Russian players, more than a handful have moved from their country of origin due to various political and off the court issues. Here are 5 tennis stars who defected and the reasons behind it, the latest being Alexander Shevchenko, who is playing at the Rotterdam Open 2024 at the time of writing this report.
Alexander Shevchenko
Alexander Shevchenko is a 23-year-old tennis player born in the Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don. He started playing tennis just 2 years ago when he won his first Challenger title – The 2022 Bratislava Open. Remarkably, the Alexander Shevchenko ranking is 57th at the moment in men’s singles in the world and he has made more than $1 million USD already in prize money.
Only two years after his Challenger win, in January 2024, Alexander Shevchenko changed his nationality from Russia to Kazakhstan, being the latest from his country to do so. He also publicly stated that he is very proud of having taken such a step.
Alexander Shevchenko played in the Open Sud de France from Kazakhstan. He has lived in Vienna, Austria for the longest time since when he was nine years old. Shevchenko is also married to fellow Russian tennis player Anastasia Potapova, since December 1, 2023.
Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina became the first Kazakhstani player to win a Majors tournament in 2022 when she won the Wimbledon Championships. However, she was born in the Russian capital city of Moscow on 17th June 1999. In June 2018, Rybakina moved from Russia to Kazakhstan after entering the top 200 of the WTA rankings. She is very protective about her personal life and is not dating anyone at the moment. Rybakina has a younger sister and they both started with gymnastics before moving on to tennis.
Alexander Bublik
Alexander Bublik was born in the Gatchina town of Russia in 1996. Bublik first picked up a tennis racket when he was four, and by 2019 he was playing in the Davis Cup for Kazakhstan. The 26-year-old Bublik is the No.1 Kazakhstani tennis player at the moment. Bublik switched from Russia to Kazakhstan citing that he was looking for better financial support from the national tennis federation.
Bublik felt he got from the Kazakhstani Tennis Federation what he missed out on from the Russian Tennis Federation. After his win at the Montpellier Open 2024, Alexander Bublik joined an elite club with Pete Sampras.
Natela Dzalamidze
Natela Dzalamidze was born in Moscow, Russia on 27th February 1993. She is a winner of three doubles titles and three doubles Challenger titles. Dzalamide moved from Russia to Georgia to participate in the Wimbledon and the Olympics. This was during the height of Russia-Ukraine war and Russians weren’t allowed to play in major tournaments. Dzalamide also felt like this was a natural move since her father is from Georgia.
Varvara Gracheva
Born in Moscow, Varvara Gracheva didn’t move to Kazakhstan or Georgia, but instead to France. This was after her mom introduced her to tennis in the Russian city of Zhukovsky, Gracheva, but she realized that there were few training facilities and ill-equipped conditions for tennis. Varvara first moved to Germany before finally moving to Cannes and settling on the French Riviera. She received French nationality in June 2023 and represented France in 2023 Bad Homburg Open.
