While Serena Williams got bounced in the first round of Wimbledon earlier this summer, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina won the title. 

Not that the casual sports fan would ever know the reigning champion. Williams has grabbed all the pre-tournament hype at the U.S. Open as she prepares to play the final tournament of her career. Rybakina has come in anonymously. And she’s not too happy about it. In fact, she doesn’t even feel like a champion. 

It’s not so much the lack of attention, it’s the lack of tour points she received for winning seven matches on the London grass, then moving on to the next event without fanfare or time to savor it. 

Because Wimbledon had banned Russians from playing due to the Ukraine war, the WTA and ATP reacted by making the All England Club tournament an exhibition, with no tour points handed out. 

“It was my dream to win Wimbledon,’’ Rybakina said. “It’s [a] pity. I feel like actually I’m not the Wimbledon champion. It takes time to realize, but when you’re going from tournament to tournament, this is how you feel.’’ 

Rybakina enters the U.S. Open ranked 25th despite winning her first Grand Slam title when she was ranked 23rd. Her victory was a milestone: She was the second-lowest ranked player to win the Wimbledon. 

“I don’t think that it’s fair,’’ Rybakina, who was born in Russia, said of the decision to not award tour points for Wimbledon. “Of course, we cannot change it. It was a decision before. Knowing that as of today I will be No. 2 on the [tour]. Since I didn’t get this feeling to be No. 2 or actually achieve, because it’s still different treatment when you are top 10 or top 20. Even with the win of Wimbledon, it’s kind of a different feeling.’’ 

Rybakina said after winning Wimbledon she still found herself playing on smaller courts because of her ranking. 

“Experience-wise, I would say it was not the greatest,’’ Rybakina said. “I think this is the problem of the structure of the tour. Honestly, a bit weak leadership.’’ 

Rybakina went as far as to say some players quit early because of the tour grind, adding there are “examples when a player is actually young and they did amazing results, but in the end decides to quit tennis. So this is the question. Like, ‘Why is it happening?’ ” 

One highlight of the Wimbledon title was her coach, Stefano Vukov, making good on a bet and getting a arm tattoo of her name and the date of the championship win. From years back, Rybakina has it on video during a tournament in Doha, Qatar, that Vukov said, “When you win Wimbledon, or any other Grand Slam, I will make a tattoo.’’ 

Rybakina was ranked 200th at the time. 

“I was shocked in the end he did it,’’ Rybakina said. “It’s huge respect to him because we had this bet. Anybody could say, ‘OK, I will not do it because it’s too much.’ ”