Elena Rybakina was born in Russia but held the nationality of Kazakhstan. It has made people wonder what religion she follows.

While the ethnic Kazakhs follow Islam and are Muslim, the Slavis people of the country follow orthodox Christianity. Since the athlete was born in Russia and spent her childhood there, she is also said to follow Christianity. 

She obtained Kazakh citizenship after a month of breaking into the top 200. She had just turned 19 then and changed her federation from Russia to Kazakhstan.

The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation gave her financial assistance in exchange for her changing her nationality, which she selected over other opportunities to play college tennis in the United States. 

She represented Kazakhstan and competed in the US Open's first-ever Grand Slam qualifying round; however, she could not advance to the main draw.

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Elena Rybakina was born in Moscow, Russia, on June 17, 1999, to her parents. She and her older sister began playing sports early, initially concentrating on gymnastics and ice skating.

However, her father suggested she switch to tennis after learning she was too tall to pursue a career as a professional in either of those sports. Thus, she started playing tennis when she was six years old. 

🇰🇿 The first player from Kazakhstan to reach a Grand Slam semifinal 🇰🇿

Elena Rybakina | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Dq4ycqYaS2

— wta (@WTA) July 6, 2022

While her father is the one who has a bigger hand in making her the tennis player she is today, the details about him are kept confidential today. The player does not talk much about her family in public. 

Likewise, her father or mother also does not appear in public or media, making it difficult to get information about them. 

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Elena Rybakina's family is said to belong to Slavis ethnicity. The Slavis people are divided into West, East, and South Slavic based on the traditional linguistic lines.

People from West Slavic include the Czechs, Poles, and Slovaks. In contrast, East Slavic includes the Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, and Rusyns, and South Slavic consists of Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenians.

Besides, it seems that Ryanakina's family are Russians. Elena would also be a Russian if she had not accepted the offer from Kazakstan that provided her financial assistance to develop her career moving ahead in exchange for her being a Kazakistan national.