Number 1 is just a number

LÊ VINH |

Elena Rybakina, 27 years old, has just stepped up to the No. 1 position on the World Women's Tennis Rankings (WTA) for the first time, while somewhere, there are cases where she is not yet 30 years old, or even younger, and her career has fallen into "desolation".

The comparison factor is not between this sport and that sport, between this environment and that environment, but how people overcome circumstances, both when happy and when in pain. It creates value.

If you are interested in Rybakina's career path, you will see that, in her there is strength when making decisions even when young (moving from Russia to play for Kazakhstan), there is decisiveness when ready to part ways with the coach who has shaped her style, facing failure, a period of crisis due to injury and external conditions.

Not avoiding fluctuations, but also not too explosive when winning. Just "a light smile, a gentle nod like the expression of someone who is used to living with pressure and knows that victory is never the end point, but only a temporary stop".

The latest proof of the calmness of the "Queen of Silence" - how Kazakh people call it, is the statement when taking the No. 1 position on the WTA: "That's just a number, a different achievement... but in the end, the most important thing is still the titles".

Rybakina is not a glamorous star, not building a brand with shocking statements or flashy media campaigns. And she is another image worth looking at for young Vietnamese athletes and players.

The two words "star" are the same, but when placed next to "real" and "media", the value is very different. One side grows up with cultivation and patience, the other grows up with praise, with illusions, with advertising contracts, with the number of followers on social networks...

One side builds its own towers that are increasingly high and solid, the other side is like a sea foam in the waves, rising high and then collapsing, breaking down and disappearing when another wave comes again... That is the nature of media and social networks in modern life.

Of course, not everyone is as "silent" as Rybakina, but living true to their qualities and personality, even if they are not at the level of building a tower, they should at least become surfers - not waves - to firmly go through period after period, whether there is praise, thị phi, or anything.

LÊ VINH
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