There have been a number of WTA players who have switched nationalities in 2025, and there is now a new player joining this list.
Perhaps the most high-profile of these is Daria Kasatkina, who switched to represent Australia earlier this year.
It has not been an entirely successful switch for former top 10 player Kasatkina, who ended her season early after admitting she was at ‘breaking point’.
Kasatkina is not the only player to switch nationality from Russia, with Mario Timofeeva changing to represent Uzbekistan, and she is now being joined by another player.
Kamilla Rakhimova set to switch nationality to represent Uzbekistan
WTA player Kamilla Rakhimova has been announced to be switching from Russia to Uzbekistan from this point onwards.
Rakhimova has represented Russia since being a professional tennis player in 2019, but has now elected to represent the country where her mother is from, who represented Uzbekistan as a junior tennis player.
The 24-year-old WTA player currently has a ranking of world number 112, but has been as high as world number 60.
Rakhimova won the biggest title of her singles career last year at the WTA 125 event in Guadalajara, and she has also picked up some impressive wins over current top 10 players.
This includes Rakhimova beating 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini at Wimbledon earlier this year, and she also has wins over Mirra Andreeva and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Rakhimova has also won three WTA doubles titles and reached the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Australian Open earlier this year, leaving her just on the cusp of breaking into the top 50 of the doubles rankings.
When announcing that Rakhimova would be representing Uzbekistan, Tennis Federation of Uzbekistan (FTU) Secretary General Sador Kamilov spoke about the significance of this switch.
“The arrival of Kamila Rakhimova to the Uzbekistan national team is an event of historic significance,” Kamilov said on the FTU website. “She has already proven herself to be a strong, competitive tennis player capable of playing on equal terms with the world’s top players.
“We are delighted to welcome Kamila to our team and are confident that she will achieve great victories, go far, and set new records under the Uzbekistan flag.”
Who is the highest ranked WTA player from Uzbekistan in history?
With her transition to representing Uzbekistan, Rakhimova is now automatically their number one active tennis player ahead of Timofeeva (No.146) and Laima Vladson (No.874).
However, Rakhimova is still some way from becoming the top ranked player to represent Uzbekistan in history.
That honour belongs to Iroda Tulyaganova, who achieved a career-high ranking of world number 16 in 2002.
Tulyaganova won three WTA singles titles in her career, and she also won gold at the Asian Games in 2002.
Which tennis player am I thinking of?
The highest ranked ATP player to represent Uzbekistan in history is Denis Istomin, who achieved a career-high ranking of world number 33 in 2012.
No Uzbekistani man is currently coming close to Istomin’s record, with Sergey Fomin the current top-ranked player as the world number 345.