Vesnina debuted at a main draw WTA tournament in Quebec. One of her best seasons was in 2009, reaching her first WTA final and attaining a ranking 24 in the year end. She repeated her success in 2013, reaching her best to date ranking of 21 on 22 July. Then she won her first WTA titles in Hobart and Eastbourne. In October 2014 she left the top-100 singles world ranking.
In doubles, Vesnina partnered with tennis players such as Viktoria Azarenka, Dinara Safina, Maria Kirilenko and Sania Mirza, having notable success. In May 2012, she started partnership with Ekaterina Makarova, becoming one of the strongest women's tennis duos. They won two Grand Slams and three other WTA titles. In 2014, Vesnina updated her world ranking to No. 3. In early 2015, Vesnina decided to partner with Daria Kasatkina for a short time, while concentrating more in singles.
After her marriage in late 2015, Vesnina quickly rose in singles. Starting in 2016 as a player ranked outside the 100, Vesnina could endure several qualifications, such as in Doha, where she reached the quarterfinals, and Charleston, where she became runner-up. Following Charleston, she jumped over 20 ranking positions, and after Strasbourg and Roland Garros, she got into the top 50. A high point was reaching the semifinals at the 2016 Wimbledon, becoming third among women's tennis players who debuted at a Grand Slam semifinal after a span of appearances.
Elena was born to Sergey and teacher Irina. She has a younger brother, Dmitry, a former junior tennis player. In November 2015, Elena married businessman Pavel Tabuntsov. She started playing tennis aged seven in the sports school in Sochi.
2002–2003
In October 2002, aged sixteen years and two months, she gained direct entry into the qualifying draw for her first $10,000 tournament at Giza, Egypt, and succeeded in qualifying for the main draw before losing a close three-set match. The next week, again qualifying at Al-Mansoura to enter the main draw, where she won two further matches in straight sets, beating Hana Šromová of the Czech Republic in the second round, to reach her first $10,000 quarterfinal in just her second event played. However, she defaulted her quarterfinal tie to her opponent.
In 2003 she began the year entering two successive ITF events India, at Chennai and Bangalore, and not only succeeded in qualifying both times, but also reached her first semifinal and another quarterfinal in the main draws, losing to Akgul Amanmuradova at the quarterfinal stage at Bangalore.
These results gave Vesnina her first ranking at World No. 750, enough to gain direct entry to her next $10,000 draw at Istanbul in the last week of March, where she beat her personal best result in reaching the final. The following week, at Antalya, still in Turkey, she was knocked out in the first round by her then-compatriot Evgenia Linetskaya; and in May she met with mixed results in Lviv, Ukraine and Warsaw, Poland; but in June she claimed her career-first $10,000 title at Balashikha, Russia, without dropping a set.
Vesnina failed to defend her title at the Hobart International, losing to qualifier Estrella Cabeza Candela in the second round. Also, at the Australian Open, Vesnina failed to defend fourth round points, losing to American Alison Riske in the first round. However, she reached the final of the doubles competition with Makarova, losing to World No. 1 pairing Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci 7–5 in the final set.
Vesnina/Makarova then suffered a shock loss at the hands of Noppawan Lertcheewakarn/Vera Zvonareva in the Pattaya Open. They then suffered two quarterfinal losses in Dubai and Indian Wells, losing to Kudryavtseva/Rodionova and Black/Mirza.
They reached the final of the Miami Open, losing to Martina Hingis/Sabine Lisicki. Vesnina/Makarova failed to defend their title at the French Open, losing to French wildcards Julie Coin/Pauline Parmentier in the second round. Vesnina reached her first semifinal of the year at the Portugal Open, beating Roberta Vinci in the process. As the defending champion in Aegon International, she fell in the second round to eventual champion Madison Keys.
As a lucky-loser in the Rogers Cup, Vesnina lost in the second round to doubles partner Makarova in straight sets. Vesnina and Makarova won their second major title at the 2014 US Open, not playing any seeded teams throughout the whole competition. At the WTA Finals, Vesnina/Makarova lost in the quarterfinal to Kudryavtseva/Rodionova.
Vesnina finished the season with a 18–20 record in singles, with a ranking of 65. For doubles, Vesnina had a record of 24–14 and won 1 title, which is the US Open. Vesnina had a ranking of 7 for doubles in the year-end rankings.
Vesnina started her 2016 year by playing at the 2016 Brisbane International. She was the 7th seed for qualifying, and she successfully qualified for the main draw by beating Australian wildcard Tammi Patterson, Mathilde Johansson and Ysaline Bonaventure. In the first round, Vesnina lost to former World No. 1 and eventual champion Victoria Azarenka in two sets. In doubles, she and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were the third seeds, and they reached the quarterfinals where they lost to Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja in a third set supertiebreak.
Vesnina failed to reach the main draw of the Australian Open, losing in the first round of qualifying. It marked the time in decade she had failed to qualify for the main draw in a Grand Slam event, her singles ranking dropping to No. 122 in the world. In doubles she and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were seeded fifth and reached the quarterfinals where they lost to Alla Kudryavtseva and Vania King. In mixed doubles Vesnina and partner Bruno Soares were also seeded fifth. They reached the final where they defeated Coco Vandeweghe and Horia Tecău, which marked her first mixed doubles Grand Slam title.
At the inaugural St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy, Vesnina received a wildcard for the singles draw and lost in the second round to qualifier Kateryna Kozlova in three sets. She reached the quarter-finals of the doubles draw with Daria Kasatkina, but lost to World No. 1 pairing Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza.
Vesnina then participated in the Qatar Total Open, where she successfully qualified for the main draw after beating Ons Jabeur and Naomi Broady. She faced Caroline Garcia in the first round, and caused an upset by winning in straight sets. Vesnina then created an even bigger upset by achieving her first top-2 win of her career against Simona Halep in three sets, despite being down 6–7, 1–4. She then caused her third straight upset against former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki once again in three sets. However, her run ended in the quarter-finals after being defeated by eventual champion Carla Suárez Navarro in two tight sets. Nevertheless, this was her best showing at a Premier 5 tournament. In the doubles competition, Vesnina and partner Kasatkina caused a major upset when they ended World No. 1 pairing Hingis/Mirza's 41 match winning streak in the quarter-finals, despite losing the first set 6–2. However, despite winning the first set 6–3 against World No. 2 pairing Chan Hao-ching/Chan Yung-jan, they lost in three sets.
At the 2016 BNP Paribas Open, Vesnina fell in the 1st round of the qualifying to American wildcard Julia Boserup. In doubles, Vesnina once again partnered Daria Kasatkina but lost in the second round in three sets, despite winning the first set 6–1 to eventual finalists Julia Görges/Karolína Plíšková. In the Miami Open, Vesnina managed to get past qualifying after beating Kateryna Kozlova, avenging her loss in St. Petersburg, and Tsvetana Pironkova. She was drawn to face fellow qualifier Jana Čepelová in the first round and won in straight sets. In the second round, Vesnina caused a huge upset when she beat former World No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams in three sets, despite serving for the match at 6–0, 5–4 and having a match point in the second set. Vesnina then faced in-form Britain Johanna Konta but lost in three sets despite being two points from victory. In doubles, Vesnina and Kasatkina fell to two-time Grand Slam champion Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Lucie Šafářová in the second round.
At the Volvo Car Open, the 85th-ranked Vesnina became the first qualifier to ever reach the championship match in the tournament's 44-year history, where she faced a determined Sloane Stephens. Vesnina won five main draw matches in a row just to reach the finals. However, Stephens ended up prevailing 7–6 (4), 6–2 as the fatigue of 718 minutes – nearly 12 hours – of tournament tennis appeared to take a toll on Vesnina in the second set.
Vesnina again subdued the qualification, now in Madrid. In every match she performed a bagel (winning a set 6–0), except in the 2nd round, where she fell to Kvitova. In doubles, she and Makarova played their first tournament together since late 2015. They reached the semifinals. In Rome, Vesnina could not qualify for the main draw. However, with Makarova she reached the final, losing to Hingis/Mirza.
No comments:
Post a Comment