Elena Baltacha

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Elena Baltacha
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Residence Enfield, Middlesex, England
Date of birth August 14, 1983 (1983-08-14) (age 24)
Place of birth Kiev, Soviet Union
Height 5ft 7 (172cm)
Weight
Turned pro 1998
Plays Right-handed, Double-handed backhand
Career prize money $313,688
Singles
Career record: 184-136
Career titles: 5 ITF
Highest ranking: No.118 (March 7, 2005)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 3rd Round {2005}
French Open
Wimbledon 3rd Round {2002}
US Open
Doubles
Career record: 54-48
Career titles: 4 ITF
Highest ranking: No.213 (October 17, 2005)

Infobox last updated on: 10 April 2008.

Elena Baltacha (Ukrainian: Олена Балтача; is a Ukrainian British tennis player who has played for Great Britain[1][2]and Scotland.[3][4] She is currently the British number 3 and ranked 141 in the world, as of April 7, 2008. Elena has achieved the most at grand slams of any British woman since Samantha Smith, even though her career has been plagued by several injuries.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Playing the majority of the season on the ITF tour before 2002 with her only main draw WTA tournament being at Eastbourne in 2001, Elena's breakthrough on the WTA tour came when she made her Grand Slam debut in 2002 with a wildcard entry at Wimbledon ranked No.295. Elena reached the third round defeating 32 seed Amanda Coetzer along the way, falling eventually to Elena Likhovtseva. She later went on to win her first professional tournament on the ITF tour in Pamplona and a second in Felixstowe.

[edit] 2003-2004

Elena's career on the WTA tour went fairly fallow in 2003 despite being given a wild card entry at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open. 'Bally' failed to capitalise on these opportunities falling in the first round of both. Later on in the season she incurred problems with lower back strain which prevented her from competing and she fell outside the top 300. In 2004 she came back from injury reaching several semi finals on the ITF tour. Elena still managed to obtain wild cards at Birmingham and Eastbourne qualifying and Wimbledon where she defeated Marta Marrero in the first round ranked well inside the top 100 and lost to Jennifer Capriati in the second round.

[edit] 2005-2006

Elena made a return to fitness and prominence with an equal-best Grand Slam performance at the Australian Open reaching the 3rd round, coming through qualifying and taking a scalp in the name of Katarina Srebotnik in the first round, eventually going out to No.15 seed Silvia Farina Elia. She continued the success on the ITF tour reaching the finals in Redbridge leading to Elena reaching her career high singles ranking of 118 in the world. Despite the early season success she failed to continue this up and defend ranking points at Wimbledon and qualify in any other WTA tour events. In 2006 Elena played less than 20 matches and competed in 10 events, with a re-occurring back injury later turning out to a prolapsed back which led to Elena taking nearly a year to fully recover.

[edit] 2007

After keyhole surgery in 2006 on a prolapsed back, Elena Baltacha returned in March with her ranking at 660 in the world. Playing in several ITF tournaments in Korea, she regained some form reaching a couple of quarter finals.

At the International Women's Open in Eastbourne reaching the last 16 from qualifying, defeating compatriot Anne Keothavong in the 1st round of the main draw, then falling to Nicole Vaidisova (ranked 14) 6–3 6–2.

At Wimbledon Baltacha entered by wild card, she lost in the first round to Katarina Srebotnik. Though it was a competitive match with the first set going to a tie break, Elena fought back to take the second. In the end Katarina's form and considerable experience told, and she defeated Baltacha 7–6(4) 3–6 6–2.

She reached the quarter finals at $50000 Lexington ITF tournament, losing to 7th seed Julie Ditty. Then she was defeated at the $75000 Washington ITF tournament in the first round by 2nd seed Olga Savchuk in three sets 3–6 6–3 6–4. Despite this Elena Baltacha's ranking rose to 245th in the world.

An early loss in the U.S. Open qualifying to Evgeniya Rodina in straight sets 6–2 6–4, was disappointing though Rodina was ranked nearly 100 places above her.

After taking a few weeks break, Elena returned to the tour at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. In qualifying for this WTA Tier III event she qualified for the main draw. After taking out the number one seed Ma. Emilia Salerni 6–3 6–3 and ninth seed Agnes Szatmari 6–1 6–0 on route. In the first round Elena fought well to overcome Yan Zi of China in three sets 2–6 6–2 6–4 , however in the next round she was defeated by fifth seed and eventual tournament champion Virginie Razzano 6–2 6–2. Though this marked the first main draw WTA tour win outside of Britain for Baltacha since the Australian Open in 2005. Despite this Elena then failed to qualify for Bangkok PTT and competed back on the ITF tour in Japan for the final few weeks of the 2007 season.

In the ITF tournaments in Japan she reached the semi-finals in Makinohara and the quarter finals in Hamanako however she withdrew from the tournament before the match and later withdrew herself from Taoyuan, a $50,000 ITF tournament, though reasons were never specified.

Elena finished the year back inside the worlds top 200.

[edit] 2008

Elena started her season on the WTA tour in Auckland by qualifying through 3 rounds and defeating her compatriot Melanie South on the way. In the main draw she played 7th seed Eleni Daniilidou,[5] Elena was overcome by the former Auckland champion in straight sets 6–1 6–2.

Elena then headed for Australian Open Qualifying where, in the first round she demolished Virginie Pichet in the first set and in the second the French woman retired with the score at 6–0 3–2. In the next round she went out to higher ranked Shuai Zhang of China 6–4 6–1.[6]

Elena competed in the doubles matches for Great Britain in the Fed cup in the Euro/ Africa Zone. They finished bottom of the pool with narrow losses to Hungary, Denmark and Switzerland forcing a relegation tie against Portugal which they won 2–0 securing there place in Euro/Africa Zone 2009.

Elena competed in the WTA Tier 1 qualifying in Doha. In the first round she defeated Olga Poutchkova 6–1 3–0 until her opponent retired and reached the final round of qualifying where she played Tiantian Sun. With the score at 4–6 6–4 5–5 in a tight third set she was forced to retire due to injury. Elena competed in Dubai qualifying where she had a tough draw against top seed(Q) Agnieszka Radwanska she went out 6–1 6–2.

In late March Elena competed on the ITF tour for the first time in 2008 and did so with great success. Elena won the $25,000 Jersey event defeating Ana Vrljic in the final 6-3 6-1, this being her first title for nearly three years. The following week Elena competed at the $75,000 ITF tournament in Torhout, Belgium. She took out sixth seeded Petra Kvitova, then went on to reach the final taking out higher ranked opponent Nika Ozegovic on route. Remarkably she went on to beat fourth seed and former top 35 player Iveta Benesova in three sets, 6-7(5) 6-1 6-4, to win her most prestigious tournament to date.

Elena began her clay court season in Morrocco at the WTA Tier IV tournament in Fes. In the first round she faced former top 35 player Sesil Karatantcheva, squandering a early 3-1 lead Elena was then sent out in straight sets 7-5 6-2 [7].

[edit] Personal life

Baltacha was born August 14, 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine. She comes from a sporting family: her father Sergei was a professional footballer, representing the USSR and playing in the United Kingdom with Ipswich Town and St Johnstone, and her mother Olga represented the USSR in both the pentathlon and heptathlon at the Olympic Games. Her brother Sergei played football for Scottish Football League First Division team St Mirren of Paisley and for Millwall.

After arriving at Heathrow Airport on January 13, 1989, Elena moved to Ipswich where her father Sergei was to play football for the next year before moving to Scotland. The family lived in Perth where she grew up and spent her teenage years.

Currently living in Enfield, London, England, with her mother, she practices at the Hazelwood Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, in Winchmore Hill, North London, where she is coached by Alan Jones and Jo Durie. She is part of a tennis academy set up at Hazelwood, aimed at grooming talented young players into future professionals. The club has seven outside courts and three indoor tennis courts and three squash (sport) courts.

[edit] Career Achievements

[edit] Titles

Singles

No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in final Score
1. July 2002 ITF Pamplona $25,000 Hard Virginia Pichet 6–2 6–1
2. July 2002 ITF Felixstowe $25,000 Grass Kelly Liggan 4–6 6–2 6–3
3. October 2005 ITF Jersey $25,000 Hard Daniella Kix 6–4 6–4
4. March 2008 ITF Jersey $25,000 Hard Ana Vrljic 6-3 6-1
5. April 2008 ITF Torhout $75,000 Hard Iveta Benesova 6-7 6-1 6-4

Doubles

No. Date Tournament Surface Partner
1. July 2002 ITF Valladolid $25,000 Hard Natacha Madriantefy
2. July 2002 ITF Pamplona $25,000 Hard Kelly Liggan
3. October 2004 ITF Sunderland $25000 Hard Jane O’Donoghue
4. September2005 ITF Glasgow $25000 Carpet Margit Ruutel

[edit] Grand Slam Performance Timeline

Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Career Win Loss
Australian Open A A A A A 1R A 3R LQ A LQ 2–2
French Open A A A A A LQ A LQ LQ A 0–0
Wimbledon A A LQ 1R 3R 1R 2R 1R A 1R 3–6
U.S. Open A A A LQ LQ A LQ LQ A LQ 0–0
  • "A" stands for any tournament the player did not participate in.
  • "LQ" stands for participation in qualifying only.
  • The career record is only for the players main draw participation.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Baltacha: Britain's big hope
  2. ^ Player profile Elena Baltacha
  3. ^ "The teams for the 2006 Aberdeen Cup are: Scotland - Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Elena Baltacha and a leading Scottish Boy and Girl", Aberdeen Cup 2006, Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre
  4. ^ "Scotland's Elena Baltacha was denied a dream clash with..." The Scotsman, 17 January 2005
  5. ^ Lawn Tennis Association Strong start for Bally in 2008 season
  6. ^ Lawn Tennis Association Bright start for Brits on day two
  7. ^ WTA Fes Monday News

[edit] External links