Biography
For his relatively short-live biography, Elena Ostapenko won many titles, and today it is a famous Latvian tennis player. The firm right-hander recognizes the "two-handed backhand" key element of his game.Childhood and youth
Ostapenko Elena Evgenievna was born on June 8, 1997 in the city of Riga. He is a citizen of Latvia, but Elena's parents have Ukrainian origin. Father is a former professional football player from Zaporizhia, played for the Metallurg team. Elena Yakovleva's mother played tennis at the seitylessness level, and later continued his career as a daughter's coach. The athlete has a consolidated brother who lives in the USA.
Ostapenko was engaged in tennis from 6 years. At the same time, the girl was fond of dancing. At the age of 12, I chose to focus on a tennis career, relying on good coordination developed by dance training.
As for the career in Latvia, the athlete is more known as Alena Ostapenko. When she was born, the girl wanted to call Alena, but this name was not in the calendar in Latin, so Ostapenko received the name of the mother - Elena. Later, the authorities of Latvia explained that there were no restrictions that would not allow you to register the desired name. Most likely, some misunderstandings arose.
Tennis
The efforts of parents and diligence of the daughter quickly gave good results. Back in children's tournaments, the girl gradually began to play at the level of the strongest country, and later Europe. At the age of 13, Elena won in the prestigious Les Petits As tournament, to break Belindu Buckchich in the semifinals. Nevertheless, the debut in the senior junior series there was a little earlier: Ostapenko won the home G5 in Jurmala in a single discharge.Gradually improving skill, the Latvian athlete raised the results, participating in status competitions. Thus, in the fall of 2011, in a pair with Katerina Synyakova, she reached the semifinals of the elite tournament G1 in Breidenton. And in January 2012, he made his debut on the Junior matches of a big helmet.
To stabilize the results and reach a new level of competitiveness, it took two seasons. In 2013, Ostapenko for the first time reached the quarterfinal in the tournaments of the Grand Slam. Led in several G1 competitions and already in 2014 was in the top 10 rating, winning for the first time in the history of Latvian women's tennis, the Junior Tournament of the Grand Slam on Wimbledon.
In the same year, the athlete participated in the tennis tournament of the II Youth Olympic Games. Parabe with Aquile parasinate Ostapenko won bronze. The increased results were raised by Elena to the third position of the classification with the third position in her career.
Debut matches in an adult tour of Elena spent in winter in 2012, having participating in several small tournaments in Estonia. The growing skill allowed to freely win on small tournaments and conquer the first titles. At this time, Elena tried his strength in the qualifications of the WTA tournament in Moscow.
The accumulated experience allowed us to gradually climb by rating classifications. In a single discharge, Elena has long been limited to victories on 10-thousand, but in 2013, the tennis player managed to win two 25-thousand. One of them - in Estonia, in a pair with anneti annette.
At the end of 2014, the results of the athlete steel at the level above. In Tashkent, Ostapenko beat in the first round of Shahar Peer. After a couple of weeks, the quarterfinal of 50 thousands was added to the result in the Zhue-le-tour, the final on 25-thousand in Poland and the semifinal of 100 thousand in Poitiers. Series success allowed Elena overcome the frontier in the top 200, the tennis player took the 165th line.
A special invitation to the basis of Wimbledon turned out to be by the way. In the first round, Elena hit Carlo Suarez Navarro. The Latvian athlete took advantage of the playing crisis of the rival and gave a couple of gamers per match. The balance of the summer season brought a double finale on 75-thousand in their respection and semi-finals on a steam tournament in the city of Vancouver. There, Latvian tennis player tried the strength in the Alliance from Kiki Burtens.
On US Open again there was a need to play qualifications, this time Elena successfully passed the stage and "made his way" in the 2nd round. But there I gave the right to go to the next round of Sara Errani.
In May 2017, Ana Kanyukh lost to Elena Ostapenko - an athlete won a volitional victory. In the match with Carolina Wozniacksky in June 2017, Ostapenko won, going to the semifinals "Roland Garros". In the final, Elena Ostapenko unexpectedly defeated one of the contenders for the Cup Simon Halep, becoming the first representative of Latvia, which was able to get into the Grand Slam final and become a champion in a single discharge.
Few later, in September of the same year, Ostapenko won the second in the career of a single WTA title in Seoul, defeating Brazilian Beatris Addad Maya.
In May 2018, the operating champion Roland Garros in the first round dropped out of the tournament, giving the victory of the Ukrainian Katerina Kozlova. Ostapenko lost the right to defend the title champion.
In the same month, another spectacular match took place: Elena played with Maria Sharapova. Before that, the girls have never met on the court. The athletes fought for 3 hours and 10 minutes, the forecasts were different, but Maria won in the tense struggle.
Despite the series of victories at the "Umbildon-2018", Ostapenko did not get into the final, taking defeat from the German Angelica Kerber. A year later, the same tournament Elena dropped out in the first round of single competitions.
Good luck smiled at the girl in Luxembourg. Tennis player became a tournament champion in 2019, whose prize pool exceeds $ 225 thousand, in an hour Beating in the final of Nurse Julia Gerges with a score of 6: 4, 6: 1.
Personal life
In the initial period, Elena's career in an interview went around the discussion of personal life. Mother supported her concentration on sports. Given the permanent employment and the convey, time on the boyfriends just lacked.
In 2017, the tennis player awarded the rank of "Rigan the Year" and the Certificate of Honor for Sports Achievements and Popularization of Riga. Contributing to the title can every person who has reached 18 years old, regardless of citizenship and nationality.
On July 8, 2018, an athlete with a scope celebrated the Western majority - 21 years. Oleg Miami was a special guest on the holiday, the participant of the "Voice" show, visiting Riga only to sing and congratulate Elena. Photos from this event are published on the official page of Ostapenko in the Social Network "Instagram", which is shot by a variety of pictures of athletes from both training and tournaments and a swimsuit with a rest.
It was from there that fans learned about the first relations of Elena with a famous football player Artur Karasauskas. In the spring of 2020, the first joint photo appeared in the tennis player account. However, for six months before that, a couple had already seen together at sports competitions.
In the same year, the father of celebrity suddenly died. The shock did not affect the participation of Elena in tournaments - according to her, it was even harder to stay at home.
Elena Ostapenko now
Now the tennis player is stubbornly trained, putting ambitious goals and moving to their implementation.The beginning of 2021 brought Ostapenko an emotional splash, mostly painted negatively. At the tournament in Melbourne Elena attracted attention, asking his coach to retire from the Tribune. After that she won the Sarah Errani - Italian by nationality.
Part of the guilt in his loss Ukrainian Elina Svitolina on the same tournament tennis player placed on the unfair work of the Hawk-Eye system fixing the ball enter the court.
In the spring, Elena participated in Miami Open, where he fought with the leader of the world ranking, Australian Ashley Barti. The game lasted 1 hour 9 minutes, Ostapenko lost his rival, earning 65 rating points.
Titles
- 2014 - Latvian Sports Rising Star of the Year
- 2015 - WTA TOUR Breakthrough of the month (February)
- 2017 - WTA Tour Breakthrough of the month (May)
- 2017 - WTA Tour The most advanced player of the year
- 2017 - Latvian athlete of the Year