Over the course of her career she has won nine ITF singles titles five 25,000, one 50,000, two $ ,000 and one 100,000 and four ITF doubles titles all 25,000 has also twice been a runner-up in ITF events in singles and four times in doubles.
In 2010, Baltacha had victories over top 10 players Li Na and Francesca Schiavone, who at the time was the reigning French Open champion.
Contents
* 1 Personal life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Junior 1997–2001
o 2.2 1997–2000
o 2.3 2001
o 2.4 2002
o 2.5 2003
o 2.6 2004
o 2.7 2005
o 2.8 2006
o 2.9 2007
o 2.10 2008
o 2.11 2009
o 2.12 2010
o 2.13 2011
* 3 WTA tour and ITF circuit titles 13
o 3.1 Singles 9
o 3.2 Doubles 4
* 4 WTA tour and ITF circuit runner-up 6
o 4.1 Singles 2
o 4.2 Doubles 4
* 5 Singles performance timeline
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Personal life
Baltacha was born in Kiev, Ukraine. She comes from a sporting family: her father Sergei is a former professional footballer, representing the USSR and playing in the United Kingdom with Ipswich Town, St Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, 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 team St Mirren of Paisley and for Millwall
After arriving at Heathrow Airport on 13 January 1989, Elena moved to Ipswich where her father 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. At the age of 19 she was diagnosed with the liver condition primary sclerosing cholangitis and in June 2010 she became patron of the Children's Liver Disease Foundation
Currently living in Ipswich, England, she trains at Culford School near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and Ipswich Sports Club, where she is coached by Nino Severino, a multi-sports specialist in mental and movement training who has also worked with Ipswich Town F.C. and in coaching martial arts athletes.Baltacha can also call on LTA's Head Coach of Women's Tennis Nigel Sears and LTA Coach Simon Walsh.
Career
Junior 1997–2001
Baltacha played her first match on the ITF junior circuit in February 1997 and her last at the 2001 US Open junior tournament. She never won a title but reached the final of two junior tournaments, at the 14th Bahia Junior Cup and at the LTA International Junior Tournament, Bisham Abbey. She also reached the semifinals of three tournaments and the quarterfinals of six others. In 2001 she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors championships where she was beaten by eventual champion, Angelique Widjaja, Over the course of her career as a junior, she gained wins over players such as Svetlana Kuznetsova, Gisela Dulko twice and Anne Keothavong. Her career-high singles ranking was World No. 77 and her final singles win-loss record was
As a doubles competitor, Baltacha won four tournaments and lost in the final of four more. She also lost in the semifinal stages of tournaments four times and the quarterfinals eight times. Her final doubles win-loss record was and her career-high doubles ranking was World No. 60
1997–2000
In November 1997, Baltacha made her debut on the ITF circuit in Edinburgh where she was beaten in the first round of the qualifying stages in three sets by Danica Kovakova. She did however reach the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament
She played only three adult ITF tournaments in 1998 (Birmingham, Southsea and Glasgow, all 10,000 events and lost in the qualifying stages for each of them
1999 saw her first ITF main draw appearances. She competed in four tournaments in total and reached the quarterfinals of the $10,000 tournament in Glasgow
In April 2000, Baltacha reached the quarterfinals of the $10,000 tournament in Bournemouth as a qualifier. She was given a wild card into the qualifying draw of her home Grand Slam, The Championships, Wimbledon where Flavia Pennetta beat her in three sets, . In October she received another wild card, this one into the Swisscom Challenge, a tier I tournament held in Zürich. The very next week she was a quarterfinalist at the $50,000 ITF tournament in Cardiff. Her season ending singles ranking was World No.
2001
Baltacha reached the quarterfinals of her first tournament of the year in January, a $10,000 ITF tournament in Jersey when she was forced to retire with the score at 3–6 0–1. She was out of action until late April when she reached the quarterfinals of the $10,000 tournament in Hatfield. Two weeks later she reached the quarterfinals of the $25,000 tournament in Edinburgh as a qualifier. She followed this up with a run to the semifinals of the $25,000 event in Surbiton. She was then given a wild card into the qualifying draw for the tier II event in Eastbourne, the Britannic Asset Management International Championships where she beat Frenchwoman, Virginie Razzano, , in the final round of qualifying to reach the main draw. Conchita Martínez beat her in the first round, Just a week later she was given a wild card into the main draw of Wimbledon to give her the first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam. She was beaten, by Nathalie Dechy in round one. Following Wimbledon she reached yet another ITF quarterfinal; this one in a $25,000 tournament in Felixstowe. She lost in round one of the qualifying tournament for the US Open in August and competed in four more ITF tournaments, reaching the quarterfinals of two of them both $25,000 She ended the year with a singles ranking of World No. 248.
2002
In February, Baltacha reached the quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF tournament in Sutton. She played for her country in the Fed Cup in April and won her singles rubber against Norway's, Annette Aksdal, . She then beat Lina Stančiūtė from Lithuania in the relegation play offs in three sets, Following this she attempted to qualify for the tier III, Croatian Bol Ladies Open where she was beaten in round one of the qualifying draw. This was the first of a string of five consecutive losses, the last of which was in the first round of the qualifying draw for the DFS Classic, a tier III event. She broke this string of losses with a win over Alina Jidkova in round one of the qualifying draw for the tier II, Britannic Asset Management International Championships. She was beaten by Elena Likhovtseva in the second round of qualifying. She was then given a wild card into the main draw of Wimbledon where she beat María Vento- in the first round Amanda Coetzer the second round before losing to Elena Likhovtseva for the second time in two consecutive tournaments the third round
Her next tournament after Wimbledon was the $25,000 ITF event in Felixstowe which she won by beating Irishwoman, Kelly Liggan, in the final to give her the first ITF singles title of her career.Two weeks later she won her second title in Pamplona, again $25,000, when she defeated Virginie Pichet,1, in the final. After this she attempted to qualify for the US Open but lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament for the second consecutive year. She played two more $25,000 ITF tournaments after the US Open, Glasgow and Southampton, where she reached the semifinals and quarterfinals respectively. Her season ending ranking for 2002 was World No.
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
Elena Baltacha
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