Elena Baltacha
Elena Sergeevna Baltacha was a Ukrainian-born British professional tennis player. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Awards, she was also a long-term British No. 1, a position she held intermittently from 2002 to 2012. However, as a result of her absence from competition due to knee surgery, she dropped down the world rankings and at the time of her retirement on 18 November 2013, she was ranked as the world No. 221 and British No. 6. Her career-high ranking of world No. 49 was achieved in September 2010.
Over the course of her career, she won 11 ITF singles titles and four ITF doubles titles. She was also a runner-up in three ITF events in singles and four in doubles. In 2010, Baltacha had victories over top 10-players, including two victories over Li Na and one against Francesca Schiavone, who at the time was the reigning French Open champion. In 2011, Baltacha won her highest ranked tournament on the ITF Circuit, the Nottingham Challenge.
Baltacha was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2014, just a few weeks after her marriage to tennis coach Nino Severino. She died on 4 May 2014, aged 30.
Personal life
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Baltacha moved with her family following a transfer of football clubs by her professional footballer father, Sergei. He represented the Soviet Union and from 1988 to 1995 played in the United Kingdom for Ipswich Town, St Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Her mother Olga was a sportswoman. Her brother Sergei played football for St Mirren and Millwall.After arriving at Heathrow Airport on 13 January 1989, Baltacha moved to Ipswich where her father was to play football for the next year before moving to Perth, Scotland, where she grew up and spent some of her teenage years, before moving to Paisley, Scotland, and attending Castlehead High School.
Living in Ipswich, on 8 December 2013, a month after her retirement from tennis, she married her coach Niño Severino, a retired professional tennis coach turned multi-sports specialist in mental and movement training coach, who also works with Ipswich Town F.C. and in coaching martial arts athletes. In 2010, the couple formed the Elena Baltacha Academy of Tennis, which is still run by Niño and based around the facilities at Ipswich Sports Club, where she trained during her career.
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. Baltacha was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2014. She died from the disease on 4 May 2014 at the age of 30. Several players paid tribute to Baltacha on Twitter including Grand Slam champions Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, Petra Kvitová, Marion Bartoli, Chris Evert, Sam Stosur and Svetlana Kuznetsova. A host of ATP and WTA tennis players past and present came together on the centre court at the Madrid Open as a mark of respect for Baltacha. Baltacha's funeral took place on 19 May and was attended by Tim Henman, Annabel Croft, Laura Robson, Jo Durie and Judy Murray among others. Mourners were asked to wear bright colours instead of black and to donate to Rally for Bally rather than buying flowers. The money was to be split equally between the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the Elena Baltacha Academy of Tennis, which she set up to help disadvantaged children take up the sport. Baltacha is interred in the Ipswich Millennium Cemetery.
In May 2015, it was announced that the trophy at the Nottingham Open was to be named the "Elena Baltacha trophy" in her honour.
Career
Junior years (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. Baltacha 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 and Anne Keothavong. Her career-high singles ranking was world No. 77 and her final singles win–loss record was 40–40. Aside from junior ITF events, Baltacha also competed in the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2000, representing Scotland, and won a silver medal alongside Karen Paterson and Mhairi Brown in the women's team event.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 37–30 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 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 $10k tournament in Glasgow.In April 2000, she reached the quarterfinals of the $10k tournament in Bournemouth as a qualifier. Baltacha was given a wildcard into the qualifying draw of her home Grand Slam, Wimbledon, where Flavia Pennetta beat her in three sets. In October, she received another wildcard, this one into the Swisscom Challenge, a Tier-I event held in Zürich. The very next week, she was a quarterfinalist at the $50k tournament in Cardiff. Her season ending singles ranking was 397.
2001–02
Baltacha reached the quarterfinals of her first tournament of the year in January, a $10k tournament in Jersey, when she was forced to retire early in the second set. She was out of action until late April when she reached the quarterfinals of the $10k tournament in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Two weeks later she reached the quarterfinals of the $25k tournament in Edinburgh as a qualifier. She followed this up with a run to the semifinals of the $25k event in Surbiton. She was then given a wildcard into the qualifying draw for the Tier-II Eastbourne International where she beat 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 wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon to give her the first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam championship. She was beaten by Nathalie Dechy in round one. Following Wimbledon she reached yet another ITF quarterfinal; this one in a $25k 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. She ended the year with a singles ranking of world No. 248.In February 2002, Baltacha reached the quarterfinals of the $25k tournament in Sutton, London. She played for Great Britain 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 Birmingham 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 Eastbourne International. She was beaten by Elena Likhovtseva in the second round of qualifying. She was then given a wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon where she beat María Vento-Kabchi in the first round and Amanda Coetzer in the second before losing to Likhovtseva in the third round.
Her next tournament was the $25k event in Felixstowe which she won by beating Irishwoman Kelly Liggan in the final to give her the first ITF Circuit singles title of her career. Two weeks later, she won her second title in Pamplona, again $25k, when she defeated Virginie Pichet in the final. After this, she attempted to qualify for the US Open but lost in the first round of the qualifying for the second consecutive year. She played two more $25k 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. 157.
2003–04
Baltacha's 2003 season started slowly; she lost in round one of the qualifying tournament for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. In April she was again part of the Great Britain Fed Cup team but lost her only match against Hungary's Petra Mandula. She spent May failing to qualify for the Tier-III tournament, the Internationaux de Strasbourg and French Open. In June she was given a wildcard into the main draw of the Birmingham Classic but was forced to retire during her first round match against fellow Brit Jane O'Donoghue after the first game of the final set. She was then awarded another wild card; this one into the qualifying draw of the Tier II Eastbourne International where she was beaten by Virginie Razzano. For the third year running, she received a wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon where she forced the former world No. 5, Jelena Dokić, to fight for her eventual three-set victory. This was Baltacha's final match of the year as she underwent invasive surgery after Wimbledon which put her out of action until 2004. As a result, her year-end singles ranking fell to world number 373.Baltacha returned to action in January 2004, reaching the semifinals of her first two ITF tournaments of the year. These were the $10k event in Kingston upon Hull and the $25k event in Sunderland. She played in the Fed Cup for the Great Britain Fed Cup team where she won her two singles rubbers against Turkey and Romania by beating Cigdem Duru and Monica Niculescu, respectively. She also beat Irishwoman Yvonne Doyle in the Europe/Africa Group II Play-offs. In June, Samantha Stosur beat her in the first round of the Birmingham and Cara Black beat her in the final round of the qualifying tournament for the Eastbourne International one week later. Baltacha then headed to Wimbledon main draw courtesy of another wildcard. She demolished world No. 61, Marta Marrero, in round one before falling to three-time Grand Slam champion, Jennifer Capriati, in the second round.
Between Wimbledon and the US Open qualifying tournament, she suffered three consecutive first-round losses in $50k tournaments in the United States. After the US Open, she reached the final of a $25k event in Jersey where she was beaten by Emma Laine. She spent the remainder of her year competing on the ITF Circuit and her year-end singles ranking rose to world No. 202.