Anastasija Sevastova

Anastasija Sevastova (born 13 April 1990) is a professional tennis player from Latvia.

Anastasija Sevastova was born on 13 April 1990 in Liepāja, Latvia.

She was raised by her mother Diāna Golovanova, an English teacher.

Sevastova's grandmother was interested in channeling Sevastova's energy into sports.

She introduced her to the tennis at age 6.

With her natural athleticism, Sevastova could have gravitated to basketball or soccer but chose tennis because her grandmother had friends who played and because the family lived near a tennis club in Liepāja.

"'Pure chance. It was tennis, because it was summer, close to the water and close to our house. So you just enroll your kid.' — Diāna Golovanova, on her daughter's decision."

The Colder months would prove more complicated.

There were no indoor tennis-dedicated facilities in Liepāja — only school gymnasiums with varnished wooden floors, where the multicolored lines used for various sports intersect like a Mondrian painting.

Due to that, Sevastova played most of her winter tennis in the gymnasium in a secondary school where her mother taught.

It is also the same school where Jeļena Ostapenko's mother and primary coach, Jeļena Jakovleva, attended school as a youngster.

"'Until age 14, I practiced in the school gyms on the wood. Riga has some good facilities with indoor clay and hard courts, but I was always in Liepāja. Indoors on wood is a different style of play because it was so fast, and there were lots of bad bounces. Initially, the cost of playing the game was inexpensive. Like 10 euros per month. And they assigned you a coach with 10 other people.' — Sevastova stated"

It soon became clear that Sevastova would need to leave home to progress further.

Ernests Gulbis, who was from an affluent family in Riga, was boarding at Niki Pilić's tennis academy in Munich, where a teenage Novak Djokovic was also training.

Sevastova eventually followed the same path at age 14, returning regularly to Latvia to complete her schooling.

At the same age, she won the Latvian under-18 championships.

Sevastova began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in April 2006, nearly before she turned 16.

In July of the same year, she reached her first ITF final at the $10k event in Garching and then nearly after that won her first title in Bad Saulgau.

In 2007, she made her WTA Tour debut at the İstanbul Cup where she also recorded her first WTA Tour match-win, beating Anastasiya Yakimova, before she was knocked out by fifth-seeded Alona Bondarenko in the next round.

At the 2009 French Open, she made her Grand Slam debut and then at the 2009 US Open she won her first Grand Slam match, defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn.

By then end of the year, she first entered top 100 in July, and she then reached her first WTA singles quarterfinal at the Guangzhou Open.

The following year, Sevastova got one of the bigger wins of her early career by defeating world No. 9, Jelena Janković in the first round of the 2010 Monterrey Open and then reached the semifinals, losing there to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Following week, she reached third round of the Indian Wells Open, defeating Ana Ivanovic in the second round, before she lost later to Vera Zvonareva.

In May, she reached her first WTA singles final at the Estoril Open, where she got the title, beating Arantxa Parra Santonja in straight sets.

By the end of the year, she reached four quarterfinals on the WTA Tour, including the one at the Premier Mandatory China Open.

Sevastova had a strong start to 2011, reaching round of 16 at the Australian Open, losing there to world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.

As a result of her progress, she continued to rise on the ranking, getting into the top 40 after Australian Open.

She then started to struggle with form, which caused dropping in rankings and also returning to play mostly on the ITF Circuit in 2012.

Due to illness and injuries that she faced in the past couple of years, Sevastova announced her retirement from the tour in May 2013.

In January 2015, Sevastova returned to professional tennis, receiving a wildcard into the $10k event in Sharm El Sheikh, where she also won the title.

She continued with great results at the following ITF tournaments, before she returned to the WTA Tour at the Nuremberg Cup.

Following week, she reached semifinal at the Brasil Tennis Cup, losing there to Teliana Pereira.

Later in October, she reached the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow; she upset Karolína Plíšková in the second round and then lost to eventual champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in three sets.

In 2016, she defeated the reigning French Open champion and world No. 3, Garbiñe Muguruza, as well as Australian Open semifinalist Johanna Konta, en route to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Sevastova made her return to a Grand Slam tournaments in the main draw at the 2016 Australian Open, losing to Ana Ivanovic in the second round.

She followed this with quarterfinal of the Taiwan Open, where she lost to Venus Williams.

She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in October 2018, after reaching her first Premier Mandatory final at the China Open.

She has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as 13 singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Sevastova is best known for her success at the US Open, particularly during the second half of her career.

In 2018, she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal, defeating defending champion and world No. 3, Sloane Stephens (whom she had lost to at that same stage in 2017), in the quarterfinals, before losing to Serena Williams.