Elena Vesnina

Elena Sergeyevna Vesnina (born 1 August 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles.

In October 2002, aged 16 years and two months, Vesnina gained direct entry into the qualifying draw for her first $10k tournament at Giza, Egypt and qualified for the main draw before losing a three-set match.

The next week, again qualifying at Al-Mansoura to enter the main draw, where she won two further matches, beating Hana Šromová of the Czech Republic in the second round, to reach her first $10k quarterfinal in her second event played.

However, she defaulted her quarterfinal tie to her opponent.

In 2003, Vesnina began the year entering two successive ITF Circuit events in India, at Chennai and Bangalore, and qualified both times, but also reached her first semifinal and another quarterfinal in the main draws, losing to Akgul Amanmuradova at the quarterfinal stage at Bangalore.

These results gave Vesnina her first ranking at world No. 750, enough to gain direct entry to her next $10k draw at Istanbul, where she beat her personal best result in reaching the final.

The following week, at Antalya, she was knocked out in the first round by her then-compatriot Evgenia Linetskaya; and in May she met with mixed results in Lviv, Ukraine and Warsaw, Poland; but in June, she won the $10k event at Balashikha.

After taking her career-first ITF title, Vesnina competed in Bucharest losing to Raluca Sandu in the second round.

She stayed there to compete at Bucharest, where she made it through the finals losing to German Antonela Voina in two sets.

She then competed in Zhukovsky, Russia as a qualifier and succeeded, then won through all the way to the semifinal of the main draw with a tight three-set quarterfinal victory over compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova en route, but was stopped in the semifinals by Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

In the middle of September, Vesnina qualified for her second straight $25k tournament at Tbilisi, Georgia, and this time won the title, recording victories over Evgenia Linetskaya, Olga Barabanschikova, and Mariya Koryttseva, in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final respectively.

She then failed to qualify, trying to get to for first main-draw appearance at the WTA Tour in her next two events in Moscow and Tashkent.

She finished the year ranked No. 279.

Vesnina began the year with a second-round exit at the ITF event in Bergamo.

She then failed to qualify for the ITF Ortisei, exiting at the first round of the qualifying draw.

She also lost in first qualifying round of the 2004 Hyderabad Open to an unranked Barbara Schwartz.

At St. Petersburg, she got past the qualifying round and then defeated compatriot Anastasia Rodionova in the first round proper on her way to a quarterfinal finish, where she was defeated by Ivana Lisjak of Croatia.

Vesnina next played in June at Marseille, falling at the last round of the qualifying draw she was granted a lucky loser before bowing out to No. 1 seed and then world No. 70, Ľubomíra Kurhajcová.

She then made early exits in Gorizia and Vittel.

Following this, she reached two ITF quarterfinals in a row, in Moscow losing to Maria Kondratieva, and in Balashikha losing to Anastasiya Yakimova.

In late September, as a direct main-draw entrant into the $50k tournament at Batumi, Georgia, she also reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to No. 1 seed Anna Chakvetadze.

In her next events, Vesnina tried to qualify for a WTA Tour-level Kremlin Cup but was knocked out at the second hurdle by world No. 61, Claudine Schaul, and in the Bell Challenge where she succeeded for the first time in winning through qualifying into a WTA tournament main draw but lost in the first round of the main draw to Mariana Díaz Oliva.

Vesnina then qualified in Opole, Poland, but lost to Hana Šromová in the second-round.

She ended the year by reaching the quarterfinal at Bergamo, losing to Estonian star Maret Ani.

Vesnina ended the year ranked No. 286.

She started 2005 attempting to make headway in WTA Tour main draws and next entered the qualifying round of the Cellular South Cup but lost in straight sets to Varvara Lepchenko.

The following week, she lost to Tatsiana Uvarova in the second qualifying round of an ITF tournament at St. Paul, Minnesota.

She has represented Russia in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2006, winning the competition in 2007 and 2008, and competed at the Olympic Games on four occasions.

She is a four-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2013 French Open, 2014 US Open, and 2017 Wimbledon Championships in women's doubles with compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, and the 2016 Australian Open in mixed doubles, partnering Bruno Soares.

Vesnina also reached eight further major finals in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles.

In November 2015, Vesnina married businessman Pavel Tabuntsov.

Vesnina won 19 doubles titles on WTA Tour, including the 2016 WTA Finals and eight at WTA 1000-level.

Makarova and Vesnina won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Vesnina also won mixed-doubles silver with Aslan Karatsev at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vesnina was born to Sergey and teacher Irina.

She has a younger brother, Dmitry, a former junior tennis player.

She started playing tennis aged seven in the sports school in Sochi.

She also achieved significant success in singles, reaching her career-high ranking of world No. 13 in March 2017.

Vesnina won three WTA singles titles, including the 2017 Indian Wells Open, and achieved her best Grand Slam result at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, reaching the semifinals.

She became world No. 1 for the first time in June 2018, alongside Makarova, with the pair jointly holding the top ranking for the next five weeks.

They have one daughter, Elizaveta who was born on November 19, 2018.