We all know about the Williams sisters, of course. Likewise Angelique Kerber. But to raise the name of Elena Vesnina with the average tennis fan before the start of The Championships this year might have induced a bout of head-scratching.
Not any more. Elena Sergeyevna Vesnina, aged 29, born in the Ukraine and now a resident of the Russian resort city Sochi, is a Wimbledon semi-finalist alongside the aforementioned trio and is, she confesses, “very surprised”. Delighted, too, reaching for that well-worn expression “a dream come true”.
In her case, it is a phrase which perfectly covers the recent months of a tennis career which began in 2002, at the age of 16, with qualification for a lesser tournament in Egypt, and progressed steadily rather than spectacularly. Over the seasons, Vesnina built a reputation as a doubles performer of some repute, though she captured singles titles at Hobart and Eastbourne in a successful 2013, the year she rose to her highest singles ranking of 21.
Meanwhile, the doubles successes kept piling up. So far, she has 13, the latest being the mixed crown at the Australian Open in January with Brazil’s Bruno Soares, which provided considerable consolation after she had slumped outside the top 100 in singles at the end of 2015 and lost in the first round of singles qualifying in Melbourne. She calls it “a really difficult beginning of the year; I had been in the top 30 and then I was like 120 or something. It was not easy.”
Though the singles wins had stopped coming, Elena did not stop believing in herself. “Every singles player has to go through it,” she said. “It makes you stronger, makes you better.”
Semifinal Boom @Wimbledon Полуфинал Уимблдона #wakemeup pic.twitter.com/GT2F6xpHDS
— Elena Vesnina (@EVesnina001) July 5, 2016
And the doubles kept her believing – and still do. “Youngsters should play more doubles from the beginning of their careers,” is her advice. “It really helps to build your game. You will be the complete player; you will have an all-court game, not just from the baseline. It helped me in singles because I’m confident coming to the net.”
Vesnina’s best doubles year was 2013 when, with Ekaterina Makarova, she won the French and US Open titles. She was also Wimbledon runner-up in 2010 and 2015, and twice a mixed doubles finalist at The Championships.
She is coached by her father Sergey, assisted by a well-known name here, Andrei Chesnokov. Gregarious and outgoing, her off-court interests are many – among those listed in the WTA Player Guide are reading, shopping, movies, music, “going to the sea”, travelling and cooking. In November last year she married businessman Pavel Tabuntsov.
Though she has never won a set in her four previous matches against Serena Williams, she will go on to Centre Court determined to give a good account and to enjoy herself. “Match by match I have been playing better and better. It’s just incredible,” she said.
And against Serena? “You have to take your chances. If she’s giving you chances, you need to be there. If she’s serving aces all over the place, hitting winners, nothing you can do.”
Tennis continues to thrive for Russian women. Nine started out in the main draw this year and four reached the last 16. The watershed for that nation came with the 2004 Wimbledon victory of Maria Sharapova; before that there was little indication of the flood to come.
Best known until Sharapova was Olga Morozova who, after winning the Wimbledon junior title at the age of 16 in 1965, contested and lost the Wimbledon and French Open finals of 1974 to Chris Evert. However, she had the consolation of becoming the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam title – the doubles at Roland Garros in that same year, 1974, and with Evert as her partner.