Elena Baltacha

Born on August 14, 1983, Elena Baltacha is a British tennis player of Ukrainian descent. She is the current British player in number 1 ranking at no. 55 in the world. Born to a sporting family, Baltacha grew up under the influence of her father who is a former pro footballer who represented the USSR, while her mother competed in the pentathlon and heptathlon under the USSR banner. She also has a brother, Sergei who played football for the Scottish football league team. She arrived in Britain in 1989. She is coached by Nino Severino.

Baltacha first played on the ITF Junior's Circuit, playing her first match on February 1997. Although she never won a title in the ITF, she did reach the finals in two major tournaments, the semis in three tournaments and QF in six other tournaments. She debuted in the ITF in 1997 in Edinburgh where she was defeated by Danica Kovakova.

Baltacha made her first main draw appearances in the ITF in 1999, the year when she competed in four tournaments and reached the QF in Glasgow. In 2000, she was given a wild card to the qualifying draw for Wimbledon, where she was beaten by Flavia Pennetta. A year later, she made her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam where she was beaten by Nathalie Dechy in round one. After several unsuccessful attempts at the qualifiers for the Wimbledon and Aussie Grand Slams, she finally qualified in 2005 after winning three straight matches in the 2005 Australian Open. She ended the year with a ranking of world no. 122. Baltacha reached the main draw of the US Open for the first time in 2010 where she lost in the second round to Petra Kvitova.