Elena Baltacha

In May 2015, it was announced that the trophy at the Aegon Open was to be named the "Elena Baltacha trophy" in her honour.

Baltacha was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2014, just a few weeks after her marriage to tennis coach Niño Severino. She died on 4 May 2014, aged 30.

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.

Resident 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.

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 number 60.

Baltacha lost in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships to Alexandra Dulgheru. She then lost in the second round of qualifying at the Qatar Ladies Open to Klára Zakopalová. In the first round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Baltacha saved four match points at 2–6, 4–5 in the first round against Roberta Vinci, finally winning in three sets. In the second round she was defeated by 12th seed Flavia Pennetta. In the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Baltacha defeated Sybille Bammer. However, she was defeated in the second round by Klára Zakopalová, the 32nd seed. After direct acceptance into the main draw of the French Open, Baltacha defeated American qualifier Sloane Stephens. Due to the previous win by fellow Briton Heather Watson, it was the first time since 1992 that two British women had cleared the first round of the French Open. In the second round, Baltacha drew another American Vania King, who defeated her in three sets. On 12 June, Baltacha won her first tournament of the season, winning the Aegon Nottingham Challenge without dropping a single set throughout the tournament, defeating Petra Cetkovská in the final.

Baltacha reached her first final of 2013 at the Aegon Nottingham Challenge following an impressive straight-set victory over Italian Nastassja Burnett in the semifinals. She then beat the seventh seed Tadeja Majerič in the final in straight sets coming from behind in the first 2–5 down to claim her third title at Nottingham. Baltacha followed this success with a victory in the first round of the Aegon Classic against Czech qualifier Kristýna Plíšková. Baltacha was eliminated in the second round by Maria Kirilenko.

Baltacha retired from professional tennis in November 2013.

Baltacha began 2012 playing at the ASB Classic. She won her first-round match against wild card and home favourite Sacha Jones in a hard fought three set encounter but lost in the second round in straight sets to Flavia Pennetta. This was followed by a first-round loss in the Australian Open to Stéphanie Foretz Gacon.

Baltacha was selected for the British Fed Cup team to play in the Europe/Africa Group 1 match in Eilat, Israel on 1–4 February 2012. In the group stages she played singles, defeating opponents from Portugal, the Netherlands and Israel. The team qualified for a play-off against Austria in which Baltacha defeated Tamira Paszek. The team won 2–0, which qualified them for a place in the World Group II promotion play-off in April.

At the French Open, Baltacha faced a tough first round match against US Open champion Sam Stosur on the first match at Court Philippe Chatrier (Centre Court) of the Open. Stosur won without dropping a set. Baltacha did however have a better run at Wimbledon, making the second round but lost to the previous year's champion Petra Kvitová in straight sets. In the first round she had come through a gruelling three setter against Karin Knapp, despite carrying shin splints and picking up an injury during the match. Baltacha competed at the Summer Olympics in London for the first time in her career in both the singles and the doubles events (partnering Anne Keothavong). On 28 July 2012, Baltacha made her Olympics debut with a win against Ágnes Szávay of Hungary, defeating her in straight sets. Baltacha was then defeated by 11th seed Ana Ivanovic in the second round in a very tight encounter. This was Baltacha's last professional match of 2012, taking time off to undergo foot surgery.

Over the course of her career, she won eleven ITF singles titles (five $25k, two $50k, two $75k, and two $100k) and four ITF doubles titles (all $25k). 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 (the second of which came via retirement) 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 2011 Aegon Nottingham Challenge.

Baltacha began her 2010 season by winning three matches to qualify for the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. In the first round of the main draw she was beaten by Ioana Raluca Olaru in straight sets. She then went on to win another three matches to qualify for the Hobart International before again losing in the first round, this time to resurgent former world number 4, Jelena Dokić. Her next tournament was the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. For the first time in her career she was able to gain direct entry into the main draw of the tournament due to her improved ranking. She defeated Pauline Parmentier in the first round. As Baltacha's compatriot, Katie O'Brien, also reached the second round, 2010 marked the first time since 1991 that more than one British woman had reached the second round of the Australian Open. In round two Elena defeated the 30th seed from Ukraine, Kateryna Bondarenko, but she was beaten in the round of 32 by Dinara Safina, the world number 2. In the doubles tournament she partnered Līga Dekmeijere to reach the second round. In February, Baltacha participated in the Fed Cup where the British team was competing in the Europe/Africa Zone. She played two singles matches, losing against Sybille Bammer and defeating Sandra Martinović from the Austria team and the Bosnia and Herzegovina team respectively. She also partnered Sarah Borwell in two doubles matches, winning both.

Following this performance in the Fed Cup, Elena competed in a $100k tournament in Midland, Michigan where she reached the final and defeated Lucie Hradecká to win the biggest title of her career. Baltacha then went on to compete in the Cellular South Cup as the eighth seed. She reached the quarterfinals before losing to the top seed and eventual champion, Maria Sharapova. March saw Baltacha qualify for the BNP Paribas Open. After defeating Alexa Glatch in the first round, she faced world number 10, Li Na, in round two and went on to win the match. This gave Elena the first victory of her career over a player ranked in the top 10. Alicia Molik defeated Baltacha in the third round. In her only other tournament during March, Baltacha had to win two matches to qualify for the Sony Ericsson Open before going on to lose to Yanina Wickmayer in the second round of the main tournament. After this, she went on to reach the quarterfinals of a $100k tournament in Johannesberg before beginning her clay court season with a loss to Gréta Arn in the first round of the Italian Open, a Premier-5 event. In her final event before the French Open, Baltacha participated in the Internationaux de Strasbourg as the 8th seed but was forced to retire in the second round due to a back injury. In her first round match at the French Open, she was beaten by Agnieszka Radwańska in straight sets.

Baltacha began 2009 by falling in the first round of qualifying for the ASB Classic before winning three matches to qualify for the Australian Open. She joined compatriots Katie O'Brien (also a qualifier), Anne Keothavong and Melanie South in the main draw; the first time that four British women had competed in the main draw of a Grand Slam other than Wimbledon since the 1992 U.S. Open. Baltacha came up against German, Anna-Lena Grönefeld, in the first round and defeated her comfortably to set up a clash with former world number one, Amélie Mauresmo. Despite surprising many by taking the first set, Baltacha eventually lost in three sets.

Baltacha began her 2008 season by qualifying for the ASB Classic, beating compatriot, Melanie South, along the way. She faced two-time ASB Classic champion and number 7 seed, Eleni Daniilidou, in the opening round and was beaten. She then progressed to round two of the qualifying tournament for the Australian Open when her first round opponent, Virginie Pichet, retired when down one set. She was beaten in the second round of qualifying by Zhang Shuai. In February, she tried to qualify for Doha (Tier I) and Dubai (Tier II) but was unsuccessful in both. She then returned to action on the ITF circuit and won her next two consecutive tournaments: Jersey ($25k) and Torhout ($75k). In May, she again lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament for the French Open and in June she again received a wild card into the main draw of the DFS Classic where she was beaten in round one by Ekaterina Makarova. Another wild card granted her entry into the qualifying rounds of the International Women's Open where she won her first match against Naomi Cavaday before retiring at one set down in her second match against Tsvetana Pironkova. She then played in the main draw of Wimbledon (again courtesy of a wild card) where she beat Angelique Kerber in the first round. She was defeated in the second round by eventual semifinalist Zheng Jie in straight sets.

By the time Baltacha returned to action in March 2007 after surgery, her singles ranking had fallen to 660 in the world and as such, she had to qualify for her first $25k ITF tournament of the year in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She qualified before losing to Sorana Cîrstea in the first round. She then competed in two more $25k events in March (reaching the quarterfinals of one) before heading to Bulgaria to compete in the Fed Cup for Britain. She played two singles matches (winning one) and four doubles matches (winning two). Following this, she reached two consecutive $25k semifinals in Incheon and Gimcheon, one as a qualifier and the other as a lucky loser. She consolidated these results with a run to the quarterfinals of another $25k in Changwon. In June she received a wild card into the main draw of the DFS Classic where she showed "fighting spirit" in her first round loss to Milagros Sequera. She then received a wild card into the qualifying draw for the Hastings Direct International and proved she deserved it by dropping only nine games in the three matches she won to qualify. She then went on to beat the British number one, Anne Keothavong, in round one of the main draw in a tense three set match and join fellow Britains, Melanie South and Katie O'Brien in the second round, making this the first year since 1991 that three British women reached the second round. She could not quite match up to world number 14, Nicole Vaidišová, in the second round though and was beaten in straight sets. She then received another wild card into the main draw of Wimbledon but wasn't able to overcome the 19th seed, Katarina Srebotnik.

After Wimbledon, Baltacha headed to the United States to compete again on the ITF circuit where she reached the quarterfinals of the $50k event in Lexington, Kentucky. After being beaten in the first round of qualifying for the US Open by Evgeniya Rodina, Baltacha headed to Japan to attempt to qualify for the Japan Open. She beat María Emilia Salerni, Ágnes Szatmári and Natalie Grandin to qualify and then continued winning by defeating Yan Zi in the first round. She was defeated by number 5 seed and eventual champion, Virginie Razzano, in round two. This was followed by an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for a Tier-III event in Bangkok and then a return to the ITF circuit where she reached the semifinals in Makinohara and the quarterfinals in Hamanako (both $25k), losing both times to Seiko Okamoto. Her final singles ranking of 2007 was world number 187.

For Baltacha, 2006 was a year much shortened by injury. Her first tournament of the year was the qualifying event for the Australian Open where she lost to Yuan Meng at the second stage of qualifying. In February she played one $25k ITF event (where she lost to Melanie South in the first round) and attempted to qualify for three consecutive Tier-II tournaments: Antwerp, Dubai (beaten in final round by Kateryna Bondarenko) and Qatar. This was then followed by two first round losses in $25k tournaments and a run to the semifinals of another. In May she again represented Great Britain in the Fed Cup and again won all three of her singles matches. She beat: Hungarian Kyra Nagy, Bulgaria's Dimana Krastevitch, and Valeria Bondarenko from Ukraine. In the Europe/Africa play-off however, she lost to Slovakia's Magdaléna Rybáriková. After the Fed Cup, Elena played only one more tournament in 2006. This tournament was the French Open where she lost in round one of qualifying to Yevgenia Savransky. She underwent keyhole surgery on a prolapsed disc on 7 June and spent the rest of the season out-of-action recovering and as a result, her season-ending ranking was world number 347.

In the 2005 Australian Open qualifying tournament, she won three matches in straight sets to qualify; she beat Els Callens, Jaslyn Hewitt and Teryn Ashley in rounds one, two and three respectively. In the first round of the main draw, she beat Katarina Srebotnik who later remarked that the Brit was "on fire" and that "if [Elena] plays like today, she can beat anyone. Some of the shots she was hitting were unbelievable." She continued her winning streak with another three-set victory in round two, this one over Frenchwoman Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro. Unfortunately for Baltacha, she ran out of steam in the third round, losing to number 15 seed, Silvia Farina Elia. She used her momentum from her good performance in the first Grand Slam of the year to carry her to the semifinals of her next tournament, a $25k event in Sunderland where she lost to Sofia Arvidsson. She then immediately reached the final of another $25k event (this one in Redbridge, London) before being beaten by Nika Ožegović. She again played for Great Britain in the Fed Cup. She lost her singles rubber against Ana Timotić from Serbia, won her singles rubber against Karina-Ildor Jacobsgaard and was demolished in her third singles rubber against Katarina Srebotnik in retribution for her first round Australian Open exit. In the Europe/Africa Group I play-off, Baltacha was defeated by Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.

Baltacha then failed to qualify for two consecutive Tier-I events before losing in the first round of qualifying for the French Open when she lost to Elise Tamaëla. In June, three consecutive wild cards granted her entry into the main draws of the DFS Classic, the Aegon International and Wimbledon where she was beaten by Milagros Sequera in the second round (having beaten Alona Bondarenko in the first), Conchita Martínez in round one and Sabine Klaschka in the first round respectively. Following Wimbledon, Baltacha travelled to the ITF circuit in the United States without much success; she won only one of five matches she played in the run-up to the US Open qualifying draw where she also lost in the first round of qualifying. She then returned to the ITF circuit and reached the quarterfinals of the $25k event in Glasgow, the semifinals of the $25k event in Bolton and won the $25k tournament in Jersey. Her year-end singles ranking for the 2005 season was world number 122.

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 DFS Classic and Cara Black beat her in the final round of the qualifying tournament for the Aegon International one week later. Baltacha then headed to Wimbledon main draw courtesy of another wild card. She demolished world number 61, Marta Marrero in round one before falling to three-time Grand Slam champion, Jennifer Capriati in the second round.

Baltacha began the year at the Hobart International, but lost to Roberta Vinci in the second round. Baltacha then entered the Australian Open without having to qualify. In the first round, she defeated American qualifier Jamie Hampton. In round two, however, she was defeated by former world number 1 and 2004 Australian Open Champion Justine Henin. Her next tournament was the Pattaya Open, where she lost to sixth seed Peng Shuai.

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 wild card into the main draw of the DFS 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 Aegon International where she was beaten by Virginie Razzano. For the third year running, she received a wild card into the main draw of Wimbledon where she forced the former world number 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 (to determine the cause of her persistent liver troubles) which put her out of action until 2004. As a result, her year-end singles ranking fell to world number 373.

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 DFS 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 Aegon International. She was beaten by Elena Likhovtseva in the second round of qualifying. She was then given a wild card into the main draw of Wimbledon where she beat María Vento-Kabchi in the first round and Amanda Coetzer in the second round before losing to Elena Likhovtseva (for the second time in two consecutive tournaments) in the third round.

Her next tournament after Wimbledon was the $25k event in Felixstowe which she won by beating Irishwoman Kelly Liggan in the final to give her the first ITF 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 tournament 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 number 157.

In April 2000, she reached the quarterfinals of the $10k tournament in Bournemouth as a qualifier. Baltacha was given a wild card into the qualifying draw of her home Grand Slam, Wimbledon, where Flavia Pennetta beat her in three sets. In October she received another wild card, 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 world number 397.

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 (twice) and Anne Keothavong. Her career-high singles ranking was world number 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.

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 (Birmingham, Southsea and Glasgow, all $10k events) 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.

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.

Elena Sergeevna Baltacha (Ukrainian: Олена Сергіївна Балтача ; 14 August 1983 – 4 May 2014) 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.

Her grass-court season then began and the Aegon Trophy, a $50k event in Nottingham, gave Baltacha the second title of the year. She didn't drop a set throughout the tournament, including in the final when she faced Carly Gullickson. Baltacha stayed on grass for her next tournament, the Aegon Classic, where she was the number 12 seed. She was forced to retire after losing the first set in her first round match against Kaia Kanepi. Her next event was the Aegon International where during her first-round match with Li Na, the Chinese player had to retire with a leg injury after winning the first set on a tie-break. After a second-round win over another Chinese player, Zheng Jie, she lost to Sam Stosur in three sets in the quarterfinals. Nevertheless, this was the first time since 1983 that a British woman had progressed to the quarterfinals of this tournament. Baltacha then suffered a disappointing first round loss at Wimbledon. She lost in three sets to Petra Martić after leading by a set and 5–2.