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Russia · born Alma-Ata, 1975 · Wimbledon mixed doubles champion 2002 with Mahesh Bhupathi
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2002
Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi
112
Matches played at Wimbledon, 1994 to 2007
7-6, 6-2
Win over the fifth seed Kim Clijsters, Wimbledon 2002
27
WTA doubles titles
No. 3
Career-high doubles ranking, September 2004
Elena Aleksandrovna Likhovtseva was born in Alma-Ata, in Soviet Kazakhstan, on 8 September 1975. She won the Orange Bowl girls' singles in 1991 and turned professional in January 1992, aged 16, winning her first ITF doubles title that month in Bamberg. She played for Kazakhstan in 1993 and 1994 and for Russia from July 1995.
In singles she won three titles and reached No. 15 in 1999; her best major results were a French Open semi-final in 2005 and quarter-finals at the Australian Open in 2000 and Wimbledon in 2002. She was a stronger doubles player, winning 27 WTA titles with partners including Ai Sugiyama, Cara Black, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Myskina, and rising to No. 3 in 2004. She lost four major women's doubles finals, three of them with Kuznetsova in 2004.
Her two major titles came in mixed doubles: Wimbledon in 2002 with Mahesh Bhupathi and the Australian Open in 2007 with Daniel Nestor. She played three Olympic Games, from 1996 to 2004, and her last match was in 2008. She earned more than $6.2 million in prize money.
| Wimbledon 2002 mixed final | With Mahesh Bhupathi, seeded 3, beat Kevin Ullyett and Daniela Hantuchova, seeded 4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in 84 minutes on Centre Court |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2002 singles | Unseeded, beat the fifth seed Kim Clijsters 7-6, 6-2 in the second round and reached the quarter-finals, where Venus Williams beat her 6-2, 6-0 in 44 minutes |
| Birmingham 2001 | Won the doubles title at Edgbaston with Cara Black |
| Wimbledon doubles | Semi-final in 2002, the same year as her singles quarter-final and mixed title |
| Wimbledon record | Singles 23-14, doubles 23-13, mixed 29-10, from 1994 to 2007 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Mixed doubles | with Mahesh Bhupathi |
| Birmingham | ||
| 2001 | Women's doubles | with Cara Black |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon 2002
In the second round she beat Kim Clijsters, the fifth seed, 7-6, 6-2. Clijsters was playing with an injured shoulder and said afterwards it still hurt, "but not quite as much as losing big matches."
Source: ESPN, 27 June 2002Centre Court, 2002
Her singles run ended in the quarter-finals against Venus Williams, who won 6-2, 6-0 in 44 minutes on Centre Court. Likhovtseva won only seven points in the second set. Before the fortnight was over she was back on Centre Court to win the mixed title.
Source: ESPN, 2 July 2002; Wimbledon Compendium 2025Miami, 1991
At 16 she won the girls' singles at the Orange Bowl in 1991. In January 1992 she turned professional and won her first ITF title, in doubles, at Bamberg in Germany with Dorien Wamelink of the Netherlands.
Source: Wikipedia; OlympediaKolkata, 2005
When she signed up for the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata in 2005, her Wimbledon mixed partner Mahesh Bhupathi, speaking as managing director of Globosport India, said: "Elena has been a consistent player on the WTA tour with good performances in the singles as well as doubles."
Source: Indian Television, 2005Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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