The 21st century
Russia · born Lviv, 1986 · Eastbourne champion 2013, Wimbledon doubles champion 2017 and an unseeded Wimbledon singles semi-finalist
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2017
Wimbledon ladies' doubles title with Ekaterina Makarova
7
Wimbledon finals: four ladies' doubles, two mixed, one title
2016
Wimbledon singles semi-final as an unseeded player
104
Matches played at Wimbledon, 2006 to 2021
6-2, 6-1
Eastbourne final win over Jamie Hampton, 2013
Elena Sergeevna Vesnina was born in Lviv, then in the Soviet Union, on 1 August 1986, and grew up in Sochi. She made her professional debut on the ITF circuit in 2002 and her WTA main-draw debut in Quebec City in 2004. In singles she won three titles, Hobart and Eastbourne in 2013 and Indian Wells in 2017, and reached a career-high No. 13. Her best major result was the Wimbledon semi-final in 2016, which she reached unseeded before losing to Serena Williams 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles made her name. With Ekaterina Makarova she won the French Open in 2013, the US Open in 2014 and Wimbledon in 2017, the WTA Finals and the Olympic gold medal in 2016, and shared the world No. 1 ranking in 2018. She also won the 2016 Australian Open mixed doubles with Bruno Soares and 19 tour doubles titles in all, finishing in the top ten for seven straight seasons.
She had two daughters, in 2018 and 2023, and came back twice. After the first return she reached the 2021 Wimbledon doubles final with Veronika Kudermetova and won an Olympic silver medal in the mixed doubles in Tokyo with Aslan Karatsev. Her last match was at the Paris Olympics in 2024, and she announced her retirement on 21 November 2024.
| Wimbledon doubles finals | 2010: with Vera Zvonareva lost to Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-7, 2-6. 2015: with Ekaterina Makarova lost to Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza 7-5, 6-7, 5-7. 2017: with Makarova beat Chan Hao-ching and Monica Niculescu 6-0, 6-0. 2021: with Veronika Kudermetova lost to Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens 6-3, 5-7, 7-9 after holding two match points in the second set |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon mixed finals | 2011: with Mahesh Bhupathi lost to Jurgen Melzer and Iveta Benesova 3-6, 2-6. 2012: with Leander Paes lost to Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond 3-6, 7-5, 4-6 |
| Wimbledon 2016 singles | Unseeded semi-finalist; lost to Serena Williams 6-2, 6-0 |
| Eastbourne 2013 | Won the singles title, beating the qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-2, 6-1 in a windy final |
| Wimbledon record | Singles 18-13, doubles 39-12, mixed 14-8; prize money at the Championships £1,568,600 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Women's doubles | with Ekaterina Makarova |
| Eastbourne | ||
| 2013 | Women's singles | |
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
"Tennis has brought me friends for life."
The person behind the player.
Eastbourne 2013
Her first grass title came in a gusty final at Devonshire Park against the American qualifier Jamie Hampton, ranked 41st. Vesnina won 6-2, 6-1, despite a time violation warning early in the second set.
Source: Associated Press, Star Tribune, June 2013Wimbledon 2017
Delayed by a five-hour men's doubles final, she and Makarova did not start the ladies' doubles final until 9.28pm. They won 6-0, 6-0 and were finished by 10.24pm.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)Tokyo, 2021
At the Tokyo Olympics she entered singles, doubles and mixed, and won silver in the mixed with Aslan Karatsev. She said later: "I was so exhausted and so tired from playing all three at the Olympics."
Source: David Kane, Tennis.com, January 2024Florida, 2024
Planning her second comeback at 37, with two young daughters, she said of motherhood: "Oh my god, being a mom, it's the most difficult job in the world. It's 24/7." She was also building a tennis academy in Sochi, her home town.
Source: David Kane, Tennis.com, January 2024November 2024
Announcing her retirement she wrote: "As a little girl, I could not have dreamed I would get to play tennis on the biggest stages and achieve such results."
Source: WTA, November 2024Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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