The 21st century
Kazakhstan · born Moscow, 1995 · right-handed · Birmingham champion in 2024
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6-1, 7-6
The 2024 Birmingham final against Ajla Tomljanović, her first grass title
3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Her win over the world No. 1 Iga Świątek at Wimbledon in 2024
2024
First Wimbledon fourth round, after never passing the second round in nine visits
20
Career-high ranking, January 2025
3
WTA singles titles
Yulia Putintseva was born in Moscow in 1995. Her father introduced her to tennis at the Spartak club, and after winning a major under-14 event she moved to Paris to train at the Mouratoglou Academy. She represented Russia as a junior and switched to Kazakhstan in 2012.
A baseliner whose favourite surface is clay, she reached the French Open quarter-finals in 2016 and 2018 and the US Open quarter-finals in 2020, and won clay titles at Nürnberg in 2019 and Budapest in 2021. Her first grass title came at Birmingham in 2024, followed by the Wimbledon fourth round; she reached a career high of No. 20 in January 2025. As of November 2026 she has three WTA singles titles.
| Birmingham 2024 | Unseeded, she beat Ajla Tomljanović 6-1, 7-6 in the final, coming back from 5-3 down in the second set and saving two set points; it was her first grass-court final |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2024 | First round: beat Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3. Second round: beat Marina Stakusic 6-0, 4-6, 6-2. Third round: beat Iga Świątek 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, winning nine games in a row and ending Świątek's 21-match winning run. Fourth round: lost to Jeļena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-3 |
| Wimbledon 2019 | First round: beat the second seed Naomi Osaka 7-6, 6-2, weeks after beating her on grass at Birmingham; lost in the second round to Viktorija Golubic |
| Wimbledon 2025 | Lost in the first round to Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 |
| Birmingham | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 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
"I've always been good on clay, but now all of a sudden, I'm good on grass. I'll take that!"
The person behind the player.
Moscow and Paris
Her father took her to the Spartak club in Moscow. After an under-14 title she moved to Paris and the Mouratoglou Academy, where she has trained since. Her idols were Martina Hingis and Justine Henin, and she lists dancing, singing, sudoku and chess among her interests.
Source: WTABirmingham, June 2024
Tomljanović, ranked 190, was playing her first final in five years after knee surgery. In her speech Putintseva told her: "It's great to see you back after everything you've been through with all your injuries."
Source: WTAWimbledon, July 2024
She had never taken a set from Świątek in four meetings. After beating her she said: "I think today I'm happy, extra happy, because she didn't lose it; I took it."
Source: WTABirmingham and Wimbledon, 2019
Osaka, the second seed at Wimbledon, played two grass events in 2019 and lost to Putintseva at both, at Birmingham and in the first round at Wimbledon, where Osaka made 37 unforced errors to Putintseva's seven.
Source: Sports IllustratedUS Open, 2024
After her third-round defeat by Jasmine Paolini she was criticised for ignoring balls thrown to her by a ball girl, and apologised on Instagram: "I was not trying to humiliate her (or anyone)."
Source: Reuters via The StarFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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