Makarova, Elena Alekseevna

Elena Makarova began to play tennis from the age of seven, her first coach was Dmitry Degtyarev , she also trained with V. N. Yanchuk ^[1] . In 1987 and 1989, Lena won the Borisova Memorial in Sochi, and as part of the Soviet girls team in 1989 made her way to the final of the Helvetia Cup - an international team tournament among girls under 16 years of age. In 1990, she became the champion of Moscow among adults, the winner of the winter championship of the USSR among adults and the finalist of his summer counterpart ^[2] . In 1991, Makarova became a finalist at the Wimbledon singles tournament among girls, losing to German Barbara Rittner , and a semi-finalist in pairs. From the same year, she began her professional career, winning two ITF singles in Bulgaria and Hungary before the end of the season.

In 1992, Makarova made her debut in the Russian national team , which first participated in the Federation Cup . She brought the Russian team victory in the match with the Finns, having won both of her meetings, but in the next match with the French team she was defeated both in the single player game with Marie Pierce and in the doubles with Natalie Tozia and Isabelle Demonjo . At the individual level, she won three ITF titles in singles and doubles. In 1993, Makarova won the winter championship of Russia in singles. ^[2]

1994 and 1995 were especially successful for Makarova. In 1994, she entered the third round of the Australian Open , and in the spring at a major tournament in Berlin, she defeated the second racket of the world Aranche Sanchez-Vicario . In September, Elena won her only title in the WTA tournaments at the Moscow Open , defeating first Evgenia Manyukova , the second seeded pair, Sabin Appelmans - Silvia Farina , and the first ( Carolina Vis - Laura Golarsa ) in the finals ^[3] . A year later, Makarova won her second Russian winter championship, and reached the finals in the singles at the Moscow Open, defeating Appelmans - at that time the 28th racket of the world sown at the tournament under the third number. In the doubles category, her best result was the exit with Manyukova to the quarterfinals of the French Open . According to the results of 1994 and 1995, Makarova twice won the "Russian Cup" - the national tennis prize of Russia - as the "tennis player of the year" ^[2] .

1996 was the third consecutive year in the career of Makarova, completed among the top 100 tennis players in the world in both singles and doubles ^[4] , and his highest achievement was the second quarterfinal of the Grand Slam tournament of his career - this time at the Australian Open, and again, paired with Manyukova, with whom in the first round they beat the sown by tenths Jill Hetherington and Kristin Kans , losing then to the second pair of the tournament Larisa Neiland - Meredith McGrath . In 1996, Elena Makarova received the title of master of sports of international class ^[2] .

Makarov played her second WTA tournament final in 1997 in Palermo, defeating three seeded rivals, including the first racket of the tournament, Barbara Paulus , before losing to Sandrin Testu, seeded second. After that, her success in individual tournaments began to decline, but she still remained a valuable player in the national team. In 1997, Makarova helped the Russian team for the first time since 1992 to break into the II World Group, bringing her two points in a transition match with the South Korean team . A year later, she was called up to the banner of the Russian team in the playoff match of World Group I and again won two victories - now in games with the Germans . In 1999, Makarova reached the finals of World Group I with the Russian team, bringing a victory point to her team in the quarterfinal match with the French team together with Elena Likhovtseva . The fate of further matches - the winning semi-final against Slovakia and the lost final against the US team - was decided ahead of schedule, and the fifth game with Makarova both times was played only for the protocol. By the end of the year, Makarova received her third “Russian Cup” - now in the nomination “Team of the Year” ^[5] . This season was the last for her in her playing career, and after the finals of the Federation Cup she played only two matches at the Kremlin Cup together with Lina Krasnorutskaya .

At the end of her speeches, Elena, a graduate of SCOLIFK , began her coaching career. Makarova worked as a coach with the Russian junior (under 14 years old) national team, which led to the gold medals of the winter and summer European Championships in 2011, having received her fourth “Russian Cup” (and the second in the nomination “Team of the Year”) ^[6] , as well as in the sports club "Pirogovsky" (Mytishchi) ^[7] .

Play style

According to Dmitry Degtyarev, the former coach of Makarova, she was very confident on the court and preferred to play in an attacking manner, constantly maintaining pressure on her rivals and breaking the usual game scheme for them. The most effective weapon in her arsenal was an open racket strike along the right line ^[2] .

• WTA Website Profile
• Profile on ITF website
• Profile on the Federation Cup website

• Elena Makarova - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com

• Boris Fomenko. Makarova Elena Alekseevna // Encyclopedia “Russian Tennis”. - Moscow, 1999.