Гаврилова Дарья

Who is Yulia Lipnitskaya?

Yulia Lipnitskaya is a Russian former competitive figure skater. She was a part of the Russian team that won the 2014 Winter Olympics team trophy. She made a record for being the youngest Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. She is also the youngest gold medalist at the European Championship within the ladies’ singles category. Also, as an individual, she was the 2014 World silver medalist, the 2014 European champion, the 2013-14 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, as well as a two-time Russian national silver medalist. Yulia had appeared on the front cover of the May 2014 issue of the magazine ‘Elle Girl Russia.’ The following year, she was awarded the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. Despite having a successful career, she suffered from mental health issues and announced her retirement in 2017.

During the 2011-12 season, she became age-eligible for the junior international competition. She made her debut on the Junior Grand Prix series at the JGP Baltic Cup in Gdansk, Poland. She managed to emerge victorious in both the programs and took the gold medal. She again won at the JGP Final in Quebec and earned the gold medal.

At the 2012 Russian Championships, she managed to win the silver at the senior level. At the 2012 Russian Junior Championships, she managed to win the gold.

She made her senior debut at the 2012 Finlandia Trophy, and she managed to win the gold medal. The same year, she competed in and won the silver medal at the 2012 Cup of China. However, due to certain health issues, she was unable to take part in the senior Russian Championships. She next took part in the 2013 World Junior Championships, where along with her teammates she won the silver medal.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began the next season by winning the gold medal at the 2013 Finlandia Trophy. Her next victory was at the 2013 Rostelecom Cup, where she again won the gold, along with setting a new personal best score. At the 2014 Russian Championships, she again won the silver medal, after which she made her debut in the European Championships. At the age of fifteen, she became the youngest European champion in ladies’ singles, and the first Russian to win the ladies’ title since Slutskaya in 2006.

She made her international debut at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan. She won the silver medal and was 9.19 points behind the gold medalist, Mao Asada.

During the next two seasons, Yulia’s brilliant form continued. However, in 2017, her mother Daniela announced that her daughter had decided to retire, mostly due to medical reasons. Yulia suffered from anorexia, and she was undergoing treatment in an Israeli clinic.

Yulia appeared on the front cover of the May 2014 issue of ‘Elle Girl Russia.’ The next year, she received the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for favorite Russian athlete. She has also signed a long-term contract with Adidas.

solo

2004 - Dawn

2005 - "007"

2005 — «Sunrise»

2006 - "Dolls"

2007 - "Electro", all compositions remixed.

2008 - "Envelope"

2009 - “Mixed. The Best AV Mixes"

2010 - Alena Vinnitskaya. Collection of hits 2003-2010 "

Career

The first partner with whom they entered the international level with Roman was Yulia Goreeva. They competed in juniors and twice participated in the World Junior Championships, taking low places. The best achievement was in 2006 11th place.

Since the 2007-2008 season, Roman has been paired with Ekaterina Kostenko. They won the 2009 Ukrainian championship in the absence of the strongest Ukrainian couple Tatyana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov.

They entered the Ukrainian national team for the 2010 Winter Olympics[1] and took the 20th, last, place there. After the end of his sports career, together with his former partner Ekaterina Kostenko, he took up coaching

Team career

Since 2016, he has played for the youth teams of Ukraine of different ages.

On May 11, 2022, Mudryk scored a goal in his debut match for the Ukrainian national team in a friendly game against

She reached career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and 108 in doubles. Svitolina has won 16 WTA Tour singles titles and finished runner-up three times.

Svitolina first broke into the world's top 50 in July 2013, reached the top 20 in June 2015, and then the top 10 in May 2017, making her the first Ukrainian woman to reach the top 10 in rankings after surpassing compatriot Alona Bondarenko.

She has a career-high ranking of No. 4 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won six singles titles, including a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

Born in Switzerland to Slovak parents at a time when another Slovak-Swiss player Martina Hingis was one of the best tennis players in the world, Bencic began playing tennis at the age of two. Her father arranged for her to train with Hingis's mother and coach Melanie Molitor [de] daily from the age of seven. By the time she was 16, Bencic became the No. 1 ranked junior in the world and won two junior Grand Slam singles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon. On the professional tour, she made her top 100 debut shortly after turning 17. Her first big breakthrough came at the 2014 US Open, where she became the youngest quarterfinalist since Hingis in 1997. Bencic won her first two WTA Tour titles in 2015, including the Canadian Open where she defeated four of the top six players in the world. She then made her top-ten debut the following year while still 18 years old.

From 2016 through 2018, Bencic struggled with a variety of injury issues, most notably needing to have wrist surgery in 2017 that kept her out for five months and saw her drop outside the top 300 in the WTA rankings. Nonetheless, she rebounded quickly and rose back into the top 50 within a year of her comeback. She then posted her best season to date in 2019, winning her second Premier-5 title at the Dubai Championships reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, qualifying for her first WTA Finals where she reached the semifinals, and finishing the year inside the top 10 for the first time, which helped her win the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award.

She swears with foul words and makes quite loud screams when she hits the ball with her racket. The athlete herself is not ashamed of her emotions. The tennis player tries to be herself and not to hide from the public. For example, her Instagram account is full of funny photos and videos of Azarenka "fooling around" with her son and friends. Victoria was born in Minsk July 31, 1989. The girl was the second child in the family - she has an older brother, Maxim. Sports in her biography appeared thanks to her mother, a methodist at the Olympic Tennis Training Center in Belarus.

At the age of 7 she took Mukha (as neighbors nicknamed Victoria) to the coach Valentina Rzhanykh. The hard-working girl spent all her time on the court. At 15, she left home and moved first to a tennis school in Spain, where she trained under her former mentor Steffi Graf, and later in the United States with Antonio van Grihin.

Personal life

The first serious passion of the tennis player (height 1.83 m, weight 66 kg) was the singer RedFoo. Young people met in 2012, and a romantic relationship arose already in a month. The lovers appeared everywhere together and almost never parted. The boyfriend proposed to Victoria, but it did not come to the wedding. They separated in 2014, explaining their breakup by being too busy.

In 2016, it became known that the Belarusian tennis player is pregnant. The father of the child turned out to be Billy McKeague, a hockey player from America. On December 20, the newly formed couple became parents. Victoria and Billy had a son, who was named Leo Alexander. The birth took place in the United States, which gave the child the right to dual citizenship.

Leo's parents never became husband and wife, so after the breakup of the romantic relationship, they did not have to file for divorce. Upon returning to America, McKeague filed a petition with the court demanding that custody of the child be awarded to his father. The athlete's ex-boyfriend claimed that she took her son out of the country without his knowledge.

The court sided with McKeague, ruling that while the case was pending, Leo must not leave the state and live in Billy's home. Victoria, who was caught off guard by the situation, tried to move her son's custody proceedings to Belarus. In January 2018, it became known that the U.S. court granted the tennis player's request to move the hearing to her home country. In turn, representatives of the authorities in Minsk assigned custody of her son Azarenka.

Since the Belarusian court had failed to properly notify the father of the hearing and McKeague himself did not agree with the decision, the proceedings in the United States began anew. The boy's father appealed to the California court, which overturned the mother's custody of his son. During the legal battle, both parents were to have custody of the child, and Leo was not allowed to leave the city of Los Angeles.

That ruling made it impossible for Azarenka to continue her career: she wouldn't be able to attend the games. The athlete sued her former boyfriend and demanded that he compensate her for all of the $10 million she lost.

According to the final decision of the U.S. court, Victoria was appointed Leo's primary guardian in 2019, and his primary place of residence was the Republic of Belarus. You can admire a photo of Azarenka with her son on the athlete's Twitter account.

Tennis

An adult professional career for Victoria began with small matches in Israel in 2003. Already in 2 years she was in the top 300 famous athletes and won the unofficial title of "The Best Young Tennis Player of 2005".

In 2006 the girl got her first victory over a really tough opponent. She defeated Nicole Vaidishova, one of the top 20 tennis players in the world. Azarenka's victory over Anastasia Myskina was no less surprising in the sports world.

By early 2007 Victoria had broken into the world's top 100 rackets, though she only ranked 97th. Another achievement was her success in the mixed doubles - together with Maksim Mirny she reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam.

The most important event of 2008 was the WTA tournament in Prague where she got to the finals without a single defeat, but lost it to Vera Zvonareva. At the end of 2009 Victoria was already ranked No.7 in the world. The tennis player had 45 wins and lost 15 matches.

The next year the whole world watched as Azarenka fainted and fell during her match against Hicela Dulko at the US Championships. It was later found out that the cause of her malaise was a blow to the head, which she received during the warm-up. Health problems pushed the tennis player to the bottom of the world rankings, but she did not stay out of the game for long.

The most successful year for the athlete was 2012. She went to the Olympics, where she won gold in the mixtape. Azarenka was partnered by the already proven Maksim Mirny, and in singles the tennis player from Belarus won a bronze medal. Victoria showed just as much skill at Wimbledon, reaching the finals and losing her final battle to Serena Williams.

At the Championships in Beijing Azarenka reached the semifinals and lost to Maria Sharapova. According to analysts, the defeat was caused by a right shoulder injury, the condition of which was still bothering doctors. At the end of the year, Victoria was recognized as the first racket of the world.

After the incredible triumph, the athlete began to lose form. The tennis player missed out on the prestigious title, losing the first lines to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. No less frustrating were leg injuries, which forced Azarenka to miss important championships.

The tennis player started 2014 already on the 4th line of the world ranking. She decided to suspend her competitive career to take care of her injured legs and feet.

Her return to competition in 2016 was marked by a victory at the tournament in Brisbane and a rather defiant defeat of Serena Williams at the Premier Mandatory. Azarenka had another Olympic Games ahead of her, but she withdrew for family reasons.

In April the Belarusian went to Spain to participate in the Premier Mandatory, but crashed out of the bout in the 2nd round after failing to cope with Karolina Pliskova.

In May, Azarenka lost at Roland Garros, not even making it to the second round. She lost to Katerina Siniakova. In the same month she lost her first game at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia to Naomi Osaka.

In July 2018, Victoria reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon together with Jamie Murray. And at the tournament, held in Mallorca, in the 2nd round she lost to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

In April 2019 at the Monterrey Open, Azarenka reached the final, but could not beat Spain's Garbiña Muguruza.

In May, together with Australia's Ashley Barty, Victoria added the Italian Open to her list of victories. But in the same lineup, as in singles, failed to win at Roland Garros.

As for the Wimbledon tournament, the Belarusian tennis player managed to beat Alize Corne and Ayla Tomljanovic, but she lost to Simona Halep.

At the US Open Azarenka and Barty reached the doubles finals, losing to Arina Sobolenko and Elise Mertens. In singles, Victoria already lost to Sobolenko in the 1st round.

Victoria Azarenka now

In 2020, the athlete missed the Australian Open because of legal proceedings for custody of her son.

At the 2020 Western & Southern Open games in August, Victoria reached the final, defeating Donna Vekic, Caroline Garcia, Alize Corne, Uns Jabir and Johanna Konta. Her opponent for the final match was going to be Naomi Osaka. The Japanese player refused to play, so Azarenka got another win at WTA tournaments.

At the US Open Victoria reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam singles, beating Arina Sobolenko, Karolina Mukhova, Elise Mertens and Serena Williams. In the US Open final in New York, Naomi Osaka won.

At the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome in the 1/8 finals the Belarusian got a technical victory over Daria Kasatkina, who could not finish the match because of injury.

Winner of two Grand Slam tournaments in singles.

Winner of two Grand Slam tournaments in mixed doubles.

Olympic champion in 2012 in mixed doubles.

Bronze medalist of the Olympic Games in singles.

Winner of 26 WTA tournaments (20 of them in singles).

Former world No. 1 in singles