Elena Vesnina: Four-Time Grand Slam Champion

Elena laughs at the end of our 30-minute interview, her first in English since 2018.

“I knew you would be the first one to reach out.”

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Few could have done so faster. When, at the end of last year, rumor first ran through Russian channels that the reigning Olympic doubles champion was planning a return to action after giving birth to daughter Elizaveta, I immediately sent a text to ask whether it was true. Having seen her in light competition at a St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy exhibition in February, a comeback was certainly plausible; the 34-year-old had lost nothing—least of all her inimitable “Aiya!” grunt—in 20 months away from tennis.

Though she froze her spot atop the WTA doubles rankings when her maternity leave first began, nothing about the well-documented life she went on to lead indicated a forthcoming return.

“For the longest time, I didn’t think about coming back,” she concedes early on. “I felt so good at home—and I still do—that traveling isn’t the thing I’ve really missed that much.”



Athletes are often analyzed vis-à-vis more traditional modes like technique, results or even on-court demeanor. Elena Vesnina is ultimately best examined through a feminist lens, and in that way proves to be an endlessly rich text.

Western society holds “woman” and “athlete” in such diametric opposition that it took Billie Jean King to ensure they would never be put asunder. Born in the feminist wave that followed King and the Original 9, Vesnina effortlessly occupies both individual aspects of the woman athlete to their archetypal extremes—as much the relentless, warrior competitor and literal Olympian as she is the hyperfeminine wife and mother.

Whether it stems from deep-rooted cultural demands or merely the same competitive drive that fuels her tennis, she manages to typify the often-amorphous concept of “having it all,” and aims to impart that same duality on little Liza who, at two years old, is still young enough to travel with mother to initial tour stops in Doha and St. Petersburg.

“I’m trying to give Liza as much as I can. I want to teach her the piano and dancing, because for girls especially, it’s good to have rhythm. Maybe next, I’ll teach her to play tennis, and see how she likes it. If she does, I’ll be happy to help her play more.

“I want to teach her to be a brave and loving person. I want to teach her how to be free, to not be afraid of making a first step in anything, even when it’s difficult.”