Lesya Viktorovna Tsurenko is a Ukrainian professional tennis player.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on May 30, 1989 in the village of Volodymyrets in the Rivne region.
She started playing tennis at the age of 6 – her parents helped her to study.
Later she moved to Mykolaiv, where she continued training.
She received higher education at the Kyiv University of Physical Culture.
Career
2007 – 2015
She began her professional career as a tennis player in 2007.
In the fall of 2007, she reached the final of the ITF tournament in Baku. There she lost in decisive matches in both singles and doubles.
She won her first title in the spring of 2008 – she won the tournament in Adana, Turkey. Already in September of the same year, she won the doubles tournament in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, and a month later she successfully competed in Podolsk.
In May 2009, she took the cup in Johannesburg. And in the fall, she made her debut at WTA series tournaments – then she managed to qualify in Tashkent.
At the beginning of 2011, the Ukrainian reached the second round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career. For her, this was the first such result at Grand Slam tournaments.
In the same year, Tsurenko took 3 ITF series titles.
In February 2012, she reached the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Memphis, and in the spring she broke into the top 100 of the world ranking for the first time.
The beginning of 2013 was also successful for the athlete. In Brisbane, the tennis player reached the semifinals, reached the 3rd round at the Australian Open for the first time, and then repeated this result in Indian Wells. In total, she played 53 matches during the season, won 26 of them and stayed in the second half of the first hundred of the rating.
2015 – 2020
In 2014, the results sank a little. But in 2015, the game went up again. At the tournament in Indian Wells, she beat several opponents from the top 20, reached the semifinals and stopped only due to injury.
In the summer of 2015, Tsurenko won the ITF series tournament in Vancouver. In the same period, she took the title for the first time at the WTA level – she won in Istanbul, giving her opponents only 1 set for the entire tournament. At the end of the season, she also reached the semifinals in New Haven and Moscow. As a result, in a year , the tennis player rose sharply in the ranking, by almost 70 positions, and finished the season in 33rd place.
At the US Open in 2016, she reached the 4th round. In the same season, she won the tournament in Guangzhou and made it to the quarterfinals in Tashkent.
In March 2017, she took another WTA title – this time in Acapulco. That season, she also reached the 3rd round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, played in the quarterfinals in San Jose and Moscow, and stopped in ‘s-Hertogenbosch one step before the final.
In 2018 in Acapulco, the tennis player won the tournament for the second time in a row and gave her opponents only 1 set for the entire performance. After that, there was a slight decline in her results, but at Roland Garros she still showed her best result at that time – she reached lap 4.
Then there were even stronger performances in Birmingham, Cincinnati and at the US Open, where she reached the quarterfinals each time. It was the US Open that became especially noticeable, as there she managed to beat tennis players from the top 5. Thanks to this , Tsurenko entered the top thirty strongest in the world.
In January 2019, Tsurenko reached the final of the tournament in Brisbane. In the semifinals, she passed Osaka, but lost in the decisive match to Karolina Plishkova.
After the final, the athlete still updated her personal record in the ranking – she rose to 23rd place. At Roland Garros in 2019, she reached the 3rd round. But already in August, she received an elbow injury, so she actually spent the rest of the season on treatment and recovery.
2020 – tep. Time
The 2020 season also turned out to be incomplete, but this time due to the coronavirus pandemic. In Cairo, the tennis player reached the final, and in Indian Wells – the semifinals. In both cases, she lost to the Romanian Irina-Camelia Bijou.
From the middle of the year, injuries began to haunt her again. Due to injury, Tsurenko withdrew from the tournament in Palermo. Then in Prague, she still qualified and won the match of the first round, but then again could not continue her performance. The same story repeated itself before the US Open – even knowing who she was supposed to play with, she decided not to enter the tournament. She still played at Roland Garros then, but only 1 match.
The beginning of 2021 also turned out to be difficult. At the Australian Open, the tennis player reached the final of the qualifiers, but lost there to Lyudmila Samsonova. In Brisbane, she almost closed the match against Oleksandra Sosnovich – she won the first set and led 4:0 in the second, but still gave the victory to her opponent.
At other tournaments in Australia – in Melbourne and Adelaide – she also flew out early. Because of this, Tsurenko seriously sank in the ranking and dropped to 145th place. In Doha, she could not qualify to the end, and in Dubai and Monterrey she made her way to the main draw, but did not stay there for a long time.
Then an old injury intervened again – because of it, the tennis player withdrew from tournaments in Miami and Roland Garros. In the summer of 2021, she managed to make it to the main draw of Wimbledon.
In 2022, Tsurenko’s season turned out to be uneven, but with several strong results. At the Australian Open, she was eliminated in the first round – she lost to Barty, who was then the first racket in the world and eventually took the title. At Roland Garros, the tennis player qualified for the main draw for the second time in her career, but immediately got to Świątek and did not go further.
On the grass, on the other hand, things went better. In Eastbourne, Tsurenko, starting from qualifying, reached the quarterfinals, but before the match against Haddad Mai, she withdrew. At Wimbledon, she reached the third round for the second time in her career, in particular, she beat Angelina Kalinina.
Another notable result was in Budapest, where Tsurenko reached the quarterfinals. There she won a very exhausting match against Rakhimova – it lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes and became one of the longest of the season. But after that, she withdrew again – this time before the game with Putintseva.
In 2023, Tsurenko had one of the most notable seasons in recent years. In Hua-Hin, she reached the final for the first time since 2019. She reached the decisive match after Bianca Andreescu withdrew from the tournament, but lost to Zhu Ling in the final. Despite this, on February 6, Tsurenko returned to the top 100.
At the tournament in Indian Wells, the Ukrainian qualified, then got 3 laps and beat Zhu Lin and Vekic on the way. But the match against Orina Sabalenka never took place – Tsurenko withdrew.
At Roland Garros, Tsurenko again loudly reminded of herself. For the second time in her career, she reached the 4th round there, in particular, she beat Krejcikova, who was among the seeded. Then Davis passed after the opponent’s refusal to continue the match, and also defeated Andreescu.
Another strong performance was at Wimbledon. There, Tsurenko reached the 4th round of the tournament for the first time in her career. The match against Bogdan was most memorable – it lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, and the tie-break in the 3rd set stretched for 38 draws and became a record for women’s singles at Grand Slam tournaments.
In 2024, Tsurenko started the season at the tournament in Auckland. In the first round, she beat Vickery in 2 sets, and in the next match she already lost to Perry – the game dragged on for 3 sets.
Then Tsurenko performed at the Australian Open. There she started with a victory over Bronzetti in a difficult 3-set match, confidently passed Masarova in the second round, and then went to Sabalenka. The match was tense, but the Ukrainian lost in 2 sets.
After Australia, Tsurenko continued her season on hard courts in the Middle East. At the tournament in Abu Dhabi, she played against Samsonova, who was the 8th seed, but was eliminated after the first match.
