Dayana Yastremska is a Ukrainian tennis player.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on May 15, 2000 in Odessa.
She started playing tennis at the age of five – her grandfather brought her to the court.
The first mentors were Eduard Makarov, Victoria and Valery Kutuzov, as well as Jean-René Lisnard.
Already at the age of seven, she won her first title in children’s competitions, and in 2012 she became the vice-champion of the Junior Orange Bowl tournament in the United States.
She also has the title of champion of Ukraine among boys under 12 years old.
Career
Junior achievements
In 2015, Yastremska achieved success at the junior level. In tandem with Anastasia Zarytska, she won in doubles at the second category tournament in Budajors, Hungary.
At the next competition in Budapest, the girls already met as rivals in the final of the singles tournament – Yastremska won and won her first individual junior title.
The following year, Yastremska and Zarytska reached the doubles final at the junior Australian Open, where they lost to pair Galina Kalinskaya and Tereza Migalikova.
In March 2016, the athlete reached the semifinals of the tournament in Porto Alegre, where she lost to the American Amanda Anisimova, but managed to win the doubles title in a duet with the Hungarian Panna Udvardi.
Later that year, she reached the final of Junior Wimbledon, where she lost in the decisive match to Russian Anastasia Potapova, becoming the vice-champion of the prestigious tournament.
ITF Tour
Yastremska made her first professional appearance on February 25, 2015 at the ITF tournament in Sharm el-Sheikh, where she defeated the Spaniard Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, who was then ranked 370th in the world ranking. However, she lost in the next round.
At the next tournament in Sharm el-Sheikh, having overcome the qualification, she reached the semifinals, where she lost to the Czech Marketa Vondrošová.
Yastremska won her first title in the adult tour during the competition in Campinas, Brazil.
In the final of the tournament in Campinas, the athlete, who was then in 1077th position in the WTA ranking, defeated the 157th racket of the world Alize Lim. The victory brought her 51 rating points and allowed her to enter the top 500 tennis players on the planet.
In 2017, she achieved a number of successes in doubles. At the beginning of the season, she won the tournament in Moscow in a duet with the Belarusian Vera Lapko. In July, she won another title in Prague, playing with Anastasia Potapova.
In mid-September, she defeated Kateryna Zavatska in the final of the tournament in Dunakes. Two weeks later, she reached the final in St. Petersburg, where she lost to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.
In 2018, Yastremska reached the finals of ITF tournaments three times. In May, she lost to Rebecca Peterson of Sweden in the decisive match in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and in June she was defeated by Teresa Smitkova at the tournament in Ilkly after a tense three-set confrontation.
In July, Yastremska won the title in Rome, after which she focused on the transition to regular appearances in WTA tournaments.
WTA
On April 18, 2016, the tennis player played for the first time at a WTA tournament, making her debut at the Istanbul Cup, where in the opening round she lost to the Japanese athlete Nao Hibino in a three-set match.
By the end of the season, she took to the court twice more within the WTA – at tournaments in Tashkent and Limoges, but both times she could not overcome the first round.
Yastremska won her first victory at the WTA tournament at the Istanbul Cup, beating German Andrea Petkovic in three sets.
Reaching the quarterfinals, she became the first tennis player born in 2000 to reach this stage at the WTA tournament. In the fight for the semifinals, she lost to the Slovak Jana Čepelova after a tense match.
At the rest of the WTA tournaments that season, Yastremska failed to qualify. Only at the Aegon Open in Nottingham did she manage to make it to the main draw. However, even there she finished her performance in the first round, losing to the Slovak tennis player Magdalena Rybarykova in two sets.
The following season, the Ukrainian took part in the qualification for the Australian Open for the first time, but ended her performance in the second round. In February, she managed to reach the main draw of the tournament in Acapulco. However, due to injury, she could not finish the match of the first round. A similar situation was repeated at Wimbledon – Yastremska lost in the second round of qualifying.
In August 2018, Yastremska made it to the main draw of the WTA Premier series tournament – Connecticut Open for the first time. In the second round, she met the German Julia Gerges, managed to win one set, but eventually lost in three games. However, this result allowed her to rise to the top 100 of the world ranking and make her debut in the main draw of the Grand Slam tournament – the US Open. In the first round, she unexpectedly lost to the Czech Karolina Muchova.
In September, Yastremska made her debut in the main draw of the WTA Premier Mandatory – China Open, but could not overcome the first round, losing to Chinese Zheng Saisai.
Already at the next tournament – Hong Kong Tennis Open – Yastremska won her first victory at the WTA level, winning the title. In the final, she beat the 24th racket of the world Wang Qiang.
During the Hong Kong Tennis Open, Yastremska did not lose a single set, becoming the youngest Ukrainian to win the WTA title – at that time she was 18 years and 4 months old.
Shortly thereafter, she reached the semifinals of the tournament in Luxembourg, where she lost to Swiss tennis player Belinda Bencic. At the end of the season, she finished the year in 58th place in the world ranking.
Future Career
In June 2021, she qualified to participate in the Olympic Games as part of the national tennis team of Ukraine. The Olympic team also included Nadiya and Lyudmila Kichenok, Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk.
