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Anastasija SevastovaLatvian tennis player.
Date of Birth: 13.04.1990
Country:  Latvia |
Content:
Biography of Anastasija Sevastova
Anastasija Sevastova is a Latvian tennis player who stands at a height of 169 cm and weighs 70 kg. She began her tennis career in April 2006 and is right-handed with a two-handed backhand. Her coach is Martin Rutner. Sevastova started playing tennis at the age of 6, introduced to the sport by her grandmother. She played at an amateur level until the age of 15.
Tennis Career
Sevastova prefers to play offensive shots from the baseline and considers her backhand as her favorite stroke. Her tennis idols are Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. She is fluent in Russian, Latvian, German, and English.
Personal Life and Achievements
Sevastova's mother, Diana Golovanova, is an English teacher. Apart from tennis, Sevastova is also involved in football and water skiing.
Sevastova periodically suffers from congenital leg problems, which require her to wear special footwear. In April 2006, she made her debut at ITF tournaments in Makarska. In July of the same year, she reached her first singles final in Harkingen, where she lost to Sandra Martinovic from Bosnia, despite winning the first set.
In May 2007, Sevastova achieved her first victory over a Top 200 player by defeating Virginie Pichet from France on her way to the final in Antalya. A couple of weeks later, she also defeated her first Top 100 player, Anastasiya Yakimova from Belarus, at her debut WTA tournament in Istanbul.
In June 2008, Sevastova made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, but was eliminated after one match. In August, she reached her first doubles final at an ITF tournament, winning the title with her opponent from the singles final, Lenka Vinerova. In May 2009, she won a major ITF tournament in Johannesburg. Three weeks later, she made her singles main draw debut at a Grand Slam tournament, qualifying for Roland Garros, but lost in the first round to Melinda Czink from Hungary, ranked 62nd in the world.
In September, Sevastova achieved her first victory in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn from Thailand, ranked 90th in the world. She then played against a Top 10 player for the first time, winning six games in two sets against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Shortly after, she achieved her first victory over a player in the top 50 by defeating Anabel Medina Garrigues from Spain at the Guangzhou tournament.
Sevastova finished the year 2009 as the 79th ranked player in the world. She also helped the Latvian national team to reach the first group of the Europe/Africa Zone of the Fed Cup.
In March 2010, Sevastova achieved her first victory over a Top 10 player by defeating Elena Dementieva at the Monterrey tournament in Mexico. A few days later, she reached the semifinals, setting a new career-high ranking of 63rd.
During the European clay court season, Sevastova reached the third round of Indian Wells, losing to Vera Zvonareva. She then reached the quarterfinals of a $100,000 tournament in Cannes, where she was defeated by eventual champion Kaia Kanepi. She had her first major success in her singles career at the Oeiras tournament in Portugal, reaching the final and winning against Arantxa Parra Santonja. This victory propelled her into the Top 60 in the singles rankings.
Before Roland Garros, Sevastova reached the quarterfinals in Strasbourg, losing to finalist Kristina Barrois. During the North American hard court season, she reached the quarterfinals in Budapest and Bad Gastein.
The highlight of Sevastova's season came at the Beijing tournament, where she started in the qualifying rounds and reached the quarterfinals by defeating Dominika Cibulkova and Samantha Stosur.
By the end of the year, Sevastova achieved a singles ranking of 45th. The new season started in December 2010, with Sevastova reaching the quarterfinals of the Dubai tournament as the second seed, but losing to Bojana Jovanovski.
