Elena Likhovtseva

Elena Likhovtseva

Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva (Russian: Елена Лиховцева ; born 8 September 1975 in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union, now Kazakhstan) is a Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992 at the age of 16.

Likhovtseva's career best appearance in a Grand Slam was when she reached the semi finals of the French Open 2005 before she was defeated by Mary Pierce, 6–1 6–1. Elena is also one of the few people in either the men's or women's game to have lost a tiebreaker from 6–0 up (this was also against Mary Pierce, in Moscow; Pierce went on to win the tournament). Together with Mahesh Bhupathi, she won the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles championship in 2002. She has also been a runner-up in a number of other contests, including the Australian Open women's doubles event in 2004, French Open Women's Doubles in 2004 and Mixed Doubles in 2003, and the 2000 and 2004 US Open Women's Doubles. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won the first round of the Women's Doubles with partner Svetlana Kuznetsova, but was defeated in the second. She won the 2007 Australian Open Mixed Doubles championship with Daniel Nestor. After losing all four singles of the year, Likhovtseva's best performance in 2008 was the quarter-finals at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami with Lisa Raymond.