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Biofile: Elena Vesnina Interview
6 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
By Scoop Malinowski
Ht: 5-7 3/4 Wt: 130
DOB: August 1, 1986 In: Lvov, Ukraine
First Tennis Memory: “I remember when I was nine. And Yevgeny Kafelnikov came by practice. And I was practicing with his father at that moment. And he came for practice. And he was watching a little bit and he gave me some advices. I don’t remember what it was. He was kind of interested in that. And for me he was the best player in the world in that moment. And he was from my home city. He just won the French Open. Of course for me he was huge. Very inspiring moment for me.”
Tennis Inspirations: “I like challenges. I like competing against other players. And winning tournaments, raising the trophy, it’s something amazing. It’s kind of a high that you can get and winning as many matches as I can. Trying to get better. Trying to get stronger, faster, all things to be a better athlete on the court than I am right now.”
Last Book Read: “I’m reading now The Mark Arch De Triumph.”
Greatest Sports Moment: “Ooooh. Maybe be a part of Olympic team in Beijing. Winning Wimbledon in doubles. Maybe Wimbledon, that is something great.”
Most Painful Moment: “Losing first round in singles, to be honest, bad at the U.S. Open in 2011. I thought I was pretty ready for the tournament and I was really looking forward to it. I felt I could do much better there but it was a ghost of me on the court. I couldn’t play my best tennis.”
Favorite Tournament: “Let me think…Indian Wells, French Open, Kremlin Cup.”
Current Car: “Audi Q5 (white).”
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Vanilla and mango.”
Closest Tennis Friends: “There’s a few girls who are good friends but I can’t tell that they are really close friends, just good friends of tennis.”
Funniest Players Encountered: “Petkovic [smiles].”
Toughest Competitors Encountered: “Always tough to play against Vera Zvonareva. The Russian girls. They’re very competitive. And Fransesca Schiavone.”
Best You Ever Played: “When I beat Amelie Mauresmo a couple of years ago in finals.”
Funny Tennis Memory: “I remember I was playing one time in India and next court to me, Vania King actually – she put the banana on the chair and the monkey came and took it. And ball kids were trying to run after it to get the banana. And Vania was like, No I don’t need it. Leave it, give it to the monkey.”
Favorite Players To Watch: “From guys – Federer, Nalbandian, Tsonga.”
Favorite Sports Outside Tennis: “Ski. Soccer – I’m not playing – watching. Basketball.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “I like when people are tough. A lot of things coming at the same time and it feels like it’s over – when they keep fighting. Learning from their situations. Thinking, Have to be stronger mentally. And then, so many people when they were just starting their careers, they had so many crashes and kind of bad moments. They were still believing in themself. And they got it in the end. (Any examples come to mind?) There’s a lot of examples. Even the greatest scientists, like Einstein, he wasn’t a very good student. From (music) composing also. Poets also. In the beginning of their careers, nobody knows about them. And then at the end they were like the greatest poets in the world. I know some Russians like this. There was, are composers everybody was saying he was a loser and then he like…(like Capriati epitomized this in tennis.) Yeah, she was. Those are the kind of people I admire.”
"Kafelnikov watched me practice and gave advices"
6 comments
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Scoop Malinowski · March 20, 2012 at 2:00 pm
I think this was my favorite Biofile of the last year, for many reasons.
Michael · March 21, 2012 at 3:51 am
In person she seems very smiley.
Vesnina: “Even the greatest scientists, like Einstein, he wasn’t a very good student.”
It’s interesting just how pervasive this myth is considering for how long and conclusively its been debunked.
I think we like it because in the most general terms it stands for the proposition that things can always get better. Or a bit more narrowly that just because we aren’t good now doesn’t mean we can’t reach a high level with effort.
Probably truth in there but reference to Einstein being a poor student is not a good example.
Here is an article from the NYT from 1984 putting to bed the myth (google occasionally being useful…):
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/14/science/einstein-revealed-as-brilliant-in-youth.html
And coincidentally just yesterday Hebrew University and CIT have started to put a vast amount of Einstein related papers online so one can check the source material. As the article I saw was titled:
“New Einstein Archive Busts ‘Bad Student’ Myth”
“http://www.newser.com/story/142280/new-einstein-archive-busts-bad-student-myth.html”
I think they meant bust again.
Scoop Malinowski · March 21, 2012 at 11:57 am
Nothing gets by the scholarly and informed Michael : ) There are a lot, too many pervasive myths and hoaxes clouding the truths from our world Michael. Like has been said “the truth is the rarest most valuable commodity on the planet.” Still understand and admire the point Vesnina was making in her response.
Harold · March 21, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Getting Biofiled, might be like being on the cover of SI. 1st round loss for Vesnina today
Andrew Miller · March 21, 2012 at 11:50 pm
I like Vesnina, she is an excellent player. The Russians all read like bookworms! Kirilenko, Vesnina…they are definitely part of the great Russian tradition.
Interesting she is coached by Chesnokov. Another excellent Russian player. I like Chesnokov’s game a lot better than Cherkasov. You had Chesnokov, Cherkasov and Volkov all playing at the same time.
Scoop Malinowski · March 22, 2012 at 2:44 am
She is very pretty and very smart too, a nice combination. Hopefully her and Mirza can bag a major this year, they almost won Australia, after knocking off Huber/Raymond in a wild three setter that went the third set tiebreak limit. I remember Chezzie, he played Sampras in Davis Cup I believe and Muster at French Open, can’t remember Cherkasov at all, just that his name was so similar to Chezzie.