Russian tennis player Elena Vesnina shared with "SE" which athletes supported her after the announcement of her retirement.
“Of course, all our guys wrote to me, including Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and Karen Khachanov. Plus, my close friends from the tour: all our girls: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ekaterina Makarova, and Anastasia Myskina. From abroad – Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, and Ana Ivanovic.”
“Of course, it’s very nice. Eventually, every tennis player will face this. It’s incredibly sad because fans were asking me to keep playing. But every journey has a logical conclusion, including a career. I want to believe that it was memorable, that fans remember me as a good tennis player and a nice person who tried to do her job honestly, starting as a little girl from Sochi who knew nothing about tennis but went through such a long career that she couldn’t even dream of,” said Vesnina to “SE.”
The 38-year-old Russian became the Olympic champion in 2016 paired with Ekaterina Makarova and a silver medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Games in mixed doubles with Aslan Karatsev. She also boasts 3 Grand Slam titles in doubles and 19 WTA tournament victories. In singles, Vesnina claimed 3 WTA titles.