Elina Avanesyan

Elina Araratovna Avanesyan (; ; born 17 September 2002) is a Russian-born Armenian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 36 in singles, achieved on 17 March 2025, and 163 in doubles, achieved in August 2024. Avanesyan has won five singles and nine doubles titles at tournaments of the ITF Circuit.

Personal information

Early life

Avanesyan was born in Pyatigorsk, Russia, to an Armenian family. Her parents are from Nagorno-Karabakh and moved to Russia in 1992 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. She has a brother and a sister.

Nationality change

In June 2024, it was announced that Avanesyan had begun the process of applying for Armenian citizenship and planned to compete under the flag of Armenia. She had previously completed in several junior tournaments in the Armenian capital Yerevan, winning four of them.

In August 2024, Avanesyan became an Armenian citizen and began representing Armenia.

Career

2021: First ITF title

She won her first W60 title at the Reinert Open as a lucky loser.

2022: WTA Tour, major and WTA 1000 debuts

She made her WTA Tour debut at the 2022 Copa Colsanitas, where she reached the quarterfinals, and her Grand Slam debut as a qualifier at the US Open.

She also made her debut at the WTA 1000 level at the Italian Open as a qualifier, and also entered the main draw of the new WTA 1000 Guadalajara Open as a lucky loser.

2023: French Open fourth round, top 65

Ranked No. 134, Avanesyan made her debut at the French Open as a lucky loser. In the first round, she upset 12th seed Belinda Bencic for her first major and top-20 win. She defeated French wildcard Léolia Jeanjean in the second round and qualifier Clara Tauson in the third, becoming the first lucky loser at Roland Garros in the last 16 in 35 years since 1988 and only the fifth overall at this major. As a result, she reached the top 80 rising 54 positions in the rankings on 12 June 2023.

She made her WTA 500 debut at the German Open, also as a lucky loser and defeated eighth seed Daria Kasatkina. As a result, she reached a new career-high ranking of No. 64, on 26 June 2023.

She reached the second round of the US Open by defeating Alizé Cornet in the first round.

She finished the year ranked No. 75.

2024: Australian Open debut, first top 10 win & WTA Tour final, top 50

On her debut at the Australian Open, she recorded two wins over Bai Zhuoxuan and eighth seed Maria Sakkari, her first top 10 win. On her debut at Indian Wells, she lost to Océane Dodin. On another debut at the Miami Open, she recorded her first WTA 1000-level win over wildcard Erika Andreeva, and her second top 10 and biggest win of her career, over sixth seed Ons Jabeur, to reach her first third round at this level.

At the French Open, she reached a consecutive fourth round with wins over Zhu Lin, Anna Blinkova and seventh seed Zheng Qinwen. Her run was ended by 12th seed Jasmine Paolini.
At Wimbledon, she reached the second round for the first time with a win over Anhelina Kalinina in her opening match. She lost in round two against 15th seed Liudmila Samsonova.

Avanesyan made it through to the quarterfinals at the Budapest Grand Prix, defeating fifth seed Magdalena Fręch and Rebeka Masarova before losing to Anna Karolína Schmiedlová in three sets. She reached her first WTA Tour semifinal at the Iași Open, defeating third seed Jaqueline Cristian in the quarterfinals. In the last four, Avanesyan defeated Chloé Paquet and advanced into her maiden WTA Tour final which she lost to Mirra Andreeva when she retired injured while trailing in the third set.

She recorded her first tour main-draw win under her new Armenian nationality at the Cincinnati Open as a lucky loser, making history for her country as the first player to do so, over wildcard Bianca Andreescu. Next, she defeated eighth seed Jeļena Ostapenko to reach her second WTA 1000 third round, where she lost to tenth seed Liudmila Samsonova.

At the Wuhan Open, she lost a three-setter to 13th seed Marta Kostyuk in the first round. Seeded fifth at the 2024 Japan Women's Open, Avanesyan defeated defending champion Ashlyn Krueger, before going out to local wildcard Sara Saito.

She finished the year ranked inside the top 50 in the singles rankings.

2025: First Armenian in WTA 500 semifinal

Avanesyan started her 2025 season at the Brisbane International, defeating Rebecca Šramková and fourth seed Paula Badosa, before losing to Ons Jabeur in the third round. The following week, at the Hobart International, she overcame qualifiers Wang Xiyu and Greet Minnen, then benefitted from the withdrawal of third seed Amanda Anisimova to reach the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion McCartney Kessler.

At the Mérida Open in Mexico, Avanesyan became the first Armenian player to reach a WTA 500 semifinal with a win over Maya Joint.

Performance timeline

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, Hopman Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

''Current through the 2025 Madrid Open.''

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 12 (5 titles, 7 runner–ups)

Doubles: 16 (9 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avanesyan, Elina
2002 births
Armenian expatriate sportspeople in Russia
Armenian female tennis players
Living people
Naturalized citizens of Armenia
Sportspeople from Pyatigorsk
Russian sportspeople of Armenian descent