Julia Sergeyevna Apostoli ( Salnikova ( Russian: Юлия Сергеевна Апостоли,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Τζούλια Σεργκέιεβνα Αποστόλη; born 13 August 1964) is a Russian-born Greek former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player who represented the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and (from 1990 onwards) Greece.

Biography

Apostoli was born in Moscow, the daughter of Russian football player and manager

Sergei Salnikov Sergei Sergeyevich Salnikov (russian: Серге́й Серге́евич Сальников; 13 September 1925 – 9 May 1984) was a Soviet footballer who played for Zenit Leningrad, Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow. He was part of the Sovie ...

. Her father was a member of the Soviet association football national team which won the gold medal at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, wh ...

, and at club level both played and managed

FC Spartak Moscow FC Spartak Moscow (russian: Футбольный клуб «Спартак» Москва, Futbolʹnyy klub «Spartak» Moskva, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Having won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dy ...

. She debuted for the Soviet Union Fed Cup team in the 1980 quarterfinal loss to the United States, featuring in the doubles with

Olga Zaitseva Olga Alekseyevna Zaitseva (russian: Ольга Алексеевна Зайцева; born 16 May 1978) is a former Russian biathlete. She began her career in 1994. After not competing in the 2014–15 season, Zaitseva announced her retirement o ...

, a dead rubber which they lost to the Americans. Over the next two years she competed in all ties for the Soviet Union. In 1981 she played the opening rubber in each tie and won them all, over Denmark's

Tine Scheuer-Larsen Tine Scheuer-Larsen (born 13 March 1966) is a retired tennis player from Denmark. She became Danish Champion in singles in 1981 age 15 as the youngest Danish player ever. She also became the highest ranked Danish female player on 29 September 1 ...

, Czechoslovakia's

Renáta Tomanová Renáta Tomanová (born 9 December 1954) is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia. Career Tomanová won the girls' singles title at the 1972 French Open. In 1975, she and Martina Navratilova represented Czechoslovakia in th ...

and Britain's

Virginia Wade Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three Major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all ...

, the latter in the Soviet Union's quarter-final loss. She extended her singles record to five wins from five matches in 1982 when she beat her Spanish and Peruvian opponents, also appearing in a live doubles rubber to win the second round tie against Peru. In the 1982 quarter-final she suffered her only singles loss, to Dianne Fromholtz, as the Soviet Union went down to Australia. At the

Friendship Games The Friendship Games, or Friendship-84 (russian: Дружба-84, ''Druzhba-84''), was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 ...

in 1984, Apostoli won a gold medal in women's doubles, as well as a bronze in the singles. She rarely featured in international tennis for the remainder of the 1980s in order to concentrate on her studies, graduating with a journalism degree from

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1990. Apostoli returned to tennis in 1990 under the flag of Greece, having taken up citizenship through her marriage to Greek tennis coach Apostolos Tsitsipas. She played on the WTA Tour until 1992. Her eldest son,

Stefanos Tsitsipas Stefanos Tsitsipas ( gr, Στέφανος Τσιτσιπάς, ; born 12 August 1998) is a Greek professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on 9 ...

, competes on the professional ATP tour. Apostoli has four children with her husband, and all of them are tennis players. She lives in Monaco when not traveling. She is also officially listed as a coach of her younger son

Petros Tsitsipas Petros Tsitsipas ( gr, Πέτρος Τσιτσιπάς, ; born 27 July 2000) is a Greek professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 137, achieved on 30 January 2023, and also has a career-high ATP singles ranking o ...

on his ATP profile.

ITF finals

Singles: 4 (3–1)

Doubles: 4 (1–3)

Other finals

Singles (0-1)

Doubles (0-2)

Mixed (2-1)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Apostoli, Julia 1964 births Living people Greek female tennis players Soviet female tennis players Russian female tennis players Russian people of Greek descent Russian emigrants to Greece Moscow State University alumni Friendship Games medalists in tennis Tennis players from Moscow