Sofya Andreyevna Zhuk ( rus, Софья Андреевна Жук, , ˈsofʲjə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ˈʐuk; born 1 December 1999) is a Russian former tennis player. She won the 2015 Wimbledon girls' singles title.

Career

Early years

Zhuk trained at the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium and her coach was Olivier Jeunehomme until 2014-2015. From 2015 moved to USA and trained at IMG Academy. End of 2018 moved to Miami,Florida and trained with Patricia Tarabini. Her best win to date on the professional tour has been at a $60k tournament in Turkey, where she beat home favourite

İpek Soylu İpek Soylu (born 15 April 1996) is a Turkish former tennis player. In her career, Soylu won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, her biggest coming at the 2016 year-end Elite Trophy. She also won 12 singles and 18 doubles titles on the ITF ...

in the final. In 2014, she won her first tournament at Shymkent and became only the 17th 14-year-old in ITF history to win an open tournament at that age, joining a group which includes former world-number-ones,

Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...

and

Dinara Safina Dinara Mubinovna Safina (, ; ; born April 27, 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina ...

. In 2015, Zhuk competed as an unseeded 15-year-old at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, where she won the junior girls' title against fellow Russian and No. 12 ranked junior

Anna Blinkova Anna Vladimirovna Blinkova ( rus, Анна Владимировна Блинкова, , ˈanːə blʲɪnˈkovə, Ru-Anna Blinkova.ogg; born 10 September 1998) is a Russian professional tennis player. On 7 August 2023, she reached her best single ...

, in straight sets. Zhuk did not drop a set in the whole Wimbledon tournament. Zhuk became only the second Russian girl to win the Wimbledon title, following the 2002 final when

Vera Dushevina Vera Yevgenyevna Dushevina (; born 6 October 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won one singles title and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. As a junior, she won the Wimbledon Championships, beating Maria Sharapova in ...

defeated compatriot

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...

2016

She made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

singles debut at the 2016 Miami Open, where she received a wildcard into the main draw. She lost in straight sets to

Zhang Shuai Zhang Shuai ( zh , s = 张帅 , p = Zhāng Shuài ; ; born 21 January 1989) is a Chinese professional tennis player. She has a career-high doubles WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 2, achieved in July 2022 and a singles ranking of No. 22 re ...

in the first round.

2018–19

Zhuk reached the second round of qualifying at the Australian Open, losing to Magdalena Fręch of Poland, before heading to

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

in California for their inaugural WTA 125 tournament. She reached her first $125k final in this event where, after taking the first set, she eventually fell to

Danielle Collins Danielle Rose Collins (born December 13, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. She has reached career-high WTA rankings of world No. 7 in singles and No. 79 in doubles. Collins has won four singles titles, including a WTA 1000 titl ...

, six years her senior, in three sets. Collins was her nemesis again when they played at Indian Wells, after both had defeated seeded players. Zhuk recorded her first

win when she defeated

Alizé Cornet Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. She has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circuit. ...

in the first round, and followed that by beating 18th seed Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round. Zhuk's second to last service game in that match took well over 20 minutes, with 12 deuces and 30 points. Rybarikova saved eleven match points during the game, before finally winning on only her second break point. Zhuk promptly broke back, and then served out to win in three sets. Collins, though having beaten 15th seed

Madison Keys Madison Keys (born February 17, 1995) is an American professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 5 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Keys has won ten WTA Tour-level career singles ...

in the second round, always had the advantage in their third round clash, winning in straight sets. Zhuk nevertheless reached her career-high ranking of 123 after this defeat. She then went to the Premier Mandatory tournament in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, where she lost in the first round of qualifying. In the European Grand Slam tournaments, she lost in the first qualifying round of the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

Valentini Grammatikopoulou Valentini Grammatikopoulou (; born 9 February 1997) is a Greek tennis player. On 22 August 2022, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 143. On 15 July 2024, she peaked at No. 97 in the WTA doubles rankings. She has won a singles and ...

, and in the final qualifying round for

to Vitalia Diatchenko, having had her revenge on Grammatikopoulou in the first round.

2020

In 2020, Zhuk announced that she had paused her tennis career because of ongoing injury with possibility of coming back in the future.

Performance timeline

Singles

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 9 (6 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' singles: 1 (title)

Awards

;2015 * The Russian Cup in the nomination Junior of the Year

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhuk, Sofya 1999 births Living people Tennis players from Moscow Russian female tennis players Wimbledon junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles Russian expatriates in Belgium 21st-century Russian sportswomen