Russian tennis player Ekaterina Valerievna Makarova - the third racket of the world in doubles, Honored Master of Sports of Russia. On account of the athlete - the Federation Cup as part of the national team, victories in 4 Grand Slam tournaments and in the WTA Final Tournament. For 8 years, Ekaterina Makarova managed to break into the top 10 best tennis players on the planet and gave a streak of eight victories in a row, without failing in front of big names on the other side of the court.
Childhood
The future Olympic champion was born in Moscow, June 1988, in a family that has nothing to do with sports. The mother of Ekaterina Makarova is a housewife, she was engaged in the upbringing of Katya and her brother Andrei. The head of the family is a bank employee. According to unconfirmed reports, today Valery Makarov works at Gazprom. Katya has an older brother, Andrey. He periodically helps her with all sorts of organizational issues. When Katyusha was born, her parents, of course, could not imagine that they would raise a tennis star. None of them was an athlete.
Sports biography
But when Katya was 5 years old, she asked to join the tennis section, where her friend had already gone. The girl immediately fell in love with the atmosphere of training, and big sports became her main dream. So Katya got into the Luzhniki club, where she first went to court. Ekaterina Makarova's sports biography began at the age of 6. In high school, Makarova had to make a difficult choice: sport or fashion design. Even at school, her mother taught Katya to sew and do needlework, and this activity captivated the girl. After graduating from school, Catherine entered the Institute of Design, but a year later she preferred sports: tennis did not allow split and took up all her free time. And the tennis player's achievements were impressive: after 10 years of training, Makarova made her debut in the Kremlin Cup qualification. Unlike most Russian tennis players of her generation, Makarova hardly ever trained abroad.
The road to tennis
2002 year. On the junior round, the athlete first performed in the spring of 2002. By the end of 2003, Ekaterina Makarova entered the top-50 juniors in doubles and singles.
2004 year. And towards the end of 2004, Katya got into the semifinals of the Orange Bowl, a prestigious junior category A tournament that takes place in America.
2005 was marked by a new victory: 17-year-old Ekaterina Makarova advanced to the quarterfinals of the competition in Wimbledon, leaving behind her Slovak colleague Jarmila Groth, and scored in the semifinals of the European Championship for juniors, beating the German Julia Görges. In the same year, together with her partner Alla Kudryavtseva, the tennis player received the title at the European Championship.
In 2006, the Muscovite put an end to her junior career in the rank of 20th racket in the world in the combined ranking. The first steps of Ekaterina Makarova in adult tennis were on the rise. In 2006, the athlete managed to win 4 competitions of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in the women's circle and complete the doubles season in the top 150 ranking.
2007 year. A year later, Makarova improved her results in the singles category - in Spanish Torrent she played in the quarterfinals. And in the summer, the Russian tennis player made it to the main tournament in the singles competition of the Women's Tennis Association in Los Angeles. In 2007, at the US Open, a Muscovite took part in the main competition of the Grand Slam tournament for the first time and reached the 3rd round.
The 2008 season for the Russian racket began in Australia: at the WTA competitions, she repeated the success of the Grand Slam. For the tournament in British Birmingham, the athlete was in the top 70 singles. In the same year, the tennis player twice made it to the finals of the WTA tournaments and reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals. 2008 ended for Katya on the 48th line of the singles rating and the 62nd - doubles, but most importantly, the Muscovite managed to win the Federation Cup.
At the end of the 2009-10 season, the Russian woman became the 60th racket in the world. In September, Makarova flashed at the US Open: she reached the semifinals, losing only to the Williams sisters. And in October, the tennis player made a rapid career breakthrough: she got to the final of the WTA tournament in Beijing. As a result, she became the 20th racket in the world. In the Grand Slam tournament, Catherine left behind all her rivals.
In 2011, the Russian woman climbed into the top 30, but later dropped into the top 60 of the singles ranking, failing to defend her previous gains. But the next year, the athlete successfully played tournaments in Miami and Madrid and returned to the top 40.
In 2013, Ekaterina Makarova took a place in the top 30, but due to problems with her arm, the autumn competitions had to be reduced to a minimum. The alliance of Makarova and Vesnina delighted coaches and tennis fans: the athletes reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, and won the Grand Slam tournament in the summer. Success allowed Ekaterina to enter the top 10 and occupy the 4th line of the classification in the summer.
2014 brought many victories to Ekaterina Makarova, which allowed her to take the 7th place in the doubles rating and 12th in the singles.
And in 2015, the results improved: the tennis player moved up to 3rd position in doubles and 11th among singles.
2016 was triumphant for Makarova: in tandem with Elena Vesnina, she won gold at the Rio Olympics and upon returning from the games received an award - the Order of Friendship.
In the 2018 season, Ekaterina Makarova participated in the Australian Open, where she performed in singles. Ekaterina lost in the first round to Romanian colleague Irina-Kamelia Begu, and in doubles in tandem with Vesnina reached the final. Russian tennis players lost to Hungarian Timia Babos and Frenchwoman Christina Mladenovic.
Personal life
The athlete is not married, but she has a boyfriend. Catherine keeps her personal life a secret, not wanting to share details with strangers. In the rare hours between competitions, Katya reads and watches films, meets with friends and cooks with pleasure. The athlete pampers her relatives with signature dishes - pizza and chocolate cake. Intensive training allows you to keep your figure slim: with a height of 1.8 m, Makarova weighs 58 kg.
The tennis player pleases subscribers of pages on Twitter and Instagram with fresh photos. The girl admits that she loves to dance and, with a familiar choreographer, hones the hip-hop and ladies dance technique. Katya says that if it were not for tennis, she would have become a dancer. Currently, according to Ekaterina Makarova herself, the tennis player is quite satisfied with her career and is not at all afraid of the vicissitudes of fate. Actually, she thinks about the game more willingly than about ratings and results. Ekaterina manages to combine her studies at a sports university with performances at large championships. Perhaps, at the end of her career, Makarova will engage in journalism, like her idol, Anastasia Myskina. It is also possible that after leaving the sport, Katerina will be able to find her new vocation in the niche of television, following the example of many other famous athletes, such as Yevgeny Kafelnikov or the host of her own program on NTV, Lyaysan Utyasheva.
Makarova has another very patriotic dream. She wants to travel all over Russia. And she has already achieved some success. So far, Altai has impressed the most from what he has seen. The first trip happened back in 2015.
