Anastasia Potapova is considered one of the most promising young tennis players to date. She was unstoppable in junior tournaments, where she easily beat peers from around the world, but now she will face new challenges in battles with the strongest girls on the planet.
Play style
Tennis player Anastasia Potapova, whose height is 173 cm and weight is 57 kg, is a typical representative of the "Russian school", which provides for an aggressive, attacking style of play. She is just starting to play at an adult level, but now she prefers a very specific game style.
Long draws of the ball, ingenious combinations - all this does not appeal to Nastya, who uses powerful punches and short draws. Experienced rivals are able to find an antidote against this by forcing a game on the back line with long ball control and slowing down. However, the trainer Anastasia Potapova, together with her student, is carefully working on improving the athlete’s tactical arsenal - shortened balls, candles, and cuts.
It is completely logical that in this manner of playing, Anastasia is better suited for fast coverings such as hard. Nevertheless, in juniors, she unexpectedly often won many tournaments on the ground, due to the tactical immaturity of most of her rivals.
Saratov Nugget
Anastasia Potapova was born in Saratov in 2001. The girl grew up in a very athletic family, her mother was a candidate for master of sports in volleyball, her grandmother worked as a basketball coach, and in her youth she played for the university team in the city. It would be logical to assume that with such roots and brilliant natural physical data, she would follow in the footsteps of her elders and make an excellent career in basketball or volleyball.
Nevertheless, for Nastya, they decided to pick up an individual sport and determined it in the tennis section. The first coach of Potapova was Oksana Kuzmina, who worked with her until the age of seven. Nastya grew up early, physically surpassing her peers by a head, and easily coped with her rivals in her native city.
At nine years old, she won her first children's tournament in neighboring Volgograd, after which she decided for herself that she would certainly become a professional tennis player. A promising girl moved to the group to Irina Doronina, who began to seriously prepare Nastya for big tournaments. She still works with the girl, and she is going to continue this cooperation as long as possible.
From Saratov to Moscow
An important role in the sports biography of Anastasia Potapova was played by Moscow businessman and philanthropist Alexander Ostrovsky. It's no secret that tennis is quite an expensive pleasure, you need starting investments in a young promising player to travel around the world, participating in tournaments and earning rating points. Parents of Anastasia could not afford such costs, but a happy accident intervened in the matter.
In 2013, Anastasia Potapova came to Moscow to participate in the children's tournament Tennis Europe 3 O1 Properties Khimki Junior Open. She brilliantly won all matches against the capital's peers, having won a prestigious title.
Businessman Alexander Ostrovsky was so impressed with the level of the provincial tennis "star" that he invited Anastasia to move to Moscow for permanent residence, where she could study at his tennis academy in full support for free. He even took over the move of the girl’s entire family and agreed that Irina Doronina should continue to work with her, having grown from her a potential first racket of the world.
Golden Girl
Anastasia Potapova decided to justify the advances given to her as quickly as possible and began to crush all her rivals in youth tournaments to twelve and fourteen.
It is especially worth noting the victory at the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl tournament in the USA in 2014, which traditionally brings together the most promising young tennis players from around the world. In the tournament finale, she beat the Canadian athlete Bianca Andreescu, without spending a lot of effort.
In the same year, Anastasia Potapova won another American tournament - Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships, where she prevailed over court hostess Katie McNelly in a difficult three-set match. Since then, she confidently climbed to the first position in the rating up to 14 years and firmly held the lead.
The following year, Nastya confirmed her leadership status by winning the prestigious Tennis Europe O1 Properties Christmas Cup and LES PETITS AS Tarbes tournaments. After this, it was time to try our hand among the senior juniors - girls on the verge of adulthood.
Among senior juniors
In the 2015/2016 season, Anastasia Potapova begins to try herself in tournaments of the U18 age category. A native of Saratov whirlwind broke into the society of senior juniors, hitting everyone with the exit to the semifinals of the youth Open Championship of France.
In July 2016, she won the prestigious Nike Junior International Roehampton 1st category tournament. However, the main exploits awaited Anastasia on the grass courts of England. The Russian woman easily figured out all her rivals, many of whom were 3-4 years older than her, and reached the final, where Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremskaya was waiting for her. She could not provide the Russian girl with decent resistance and lost in two sets, falling under the pressure of Nastya's terrible innings.
Transition to an adult level
In 2017, Anastasia Potapova begins to take part in adult tournaments. In March, she received her first ITF title, winning a small tournament in Brazil, defeating American Amanda Anisimova in the final.
The rating of Anastasia Potapova reached a maximum mark in July 2017, when she climbed to 254th position. This was made possible thanks to a successful performance at the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon, where the debutant was able to overcome the qualifications and enter the first round of the draw.