Last Updated on December 26, 2022
The highest-ranked Estonian tennis player in WTA and ATP rankings in history, reaching No.2 on the WTA list is 26-year-old Anett Kontaveit.
Anett was born on Christmas Eve, 24th December 1995 in Tallinn, Estonia. The main reason she started playing tennis is her mother Ulle Milk who is a tennis coach and introduced her to the sport at the age of six. She remains her coach until Anett was eleven years old.
“She’s wanted to compete since she was little,” said her mother Ulle. “To be a winner, never to lose, whatever it takes. She’s loved all kinds of sports. She’s always done everything with great passion.”
She was very active kid; besides tennis she went to choir practice and folk dancing and took part in the Estonian Dance Festival. During her career she worked with several coaches, including Paul McNamee, Glenn Schaap, Nigel Sears and Dmitry Tursunov. She was also training in Istanbul at the KozaWOS Academy. Since June this year her coach is German Torben Beltz, former coach of Emma Raducanu and Angelique Kerber.
As a junior, in 2009 she won the Estonian Championships and became the youngest player to do so. Next year she defended the title. Also, she won 2011 Orange Bowl, played semi-finals at Junior Rolland Garros and Wimbledon and reached the final at US Open in 2012. At the ITF level, Anett won eleven singles titles and five doubles titles, the first of which she won in her hometown Tallinn in 2011. After few years, in 2014, she was diagnosed with mononucleosis and her season was cut short. She recovered successfully, and in 2017 she won her maiden WTA title at the grass-court Rosmalen Open in the Netherlands, which led her into World’s top 40 players. Anett had her best season so far in 2021, when she won Cleveland Open, Ostrava Open Kremlin Cup in Moscow and Transylvania Open, and entered in top 10 players in the World.
“I’ve really started to enjoy playing tennis, even the tough times,” she said in an interview. “Even the close matches, the tough scores, I feel like I’m looking at it as a challenge. That’s what I’m most happy about because I don’t remember enjoying playing tennis this much for a while.”
During 2022 she won only one WTA title at St. Petersburg Open and after contracting Covid-19 in May, she had fitness struggles and breathing issues, which kept her from achieving better results. In October, she announced, she was ending her 2022 season due to a back injury. Her best WTA ranking so far is World No.2 and currently is ranked as No.17.
She is very popular in her country and away from the tennis court she enjoys seeing friends, pottery, shopping, visiting art galleries and playing with her dog, Labrador Retriever called Milo. Her tennis idols are Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Roger Federer.
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Who Is Anett Kontaveit’s Boyfriend?
Brent Lepitsu
Anett has never publicly released any information regarding her relationship status and has not mentioned any romantic partner, until June this year when on her Instagram profile she showed a tattooed male hand in one of the photos from her vacation in San Tropez and gave us a hint about her boyfriend. For several months now, she is dating Estonian soccer player, Brent Lepitsu.
Brent Lepitsu was born on 26th March 1993 in Tallinn, Estonia. He started playing football as a little kid and came through the football club Flora Tallin youth system. He began his youth career in 2009 with the Estonia Under-17 National Team and that same year he moved to the football club Warrior on a loan, where he played in the lower football leagues to gain some experience.
After a few years, in May 2013 he made his debut in the premier league of Estonia, Meistriliga, playing for his home club Flora Tallin. Two years later he won his first Meistriliga title, in 2017 was named club captain and led his team to another championship title, Brent’s second. Great results in the domestic league and his excellent performance brought him an international transfer. He signed two years contract with the Norwegian Elitserien football club Kristiansund. He also played for a half season for Finnish Veikkausliga football club Lahti, before returning to the domestic league in 2020 when he joined FC Levadia Tallinn and won another Estonian Championship title in 2021. According to the Transfermarkt his current market value is 225K euros.
Anett recently started posting their photos together and give us a glimpse into their lives from time to time. The couple in November attended an Estonian Tennis Association awards ceremony as Anett went to pick up her Player of the Year award. Brent shared a photo from the event on Instagram, praising his successful girlfriend with the comment: “She stole the show”. Few weeks ago, they were enjoying her off-season and the pause in Estonian Football Championship on the island of Bali.
They are very popular in their homeland and their fans are downright delighted about their relationship. She currently resides in Viimsi, a small borough in Harju County, about 9 km northeast of the capital Tallinn where Brent lives. They still haven’t announced living together but of course, the time is theirs to create memories.
