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A long, lean, lanky figure on the practice lanes of the Mubadala Citi DC opened our attention a few weeks ago – as if we had gone a few years ago in time and no time had passed.
Just like Galina Voskoboeva, a Russian player who reached a career high in Singles van No. 42 and no. 26 in double. But who had been from the schedule for a number of years.
Now 40, the last singles match of Voskoboeva will return to the (now detached) Bronx Open, just before the US Open 2019.
And her last double match was on the US Open 2021.
But it was indeed. And she’s back!
We caught up with her on the site in DC, and also after an exercise in Montreal a week or so later, to get some Intel why she’s back (It’s so nice to just be able to … go to a player and talk to them, without making an appointment for a two -minute conversation with a less one week in advance, or completely reject. But we wander …)
Voskoboeva, who has always been very active on Instagram and has pictures of himself with almost … everyone … everyone wanted to try not only to challenge herself when she hit her 40th birthday, but also so that her children might get the chance to see her play. She has a protected ranking of No. 37 in Doubles.
Voskoboeva has two young: Leonid, almost 3 1/2 and Maria, who is one and a half years old.
Her first game back in DC, with the 23-year-old partner Kamilla Rakhimova, was a tough question against the solid team of Caroline Dolehide and Sofia Kenin. They have acquitted themselves well, with 7-5, 6-3.
She had a babysitter with the children in DC and was happy that the young Leonid “almost made it throughout the game”. (It was … hot).
On to Montreal, without the entourage.
Here she is practicing before the start of the doubles event.
Again together with Rakhimova, Voskoboeva, the first victory of her comeback placed in the first round, while defeating Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi 6-2, 6-4. They came back from a break in the second set to do it.
This is how that looked like.
Then they came across Kenin and Dolehide again and went out 6-3, 6-4.
It is pretty random, but Voskoboeva actually lives in Cincinnati, the site of the WTA 1000 this week.
She plays late today with the Japanese player Miyu Kato, against Guo Hanyu and Alexandra Panova on the new champion court.
Although it is not as if she has been a stranger in recent years. It is clear that she still lives even after all these years and tennis breathes. And she knows … everyone.
Voskoboeva was a top five player in the juniors. And she became completely pro in 2002.
It was a good career, but it was pierced by a number of long injuries.
In 2010. She had a long absence after shoulder surgery. She missed almost two years – from Indian Wells in 2014 to the beginning of 2016, after several stress fractures in her foot and surgery.
She was again from the US Open 2019 to Wimbledon in 2021 – there was a finger injury, a hamstring injury and a sports hernia. She was still undergoing surgery in November.
But she only played open until the US; New married, she was already pregnant with Leon.
Long before players such as Elena Rybakina, Yulia Putintseva and Alexander Bublik took the route to Kazakhstan for better opportunities, Voskoboeva did the same. But that was completely back in 2008.
However, she is still very Russian – going home regularly and feeling the stiffening and arrows on her social media since her country invaded Ukraine.
Voskoboeva was also one of the few players on the WTA tour, years ago, to have a female coach. As we wrote in 2012, it was far from the first time she had a woman who coached her and she was very at ease.
(Looking back on this story, there are quotes from Victoria Mboko coach Nathalie Tauziat, who led the young genius Bouchard to the Junior Wimbledon title).
How did a Russian Kazakh become in Cincinnati? Well, that’s a story.
As she tells it, she was on a little Jet from Cincinnati to New York, went to the US Open in 2019 after losing in the first round.
Sometimes fate holds a hand. Even through the pandemic they found a way.
Her husband, Jonathan Gully, is a doctor for general practitioner medicine in Cincinnati. He is also very long. We expect those children to shoot.
They married in April 2021 and a year later Leonid welcomed. And then a few years later, little Maria.
The future is a bit complicated, Voskoboeva said. The greatest is that there is no high -quality level of practice partners in Cincinnati to train seriously. And moving time periods to a place like Florida is all the more complex a decision when you bring two small children. It’s not like you want to hang Miami.
So she works on solutions.
In the meantime, she will enjoy this Cincinnati experience, where the new community of friends she has made in recent years can see her thing doing her thing.
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