Personal Life
Baltacha is a female tennis player from Scotland, having been raised in Perth. Born in Kiev, Baltacha moved with her family following a transfer of football clubs by her professional footballer father, Sergei. He represented the Soviet Union and played in the United Kingdom for Ipswich Town, St. Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Her mother Olga represented the Soviet Union in both the pentathlon and heptathlon at the Olympic Games. Her brother Sergei played football for St. Mirren and Millwall.
After arriving at Heathrow Airport on 13 January 1989, Baltacha moved to Ipswich where her father was to play football for the next year before moving to Perth where she grew up and spent her teenage years. At the age of 19 she was diagnosed with the liver condition primary sclerosing cholangitis and in June 2010 she became patron of the Children's Liver Disease Foundation.
Currently living in Ipswich, England, she trains at Culford School near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and Ipswich Sports Club, where she is coached by Nino Severino, a multi-sports specialist in mental and movement training who has also worked with Ipswich Town F.C. and in coaching martial arts athletes. Baltacha can also call on LTA's Head Coach of Women's Tennis Nigel Sears and LTA Coach Simon Walsh.
Read more about this topic: Elena Baltacha
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