Helen Kelesi (born 15 November 1969) is a former professional tennis player from Canada. She was coached by her father Milan Kelesi.

Career

"Hurricane Helen", as the Canadian press dubbed her for her fiery demeanour, achieved a career-high

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

of world No. 13 (November 1989), and was a regular fixture in the top 25 from 1986 to 1991. She won singles titles at two tour events, the 1986 Japan Open and the 1988 Citta de Taranto, and at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

, she was a quarterfinalist in 1988 (losing to Gabriela Sabatini) and 1989 (losing to Mary-Joe Fernandez). During her time on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

, Kelesi recorded wins over

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: four in singles, ...

, Conchita Martinez,

Jana Novotná Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbled ...

Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière Manuela Georgieva Maleeva ( bg, Мануела Георгиева Малеева; born 14 February 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour between 1982 and 1994. Through her marriage, Maleeva began re ...

Helena Suková Helena Suková () (born 23 February 1965) is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doub ...

and

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...

. Kelesi's game was characterized by aggressive baseline play, with a powerful top-spin forehand and two-handed backhand. She also retrieved well and could play defensively when needed. These skills meant that Kelesi was particularly good on clay and hardcourt surfaces. Kelesi was a Canadian

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

team member from 1986 to 1993. She was

Tennis Canada Tennis Canada is the national governing body of tennis within Canada. It works together with the provincial associations to organize tournaments and rules. They also oversee the Canada Davis Cup team and the Canada Fed Cup team. Tennis Canada w ...

Singles Player of the Year four times (1986, 1987, 1989, and 1990). Her professional career came to an end in 1995 when a brain tumour the size of a tennis ball was discovered following months of headaches, dizziness and vision problems. Numerous operations followed over the years. Kelesi successfully recovered and began coaching young children in Canada in the late 1990s. She also became a part-time tennis journalist and commentator.

WTA career finals

Singles: 9 (2 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Doubles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)

ITF finals

Singles (3–0)

Doubles (0–2)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelesi, Helen 1969 births Living people Canadian female tennis players Sportspeople from Victoria, British Columbia Racket sportspeople from British Columbia Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players of Canada 20th-century Canadian women