İpek Soylu (born 15 April 1996) is a Turkish former

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. In her career, Soylu won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, her biggest coming at the 2016 year-end Elite Trophy. She also won 12 singles and 18 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 October 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 151. On 17 April 2017, she peaked at No. 63 in the WTA doubles rankings. Her sole major title as a junior came in 2014, when she partnered Jil Teichmann of Switzerland to win the doubles title at the US Open. Playing for Turkey Fed Cup team, Soylu has accumulated a win–loss record of 13–10. She has been a member of the Enkaspor tennis team. Soylu who was coached by Erhan Oral announced her retirement from professional tennis September 2022.

Personal life and background

Soylu was born on 15 April 1996 in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and began playing tennis at the age of six. Her favorite shot is forehand, while her favourite surface is

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. Her favorite players were

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

and Li Na.

Career

2016: Elite Trophy doubles title

In 2016, Soylu won her first three WTA Tour titles, all in the doubles discipline, the biggest coming at the Elite Trophy in Zhuhai where she partnered with Xu Yifan. That year, she also won two other doubles titles, one on home soil at the İstanbul Cup and the other at the Tashkent Open, partnering Andreea Mitu and Raluca Olaru, respectively. That same year, she also made her Grand Slam main-draw debut, after qualifying for the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

. She drew wildcard Virginie Razzano in the first round and lost to the French veteran, in three sets.

2017

At Wimbledon, Soylu made her first match win at a Grand Slam championship, reaching the second round together with Varatchaya Wongteanchai in which they lost to Chan Hao-ching/ Monica Niculescu. In August at the US Open, Soylu lost in the first round to Carla Suárez Navarro.

Significant finals

WTA Elite Trophy

Doubles: 1 (title)

WTA Tour finals

Doubles: 3 (3 titles)

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 1 (runner–up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 21 (12 titles, 9 runner–ups)

Doubles: 29 (18 titles, 11 runner–ups)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' doubles: 1 (title)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soylu, Ipek 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Adana Turkish female tennis players Enkaspor tennis players US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Tennis players from Istanbul