Elena Alekseyevna Makarova (Russian: Елена Алексеевна Макарова,[1]listenⓘ, born 1 February 1973), is a former Russian professional tennis player.[2]
Makarova played in the WTA Tour from 1991 to 1999.[3] Her peak performances were in 1995, when she was ranked world No. 36 in doubles, and in 1996, when she was ranked No. 43 in singles.
In 2011, she coached Russian tennis player Margarita Gasparyan.[1]
In Russia, despite her modest popularity as a top-50 player, Makarova is well-known for providing her explanation for the issue of LGBT-athletes being more common among female tennis players than on the ATP Tour (while the most popular example was Toomas Leius according to the locally popular 1993 short story Fugue with [Male] Tennis Player by Mikhail Veller).[4] She said the following: “When you get tired after a match or training, you no longer want to dress up or go to a party. Therefore, some tennis players solve the problem of sex [absence] by means of "lesser bloodshed" [local idiom which means "easy" in a dual meaning: the simpler the better or silly][5] — with each other. Besides, you can't afford to take your beloved man with you — he has to work himself". The last part has been clarified to mean that "most female tennis players cannot afford traveling with their beloved man financially".[6][7][8]
^ ab"МАКАРОВА Елена Алексеевна". Энциклопедия «Российский теннис». Федерация тенниса России. Archived from the original on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
"О том, что хуже воровства" [About that which is worse than stealing]. pro-expert.ru. Expert. 28 January 2002. Retrieved 4 January 2022. In fact, these three words mean that simplicity is stupidity, insanity is worse than almost anything. It's not just that, according to [Vladimir] Dal, "stupidity will be worse than a thief". The reason is always more terrible than the effect, and theft, that is, violation of human and divine laws, is usually a direct consequence of simplicity (Given the prevalence of the phenomenon under discussion, let me remind you that V.I. Dal not only distinguishes but also opposes the simplicity (directness) of the heart and simplicity (emptiness) of the mind). What is murder, or the same robbery, if not a disgustingly simple solution to a problem?
"Теннисные гомосексуалы" [Tennis Homosexuals]. tennis-i.com (in Russian). Alexander Ivanitsky Tennis Encyclopedia. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
^Hone, Michael (13 January 2016). Boarding School Homosexuality: From Plato's Academy to the Princeton Rub. ISBN978-1523368297.
Notes:1 = switched from Kazakhstan; 2 = juniors' circuit player awarded before the existence of the Juniors nomination, 3 = wheelchair, 4 = postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia