İpek Soylu

İpek Soylu (born 15 April 1996) is a Turkish former tennis player. 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. She won a major junior title in 2014 with Jil Teichmann in doubles at the US Open.

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.

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 announced her retirement from professional tennis September 2022.

Personal life and background Soylu was born on 15 April 1996 in Istanbul and began playing tennis at the age of six. Her favorite shot is forehand, while her favourite surface is clay. Her favorite players were Roger Federer 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. 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) ResultYearLocationSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 2016 Zhuhai, China Hard (i) Xu Yifan Yang Zhaoxuan You Xiaodi 6–4, 3–6, [10–7]

WTA Tour finals Doubles: 3 (3 titles) LegendWTA Elite Trophy (1–0)Premier M & Premier 5PremierInternational (2–0)Finals by surfaceHard (2–0)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–0) ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 İstanbul Cup, Turkey International Clay Andreea Mitu Xenia Knoll Danka Kovinić w/oWin 2–0 Tashkent Open, Uzbekistan International Hard Raluca Olaru Demi Schuurs Renata Voráčová 7–5, 6–3Win 3–0 WTA Elite Trophy, ZhuhaiElite Hard (i) Xu Yifan Yang Zhaoxuan You Xiaodi 6–4, 3–6, [10–7]

WTA Challenger finals Doubles: 1 (runner–up) ResultW–LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 0–1 Bol Open, Croatia Clay Raluca Olaru Xenia Knoll Petra Martić 3–6, 2–6

ITF Circuit finals Legend$75,000 tournaments$50/60,000 tournaments$25,000 tournaments$10/15,000 tournaments

Singles: 21 (12 titles, 9 runner–ups)

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

Junior Grand Slam finals Girls' doubles: 1 (title) ResultYearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 2014 US Open Hard Jil Teichmann Vera Lapko Tereza Mihalíková 5–7, 6–2, [10–7]