Ksenia Efremova

Ksenia Efremova (born 28 April 2009) is a French tennis player.

Early and personal life
Ksenia Efremova was born in Moscow, Russia in 2009, she is the daughter of former professional tennis player Julia Efremova and former amateur player Alexey Efremov. She started playing tennis at three years-old and was coached by her mother. Her family, including her brothers Alexei and Vladimir, moved from Russia to near Nice in Alpes-Maritimes in 2019.

Since the end of 2019, Efremova trained daily at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in the South of France under coach Pierre Debrosse and the supervision of her mother. Efremova's father never lived in France, but visited his family several times on the French Riviera before his death from cancer in Germany in 2021.

The family began the application for naturalization in early 2021, and by September 2023, Efremova, along with her mother and her two brothers, became French nationals.

2021–2023: Junior career
Efremova was in the spotlight from an early age as a "tennis prodigy". By the age of 11-years-old, she was competing in the 14-year-old age group. On 3 December 2021, just six days after her father passed away, Efremova won a final in Sweden and dedicated the title to him. In February 2022, Efremova won the Tim Essonne event after beating Marta Mariia Makarova in the final. Efremova then leapfrogged to the ITF Juniors under-18 circuit, where she won five titles in categories grade 4 and 5, the first of which just nine days after celebrating her 13th birthday in April. Efremova first came to the tennis world's attention in October 2022, when she won the season-ending Tennis Europe Masters in the under-14 category in Monte-Carlo. It was her sixth title of the season on the U14 Tennis Europe circuit.

In January 2023, Efremova reached the final of the Petits As in Tarbes, the world's leading indoor U14 competition, which she lost to Anna Pushkareva. In February, Efremova defended her Tim Essonne title by beating Sara Oliveriusova in the final. In March, she reached the final of a U16 tournament in Torelló despite still being one month away from her 14th birthday, and although she narrowly lost it, Efremova did win the doubles events with Adelina Lachinova. In 2023, Efremova won two Tennis Europe Super Category events, the first in Maia in May, and the second in Düren in August.

2023–2024: Start of professional career
In November 2023, the 14-year-old Efremova won her first WTA point after coming through qualifying at an ITF event in Monastir, and beating Camilla Zanolini, and the third seed Yidi Yang en route to the quarterfinals. The following month she won her first ITF title, defeating German Selina Dal in the final, in Monastir. Even though it was only her second main draw at professional events, Efremova won the title without losing a set in the tournament. At 14 years, 8 months, and 3 days she became the youngest player to win an ITF tournament since Sesil Karatantcheva (14 years, 4 months, 6 days) in 2003.

On 8 January 2024, she appeared in the WTA rankings for the first time at 1105th. These results led to Efremova being given a wildcard from the Australian Tennis Federation for the Australian Open Juniors, where she defeated three opponents in straight sets, including the No. 5 seed Tereza Valentová in the first round, before losing in the quarterfinals to the top seed Renáta Jamrichová.