Zarina Diyas
Zarina Diyas is a Kazakh professional tennis player. She has reached a career-high of world No. 31 in the singles rankings by the WTA. Diyas has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the Japan Open, along with 12 singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
Diyas mostly played on the ITF Circuit until 2014, her breakthrough season. Having started the year outside the top 150, she progressed into the top 40 by September, allowing her to enter tournaments on the WTA Tour more consistently, although she still plays ITF tournaments. She is one of the most successful female tennis players representing Kazakhstan, along with Elena Rybakina and Yulia Putintseva.
Diyas became a member of the Kazakhstan Fed Cup team in 2011 and has played for 10 years, second only to Yulia Putintseva.
Early life
Zarina Diyas was born on 18 October 1993 in Almaty. Her mother is Aida Aulbekova, and she has a sister named Alissa. During her childhood, Diyas spent many years in the Czech Republic, having moved there with her mother and sister when she was five years old. Her mother introduced her to tennis at age six. Around 2010, she played as a member of a tennis club in Prague. She had a chance to acquire Czech citizenship but decided to continue playing for Kazakhstan. She lived in the Czech Republic until she was 12 years old, before moving to Guangzhou, China for much of her tennis training. She later started studying psychology at university, remotely.Junior career
Diyas reached a career-high ranking of No. 17 as a junior. She began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in January 2007 at the age of 13. In July of that same year, she won a low-level Grade-4 title at the Safina Cup in the singles event, defeating Petra Krejsová in the final. She made her doubles debut at the same tournament, losing in the second round alongside Yuliana Umanets. She then continued to have good performances, reaching one semi-final and one final by the end of the year. The next year, she started with a strong result, winning the Grade 1 tournament Czech International Junior Indoor Championships, at her first event of the year. In March 2008, she won her first doubles title at Grade 2 level Luxembourg Indoor Junior Open, partnering with Ksenia Lykina.In June 2008, she made her debut at the French Open, recording her first match-win at a Grand Slam tournament over Irina-Camelia Begu, before she was defeated by Lykina in the second round. She also made her doubles major debut there, losing in the first round. Diyas then reached the second round at Wimbledon. On her debut at the 2008 US Open and the 2009 Australian Open, she was eliminated in the first round. In June 2009, she played the French Open, her final junior tournament in both singles and doubles, where she reached the third round in singles, and lost in the first round in doubles.
Professional career
2007–09: First steps
Diyas began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2007 at the age of 14. Her first attempt to play in a main draw of a professional tournament was at a $100k event in Bratislava, where she lost in the first round of qualifying. In April 2008, she received a wildcard for playing in qualification at the Prague Open but failed to qualify after a first-round loss to Klaudia Jans. She then made her main-draw debut at the $25k event in Astana where she also won her first title.At her first two appearances in 2009, she reached a quarterfinal before winning another ITF title at the $25k event in Stuttgart. She then made her WTA Tour singles debut at Prague as a wildcard player, where she marked her first WTA Tour win and first quarterfinal. She defeated qualifier Kristina Mladenovic and sixth seed Petra Kvitová but later was eliminated by third-seeded Iveta Benešová. The year of 2009 was important for Diyas, as she made her first appearance at a major tournament in qualifying at the US Open, although she lost to Chang Kai-chen in the first round of qualifying.
2010: First top 10 win, top 200
In 2010, she continued to rise up the rankings, debuting in the top 200 in July. Following mixed results for the first half of the year, she reached the final at the $25k event in Rome, losing to Patricia Mayr-Achleitner. In October 2010, she left a mark at the Premier-level Kremlin Cup in Moscow qualifying into the main draw and defeating world No. 49, Gisela Dulko, in the first round. In the second round, she achieved the biggest win of her career by defeating top seed and world No. 7, Jelena Janković, before losing by wide margin to Maria Kirilenko in the quarterfinal match.2011–12: Fall in rankings, shoulder surgery
During 2011, Diyas had mostly modest results, and did not progress significantly. Her most notable finish was a final at the $25k Kunming event which she lost to Iryna Brémond. She then reached semifinals at the $50k event in Wenshan but did not advance to another quarterfinal for the remainder of the year. On the WTA Tour, she won only one match, defeating Sun Shengnan in the first round of the Guangzhou International Open; before losing in the following round to Petra Martić.In late 2011, Diyas underwent shoulder surgery and did not play tennis for the next seven months, causing her to fall in the rankings to outside the top 300. In May of the following year, she made her return on the ITF Circuit at the Kangaroo Cup where she failed to qualify for the main draw. A month later, she won her third ITF title at the $25k event in Bukhara, without dropping a set during the entire tournament. Later that year, she was advanced to the final of a $25k event in Taipei, where she lost to Zheng Saisai. The next week, she participated in a new WTA Challenger event, also in Taipei. In the first round, she defeated the world No. 40 and top seed, Peng Shuai, in straight sets. Then, in the following round, she recorded a lopsided win over Varatchaya Wongteanchai, losing just one game. However, in the following round, she lost to Kurumi Nara, marking her last quarterfinal of the season.
2013: Back in the top 200
Diyas started season primarily playing in qualifying draws for WTA tournaments. She began the year ranked world No. 264 and finished more than 100 spots higher. In February, she recorded her first win on the WTA Tour in 2013, prevailing over Kristýna Plíšková in the first round of the Malaysian Open. In the second round, she was eliminated by Ashleigh Barty. She then returned to the ITF Circuit, achieving mostly modest results. Her only ITF title of the year came in October at the $25k event in Makinohara, where she defeated rising Swiss junior and future top-ten player Belinda Bencic to clinch victory. She then advanced to another ITF Circuit final at the Caesar & Imperial Cup in Taipei but lost to Paula Kania in straight sets.2014: Breakthrough and top 50
The 2014 season was Diyas's breakthrough year. First, she played at the $25k event in Hong Kong, reaching the final, in which she lost to Elizaveta Kulichkova. Then, she entered Australian Open qualifying, registering a close three-set win over Aleksandra Krunić in the first round. She then defeated Andreea Mitu, and Canadian Stéphanie Dubois, resulting in her first Grand Slam championship main-draw entry. In the first round, she then beat fellow qualifier Kateřina Siniaková, before she breezed past world No. 52, Marina Erakovic, to book her place in the third round, where she was defeated by world No. 11, Simona Halep, in straight sets. Nevertheless, her two early-round wins helped boost her ranking to a then-career-high No. 112. Following the Australian Open, Diyas lost qualifying matches at the Pattaya Open and the Qatar Ladies Open, before bouncing back to win a $50k event in Quanzhou.She then traveled to the United States to compete at the Miami Open, qualifying for the main draw and getting past Alexandra Cadanțu in the first round before losing to Sloane Stephens in the second round. Although she failed to qualify for the Charleston Open, she played at the Malaysian Open and advanced to the quarterfinals – her first WTA Tour quarterfinal since the 2010 Kremlin Cup. Diyas then went to Europe but lost early in the first two tournaments contested. At Strasbourg, she returned to form with a first-round win over world No. 22, Kirsten Flipkens. She followed it up by dispatching Ajla Tomljanović before having to retire in her quarterfinal match against Christina McHale during the second set. Holding a world ranking of No. 86, Diyas was granted a spot in the main draw of the French Open but a difficult draw saw her knocked out by fourth seed Petra Kvitová in the first round. At the ITF grass-court tournament Nottingham Trophy, she advanced to the final but was narrowly beaten by Kristýna Plíšková. She played one more grass-court event at the before entering Wimbledon, at the Birmingham Classic, where she was eliminated by CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round. She record her first ever Wimbledon victory by defeating Kristina Mladenovic in a rain-delayed straight-sets match. Diyas then recorded three-set wins against 15th seed Carla Suárez Navarro and 2010 Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva, before losing in straight sets to third seed Simona Halep in the fourth round.
In late July, she returned to the United States to compete at the Washington Open, where she reached the second round. Then, at the Cincinnati Open, she advanced to another second round, losing there to Lucie Šafářová.
Then, in her best result at the US Open to date, the unseeded Diyas advanced to the women's singles third round where she lost in straight sets to 17th seed Ekaterina Makarova, earning $105,090. There, she also played in the doubles event, where reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal alongside Xu Yifan.
In Asia, she reached the second round of the Wuhan Open and the China Open, losing to Angelique Kerber in both matches. After that, Diyas reached her first WTA Tour final at the Japan Women's Open where she lost to Samantha Stosur in straight sets. Her results helped her rise into the top 50, and she finished year as world No. 34.