Maria Kirilenko

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko is a Russian former professional tennis player. A junior Grand Slam champion at the 2002 US Open at the age of 15, she went on to become a top-ten player in both singles and doubles. Kirilenko won six WTA Tour singles titles and 12 doubles titles. She was a three-time major singles quarterfinalist, a semifinalist at the 2012 London Olympics, and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 10, on 10 June 2013. In women's doubles, she became ranked as high as No. 5 in the world on 24 October 2011, and reached two major finals, at the 2011 Australian Open with Azarenka and the 2012 French Open with compatriot Nadia Petrova. Along with Petrova, Kirilenko won the 2012 WTA Tour Championships in doubles and was a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics.

Tennis career

Junior career

In 2002, Kirilenko won the junior tournaments at the Canadian Open and US Open.

Professional career

2003–2006

In 2002, Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She began moving up the rankings in 2004, but was set back by an injury. At the 2004 French Open, Kirilenko took the first set off Serena Williams before losing in three sets. She was the runner-up to Nicole Pratt at the Hyderabad Open.
At the end of 2005, she climbed back up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. On 12 June 2006, she broke into the world's top 20 for the first time. At the US Open, Kirilenko was seeded 20th and reached the third round, before losing to Aravane Rezaï.
Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the Fed Cup tournament in April 2006. In the World Group quarterfinal tie against Belgium, she lost her singles match against 2005 US Open champion Kim Clijsters, but partnering with Dinara Safina, won her doubles match against Justine Henin and Clijsters. However, Russia ended up losing, 2–3.

2007

In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, before being defeated by third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. She then competed in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she advanced to the second round, upsetting world No. 15 Shahar Pe'er of Israel, before being defeated by Ai Sugiyama. She then competed in the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she reached the second round, before losing in a close match to Daniela Hantuchová.
At the San Diego Open in California, Kirilenko upset second seeded Jelena Janković to advance to the quarterfinals, before losing to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva. At the Stanford Classic in Los Angeles, she upset sixth seed Marion Bartoli in straight sets before losing to eventual champion Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals.
Unseeded at the US Open, she defeated Martina Müller and 22nd seed Katarina Srebotnik. She then lost to unseeded Julia Vakulenko. After the US Open, she appeared in the Sunfeast Open. There, Kirilenko won her second WTA Tour singles title, defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva in straight sets. The next week at a tournament in Seoul, Kirilenko, as the fourth seed also reached the finals, but lost to top seed Venus Williams.

2008

At the Australian Open, Kirilenko reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, beating sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze. Her next opponent was Daniela Hantuchová, to whom she lost, 6–1, 4–6, 4–6, after leading 6–1, 3–1.
Kirilenko then reached the second round of a Tier-I event in Doha, beating Ekaterina Makarova, before losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues in three sets. Kirilenko then lost four matches in a row at Dubai, Bangalore, Indian Wells, and Miami. However, as the second seed, she reached the final of a Tier-IV event at Estoril, where she defeated Iveta Benešová in straight sets. She also won the doubles title there, partnering with Flavia Pennetta. Kirilenko also won in Barcelona, defeating Martinez-Sanchez for her fourth career title and the second of the year.
Kirilenko played at the Tier-III tournament in Cincinnati in August, where she was third seed. She reached the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Nadia Petrova. She partnered with Petrova as the second-seed doubles team and beat the top-seed pair of Hsieh Su-wei and Yaroslava Shvedova in the finals.

2009

Kirilenko was seeded 27th at the Australian Open, but lost to future top five player Sara Errani in the first round.
In the Dubai doubles tournament, Kirilenko partnered with Agnieszka Radwańska, and even though they were unseeded, they reached the final, eventually losing to Liezel Huber and Cara Black, the world No. 1 doubles pairing at that time.
At the 2009 French Open, Kirilenko was unseeded in the singles tournament, and lost to Olivia Rogowska of Australia in the first round. In the doubles tournament, Kirilenko and doubles partner Flavia Pennetta of Italy were seeded eighth. They made it to the third round, before losing to 11th seeded Anna-Lena Grönefeld of Germany and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.
Kirilenko was unseeded at Wimbledon and made it to the second round, losing to ninth seeded Caroline Wozniacki.
At the US Open, she made it to the third round, defeating her doubles partner Radwańska before losing to Li Na. She then competed in the Korea Open in Seoul, where she was the defending champion, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Kimiko Date-Krumm.

2010: First Grand Slam quarterfinal

Kirilenko began the year by competing in the Auckland Open, where she reached the quarterfinals but lost to Shahar Pe'er. With a ranking at that time of No. 58, Kirilenko was unseeded at the Australian Open, where in the first round she upset her friend, former doubles partner, 2008 champion and 14th seed Maria Sharapova, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4, in a 3-hour 22-minute marathon. It was the second-longest women's match in Australian Open history. She advanced to the quarterfinals, losing to Zheng Jie, who was also unseeded for this tournament. In the doubles portion, she and her partner, Agnieszka Radwańska, were seeded 15th and advanced to the semifinals, losing there to the world No. 1 pairing of Cara Black and Liezel Huber in three sets.
Kirilenko entered as 32nd seed at the Indian Wells Open, and made it to the third round, losing there to second seeded Caroline Wozniacki.
In Miami, she advanced as 32nd seed like Indian Wells to the third round, again losing to Wozniacki.
Kirilenko played in Rome at the Italian Open where she was unseeded. She lost in the quarterfinals to world No. 1, Serena Williams.
Kirilenko entered as 30th seed the French Open where she advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in her career, before losing to 17th seed and eventual champion Francesca Schiavone, having defeated defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova en route. In the doubles draw, Kirilenko and Radwańska were seeded 11th. They reached the quarterfinals, before losing to the eventual champions Serena and Venus Williams in straight sets.
At Wimbledon, she was 27th seed in the singles draw, and lost in the third round to eighth seed Kim Clijsters.
Kirilenko also paired up with Agnieszka Radwańska in the doubles draw, where they were seeded No. 10.
Kirilenko made the quarterfinals of the Stanford Classic in California, before losing to Radwańska. She entered in the doubles tournament with Victoria Azarenka, they ended in the semifinals.
She then reached the second rounds of Western & Southern Open and the Rogers Cup, losing to Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka, respectively. At the Pilot Pen Tennis, she reached the semifinals, losing to Nadia Petrova.
She reached the third round of the US Open losing to 11th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
She then reached the second rounds of Korea Open, losing to former world No. 1, Dinara Safina, and Pan Pacific Open, losing to Flavia Pennetta. At the last Premier-Mandatory event of the year, the China Open, she lost in the third round to eventual finalist and compatriot Vera Zvonareva. In the Japan Women's Open, she retired in the second round due to a hip injury against Chang Kai-chen, after losing the first set 4–6. Kirilenko reached the final of the Kremlin Cup where she fell to Victoria Azarenka.
Kirilenko ended the 2010 season ranked No. 20 in the world.

2011: Steady ranking

She competed at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic and won the Gold Group Championship with her compatriots Vera Zvonareva and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. At the Australian Open, she failed to defend her quarterfinal points by being knocked out in the second round. However, in the doubles competition, she reached the final, partnered with Victoria Azarenka, but lost to Pennetta and Dulko. She then fell early in the Pattaya Open and Dubai Tennis Championships. She then reached the third round of both Indian Wells Open and Miami Open losing to Agnieszka Radwańska on both occasions. She then suffered three losses in a row in the second round of Family Circle Cup, and the first rounds of Madrid Open and Italian Open. However, she won doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open with Victoria Azarenka. At the French Open, she reached the fourth round losing to Andrea Petkovic in three sets.
She then fell in the first round of Rosmalen Open to Kimiko Date-Krumm, However, she rebounded by reaching the third round of the Wimbledon Championships, eventually being stopped by the seventh-seeded Serena Williams. She then failed to win back-to-back matches falling in the second rounds of Stanford Classic, Southern California Open, first round of Rogers Cup, and the second rounds of Western & Southern Open. She then rebounded at the US Open, losing to eventual champion Samantha Stosur 2–6, 7–6^15–17, 3–6 in the fourth round. The second set tie-break score of 15–17 was the longest in any major in the history of women's tennis.
She reached her first semifinal of the year at the Guangzhou International Open, losing to Chanelle Scheepers 5–7, 7–5, 4–6. She then played at the Pan Pacific Open and the China Open, where she defeated Samantha Stosur in three sets in both occasions in the second round; she also fell in the quarterfinals on both events losing to Vera Zvonareva and Monica Niculescu, respectively. She played her last tournament of the year at the Luxembourg Open, where she had to withdraw in the second round due to an ankle injury.