Alyona Bondarenko

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Alyona Bondarenko (born August 13, 1984) is a Ukrainian tennis player. In 2005, she made her grand slam debut at the Australian Open, where she suffered a first round loss to sixth seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6-3 6-3. Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA tour quarterfinal at Pattaya City, Thailand, where she lost to eventual runner-up, Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, in straight sets.

The following week at Hyderabad, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza, in three tight sets. Following her loss, she made her first appearance in the women's top 100 rankings. The rest of 2005 saw many more successes for the Ukrainian. She made numerous appearances in top WTA tour events, including making the third-round of Wimbledon, defeating Tatiana Golovin of France on the way. She also made the quarter-finals of a Tier III event in Bali.

2006 has seen Bondarenko's rise up into the top 100 and closing in on the top 50. She has reached three quarter-final appearances at Hobart, Bangalore and Prague respectively, and a semifinal at Rabat. She has also won an ITF title at Orange in California. Her success in doubles is also growing with her first WTA tour doubles title at Istanbul partnering Anastasia Yakimova.

Bondarenko won her first WTA tour singles title on October 1, 2006 at the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg City, defeating Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-3 in the first round and No. 5 seed Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2. As a result, she leaped up to a career high of No.33.