Maria Kirilenko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Kirilenko striking a backhand at the 2006 US Open |
||
| Country |  Russia |
|
| Residence | Moscow, Russia | |
| Date of birth | January 25, 1987 (age 20) | |
| Place of birth | Moscow, Russia | |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | |
| Weight | 57.6 kg (127 lb) | |
| Turned Pro | 2001 | |
| Retired | Active | |
| Plays | Right | |
| Career Prize Money | $1,158,085 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 139-95 | |
| Career titles: | 1 (2 ITF Circuit titles) | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 20 (June 12, 2006) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 3r (2006-07) | |
| French Open | 3r (2006) | |
| Wimbledon | 2r (2005) | |
| U.S. Open | 3r (2003, 2006) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 73-56 | |
| Career titles: | 3 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 21 (February 6, 2006) | |
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко; born January 25, 1987 in Moscow) is a Russian professional tennis player. She won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-4 in the China Open. She is a good friend of Maria Sharapova. She is affectionately called Makiri.
Maria Kirilenko won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian Open, as well as the 2002 US Open junior tournament. In December 2004 she played in a tennis exhibition in Tampa, Florida to raise money for the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.
In 2006, she was selected to be the face of the adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range, designed by noted British fashion designer Stella McCartney, which saw her playing in adidas clothing and footwear designed by Stella McCartney at all upcoming tournaments, starting with the 2006 Australian Open.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Tennis career
Maria Kirilenko started showing a passion towards tennis aged 5, but it was difficult to get the practice in while she attending school but hours of fierce training started to pay off as she won several tournaments.
When Kirilenko was twelve years old, an Honored Master of sports, Elena Brioukhovets, saw her while training. All the next year Elena watched Maria making progress and then offered her to work together. A three-year program was made and a special team was selected. In less than three years Maria became the number one in her age group and the number two in the group under eighteen. The well-known tennis-players Yevgeni Kafelnikov, Andrei Olhovskiy and Max Mirnyi, who had created an organization supporting young tennis-players, helped Kirilenko to arrange her training-process and to attend tournaments.
In 2002 Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the Canadian Open and the US Open Junior Tournaments.
Since September 2002 Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She made a lot of progress in WTA events but was setback by injury in 2004 and dropped down the rankings, whilst missing out on valuable experience. At the end of 2005 she had climbed right up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. She has been recognised as one of the up and coming players of 2006 and, despite being off her best form during the Summer, she has broken into the top 20 for the first time on June 12th, 2006.
Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the nation-based Fed Cup tournament on 22/23 April 2006 on the World Group Quarter-Final tie against Belgium. Maria lost a singles rubber against '05 US Open champion Kim Clijsters and won her doubles rubber against multiple major champion Justine Henin-Hardenne and the same Kim Clijsters partnering Dinara Safina. Russia ended up losing 3-2.
At the 2006 US Open, Kirilenko received the 20th seed of the tournament and reached the 3rd Round, eventually being defeated by Aravane Rezai.
In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the 2007 Australian Open, before being defeated by third-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, immediately after which she competed in the 2007 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she advanced to the second round upsetting #15 Shahar Peer of Israel, before being defeated by Ai Sugiyama. She then competed in the Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, where she reached the second round, before losing in a close match to Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 4-6 6-7 (4/7).[2]
[edit] WTA Tour titles (4)
| Legend |
| Grand Slam (0) |
| WTA Championships (0) |
| Tier I (0) |
| Tier II (1) |
| Tier III (0) |
| Tier IV-V (0) |
[edit] Singles (1)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent in the final | Score |
| 1. | September 5, 2005 | Bejing, P.R. China | Hard |  Anna-Lena Grönefeld |
6-3 6-4 |
[edit] Doubles (3)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponent in the final | Score |
| 1. | June 13, 2004 | Birmingham, Great Britain | Grass | Maria Sharapova |
 Lisa McShea Milagros Sequera |
6-2 6-1 |
| 2. | October 9, 2005 | Tokyo, Japan | Hard |  Gisela Dulko |
 Shinobu Asagoe Maria Vento-Kabchi |
7-5 4-6 6-3 |
| 3. | March 3, 2007 | Doha, Qatar | Hard |  Martina Hingis |
 Agnes Szavay Vladimira Uhlirova |
6-1 6-1 |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official website
- WTA Tour profile for Maria Kirilenko
