Tsvetana Pironkova

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**Tszvetana Pironkova**

Country	Bulgaria
Residence	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Date of birth	September 13, 1987
Place of birth	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	65 kg (140 lb)
Turned Pro	2002
Retired	Still Playing
Plays	Right; two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$459,051
Singles
Career record:	197-91
Career titles:	0 WTA, 6 ITF
Highest ranking:	40 (June 9, 2008)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2r (2006, 2008)
French Open	2r (2006, 2008)
Wimbledon	2r (2006)
US Open	2r (2007)
Doubles
Career record:	2–4
Career titles:	0 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking:	183 (January 29, 2007)
Infobox last updated on: May 26, 2008.

Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgarian: Цветана Кирилова Пиронкова) (born 13 September 1987) is a female Bulgarian tennis player. She was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and resides there. Pironkova is right-handed and plays with a two-handed backhand.

Pironkova started playing tennis at the age of 4 when her father, Kiril Pironkov, introduced her to the game. At the age of six, she started playing in junior tournaments in Bulgaria.

In August 2002 at the age of 14, Pironkova played her first professional tournament at the $10,000 International Tennis Federation Tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Pironkova won 3 qualifying matches before reaching the final in the main draw, where she lost to Monica Niculescu of Romania, 6–1 7–6(1).

In September 2002, Pironkova played in the $10,000 ITF event in Volos, Greece, where she lost only one set playing through the qualifying and main draw. She defeated Tina Schmassmann of Switzerland 7–6(3) 7–5 to win her first professional ITF event.

On the week of May 14 - May 21, 2005, at the age of 17, Pironkova played in her first WTA level tournament. This was the Tier III event in Istanbul, Turkey. After winning two qualifying matches, Pironkova won three matches in the main draw before she lost in the semi-finals to Venus Williams.

In 2006, Pironkova made headlines by defeating tenth-seed Venus Williams in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open by a score of 2–6, 6–0, 9–7. Pironkova was ranked 94th in the world [1].

On November 16, 2006, Pironkova reached her career high singles ranking of 62.

In 2007, Pironkova lost in the first rounds of the Australian Open, French Open, and at Wimbledon, she played in the qualifications of the US Open, She qualified by beating Zuzana Ondraskova, Marta Domachowska, and Stephanie Dubois. In the Main draw she was drawn to play Olga Poutchkova from Russia, Pironkova won that match 6–3 6–4 to set up a clash with world number 1, Justine Henin in the second round. Pironkova lost to Henin in straight sets 6–4 6–0.

After the US Open in September 2007, Pironkova played in one of the biggest challenger events of the year in Bordeaux. Pironkova beat Mathilde Johansson, Tatjana Malek and Alize Cornet all in staight sets to win the biggest title of her career. The win put her singles ranking back into the top 80 for the 1st time in several months.

Pironkova made a solid start to 2008, winning 2 qualifying matches at the Tier II event in Sydney before bowing out in 3 tight sets to Dominika Cibulkova. At the Australian Open, the 20 year old thrashed Olga Govortsova in the 1st round 6–1 6–1. In round 2 she played second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. Despite leading 5–2 and having set points in the 1st set, the Bulgarian eventally lost 7–6(0) 6–2.

At the Tier II Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp in February, Pironkova qualified for the loss of only 10 games in 3 matches, won her first round match for the loss of just two more, and then took a 7–6 3–1 second-round lead over Belgian World No.1 Justine Henin before losing the match in three sets.

She caused another shocking upset at the 2008 Rome Masters. As a qualifier, she beat top seed and world no. 3 Ana Ivanovic for the biggest victory of her career so far. She advanced to the quarterfinals, her first ever at a Tier I event, when Victoria Azarenka retired, and will next face Anna Chakvetadze.

[edit] Titles(6)

[edit] Singles (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	September 29, 2002	Volos, Greece	Carpet	Tina Schmassmann	7–6(3) 7–5
2.	June 29, 2003	Orestiada, Greece	Hard	Simona Matei	6–1 6–4
3.	August 2, 2003	Istanbul, Turkey	Clay	Ipek Senoglu	7–6² 6–0
4.	November 2, 2003	Istanbul, Turkey	Hard	Shahar Peer	6–3 6–2
5.	April 10, 2005	Rome, Italy	Clay	Magda Mihalache	7–5 7–5
6.	September 16, 2007	Bordeaux, France	Clay	Alize Cornet	6–2 6–3