Maria Kirilenko Bio

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Maria Kirilenko Pictures

Infobox last updated on: May 11, 2009.

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко; born January 25, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player of Paternal Ukrainian Heritage. Born in Moscow, she won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Gr��nefeld 6-3, 6-4 in the China Open. Kirilenko reached #18, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in July 2008. She is a good friend of Maria Sharapova. She is affectionately called Makiri. She 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.

Maria Kirilenko: Tennis career

Maria Kirilenko - Junior career

Maria Kirilenko

Maria Kirilenko started showing a passion towards tennis at age 5, but it was difficult to get the practice in while she was attending school. Her father enrolled her in a tennis school, and 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 to work together with her. 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.

Maria Kirilenko - Turned professional

Kirilenko at the US Open in 2006

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 recognized 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 12, 2006.

Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the nation-based Fed Cup tournament in April 2006 on the World Group Quarter-Final tie against Belgium. Maria lost a singles rubber against 2005 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 Reza��.

Maria Kirilenko - 2007

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 Pe'er 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 Hantuchov� 6-2 4-6 6-7 (4/7).

Kirilenko at Wimbledon 2007

At the Acura Classic in San Diego, California, Kirilenko upset second seeded Jelena Jankovich of Serbia with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 to advance to the quarter-finals, before losing to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-4. At the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, California she also reached the quarters, upsetting #6 seed Marion Bartoli in straight sets, 7-6(2), 6-3, along the way.

Kirilenko with her doubles partner Igor Andreev at the US Open.

Unseeded at the US Open, she faced Martina M��ller of Germany, defeating her in straight sets 6-3, 6-1. She then beat #22 seed Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in straight sets too, 6-4, 6-3. She then lost to the unseeded Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine in easy straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. After the US Open, she appeared in the Sunfeast Open. There, Kirilenko won her second WTA Tour singles title, defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine in straight sets 6-0,6-2. En route to the finals, she had beaten some very in form players namely Daniela Hantuchov�, Flavia Pennetta, up and coming Ekaterina Ivanova and Indian qualifier Neha Uberoi. The next week at a tournament in Seoul, Kirilenko, as the #4 seed has also reached the finals but lost to #1 seed and current Wimbledon champion Venus Williams of the USA in three sets 3-6, 6-1, 4-6.

Maria Kirilenko - 2008

Kirilenko at Cincinnati in 2008

At the Australian Open, Kirilenko reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, by beating No. 6 seed Anna Chakvetadze in three sets (6-7, 6-1, 6-2). Her next opponent was Daniela Hantuchov�, to whom she lost in the fourth round 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 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, 6-2 5-7 1-6. 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 Benešov� in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. She also won the doubles title in Estoril, partnering Flavia Pennetta. Maria also won in Barcelona; in the final Kirilenko faced Martinez-Sanchez and won 6-0 6-2 for her fourth career WTA title and the second this year.

Kirilenko played at the Tier III tournament in Cincinnati in August where she was the number 3 seed. She reached the semi-finals, where she lost 1-6 6-2 6-1 to eventual champion Nadia Petrova. She partnered with Petrova as the 2nd seed doubles team that beat the number 1 seed pair of Su-Wei Hsieh and Yaroslava Shvedova in the finals, 6-3 4-6 10-8.

Maria Kirilenko - 2009

Kirilenko was seeded 27th at the 2009 Australian Open. She lost in the first round to unseeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-0 6-4 in the tournament's first upset.

In the Dubai doubles tournament, Kirilenko partnered Agnieszka Radwanska and even though they were unseeded, they reached the final, eventually losing to Liezel Huber and Cara Black, the world number one doubles pairing.

At the 2009 French Open, Kirilenko was unseeded in the singles tournament, losing 6-4 6-4 to Olivia Rogoswka of Australia in the first round. In the doubles tournament, Kirilenko and doubles partner Flavia Pennetta of Italy were ranked 8th. They defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the first round, 6-4 6-4, and Jill Craybas and Carly Gullickson of USA 6-1 6-1 in the second. In the 3rd round, they lose to Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, ranked 11th, 7-6(7-4) 6-4.

Maria Kirilenko: Fashion

In 2006, Kirilenko was selected to be the face of Adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range, designed by noted British fashion designer Stella McCartney and has played exclusively in the gear since the 2006 Australian Open.

Like her good friend Maria Sharapova, she likes connecting athletics and fashion, and when she spoke to Teen Vogue in August 2006, she said of being dressed by McCartney for a banquet, "I felt so glamorous!" She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Daniela Hantuchova and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.

Maria Kirilenko: WTA Tour titles (5)

Maria Kirilenko - Singles (8)

Wins (5)

Runner-ups (3)

Maria Kirilenko - Doubles (5)

Wins (5)

Runner-ups (4)

Maria Kirilenko: Singles performance timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament / did not qualify for main draw SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played. NH = tournament was not held.