Maria Kirilenko Russian Tennis Player Born 1987 in Moscow

Early life

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko was born on 25 January 1987 in Moscow. She rose through the junior ranks quickly: in 2002 she won the junior tournaments at the Canadian Open and the US Open, and she began entering professional WTA events the same year.

Career

After a stretch of progress in 2004 that was interrupted by injury, Kirilenko won her first tour title in Beijing at the end of 2005. On 12 June 2006 she entered the world top 20 for the first time. That April she made her debut for Russia in the Fed Cup, in a quarterfinal tie against Belgium, where she lost her singles match to Kim Clijsters but won the doubles rubber alongside Dinara Safina, although Russia lost the tie. She has been listed as a member of the Russian team in the competition, now called the Billie Jean King Cup, since 2006.

Her second singles title came in 2007 at the Sunfeast Open. In 2008 she won on clay at Estoril and Barcelona, claiming her fourth career singles title, and she won doubles titles with Flavia Pennetta at Estoril and with Nadia Petrova in Cincinnati. At the 2008 Australian Open she reached the fourth round of a major for the first time.

The 2010 Australian Open marked a turning point. Ranked 58th and unseeded, she beat her friend and former doubles partner Maria Sharapova in a match lasting three hours and 22 minutes, then reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to Zheng Jie. Later that year she reached the fourth round of the French Open after beating defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, and she finished the season ranked 20th. In 2011 she and Victoria Azarenka reached the doubles final at the Australian Open, and she lost a fourth-round singles match to the eventual champion Samantha Stosur at the US Open, a match that included a 15-17 second-set tie-break, the longest at a major in women's tennis.

Her best season came in 2012. At Wimbledon she reached the singles quarterfinals for the first time, falling to Agnieszka Radwanska. At the London Olympics, representing Russia, she beat Petra Kvitova to reach the semifinals, lost to Sharapova, and then lost the bronze medal match to Azarenka to finish fourth in singles. In doubles she and Petrova won the bronze medal by beating the top-ranked pairing of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. The same pair reached the final of the French Open and won the WTA Tour Championships. She ended the year ranked 14th in singles and seventh in doubles, after reaching a doubles high of fifth in the world in October 2011.

In 2013 she won the title at Pattaya, reached the semifinals at Indian Wells and the quarterfinals of the French Open, her third major singles quarterfinal. The French Open run took her into the top ten for the first time, and she reached her career-high singles ranking of 10 on 10 June 2013. A knee injury ended her season, and she returned only in spring 2014 after missing the Australian Open. She played her last tournament that October at the China Open and finished the year ranked 186th. She has not competed professionally since. Her career total stands at six WTA singles titles and twelve doubles titles.

Away from the court, in 2006 she became the face of Adidas tennis clothing designed by Stella McCartney, and she appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

Recognition

Kirilenko holds the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class without swords. Her sporting honours also include the Olympic doubles bronze medal and the 2012 WTA Tour Championships doubles title noted above.