Women's Tennis Blog

Category: Maria Kirilenko

  • Kirilenko scores another upset at Indian Wells, awaits Sharapova in the semis

    After taking out third seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open, Maria Kirilenko upset fifth seed Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals, switching from Radwanska’s long rallies to Kvitova’s power game, thus recording two Top 10 victories in a single tournament for the first time in her career and making the biggest semifinal of her life.

    The 13th-seeded Kirilenko initially took a 4-2 lead, before falling to Kvitova’s power and winners to trail 4-6 2-4. The Czech then lost her range and gave away the second set by hitting four straight double faults while serving to stay in it and in the third set Kirilenko came out on top to finally win 4-6 6-4 6-3, despite problems with her knee in the first set.

    We will have an all-Russian Indian Wells semifinal, as second seed Maria Sharapova later advanced with a tight 7-6(6) 6-2 victory over sixth seed Sara Errani which featured a 82-minute first set. Playing her third tournament of the season, Sharapova is in her third 2013 semifinal. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

  • Azarenka through, Radwanska beaten by Kirilenko

    Despite complaining that her ankle has been bothering her for a while, top seed Victoria Azarenka, unbeaten in 17 matches this season, remained on course in her title defense at the BNP Paribas Open by cruising into the last eight with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Urszula Radwanska, while Urszula’s more successful sister Agnieszka Radwanska was the only upset of the day, as the third seed fell to seed No.13 Maria Kirilenko. After quickly losing the first set, Agnieszka fought back to win the second and go 3-1 up in the third, before Kirilenko won four straight games for a 5-3 lead and a 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory after a small slump.

    Maria Sharapova won a close opening set against Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, before storming through the second in just 22 minutes for a 7-5 6-0 victory, Angelique Kerber defeated Garbine Muguruza 6-4 7-5, Petra Kvitova advanced with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over fellow Czech Klara Zakopalova, Sara Errani took out Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-2, Samantha Stosur was better than Mona Barthel 4-6 6-2 6-3 and Caroline Wozniacki beat Nadia Petrova 7-6(3) 6-3 in the fourth round.

    Quarterfinal pairs: Victoria Azarenka [1] vs. Caroline Wozniacki [8], Angelique Kerber [4] vs. Samantha Stosur [7], Petra Kvitova [5] vs. Maria Kirilenko [13] and Sara Errani [6] vs. Maria Sharapova [2]. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

  • Barthel wins Paris, Kirilenko claims Pattaya title

    Mona Barthel claimed her first Premier title at the Open GDF SUEZ in Paris, beating top seed Sara Errani in the final, while on the other side of the globe Maria Kirilenko celebrated her first title since 2008, surviving Sabine Lisicki in an epic PTT Pattaya Open final.

    Unseeded at the tournament, Barthel eliminated fifth seed Roberta Vinci in the second round, third seed Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinals, and in the last match the German was ahead in each set, but always struggled to close them out as Errani clawed back, from 3-5 to 5-5  in the first and from 2-5 to 5-5 in the second, before succumbing 7-5 7-6(4).

    Barthel is projected to rise to a new career-high ranking of No.28. Here’s what Errani said of her opponent, who hit 53 winners (50 unforced errors) to her 16 winners (18 unforced errors):

    Mona serves so well, plays so well from the baseline and physically moves so well – I just couldn’t beat her today.

    In doubles, however, Errani had a reason to celebrate. As part of the No.1-seeded doubles team, with Roberta Vinci she routed No.2 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Liezel Huber in the final 6-1 6-1.

    Meanwhile in Thailand, Maria Kirilenko improved on her last year’s performance at the PTT Pattaya Open. Playing the 2012 final against Daniela Hantuchova, Kirilenko lost after three hours and 14 minutes, but this time, after multiple swings in the match, the second-seeded Kirilenko went all the way against fifth seed Sabine Lisicki for a 5-7 6-1 7-6(1) victory. Initially, Lisicki led 7-5 1-0, almost 7-5 2-0, before Kirilenko won 11 of the next 13 games and earned two match points, but Lisicki stole the momentum and won four straight games to lead again, 6-5 in the third set. Kirilenko then broke her at love and decisively won the tiebreak. Total match time: two hours and 37 minutes. (photos: Ralf Reinecke)

  • Petra Kvitova makes a horrible start to 2013 with two early losses

    After falling in the second round of the Brisbane International, Petra Kvitova won just two games against Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the Apia International Sydney, 6-1 6-1. Cibulkova is always a threat and she is a deserving world No.15, but these two early losses of the eighth-ranked Kvitova do put a big question mark above her fans’ heads. In the defeat to Cibulkova, Kvitova recorded 35 unforced errors. After the match, when asked what went wrong, Kvitova said that everything went wrong and that she played very badly.

    Did Kvitova enter the slump zone or is this just a phase she’ll get out of in time? Last year she played the Sydney semifinals and followed up with a semifinal at the Australian Open.

    Caroline Wozniacki also opened the season with a shock loss, to Ksenia Pervak in the first round of Brisbane, but in Sydney she recorded a comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory over Urszula Radwanska in the opening round. The freshly-engaged Maria Kirilenko is also through, with a 7-5 6-2 win over Olivia Rogowska. (via Women Who Serve and WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

  • Maria Kirilenko and Alex Ovechkin engaged

    On December 31st, 2012, ice hockey player Alex Ovechkin happily announced on Twitter an engagement to his girlfriend Maria Kirilenko, one of the most beautiful women’s tennis players. I am not surprised that Alex broke the news on Twitter, he has always been very eager to share his love and support of Maria on the social network.

    The couple has been dating for a full year and it was Alex who revealed their relationship in November 2011, also on Twitter, saying that Maria is his queen. Here you can see more photos of the Russian sweethearts , in our post from the series WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands.

    The 25-year-old Kirilenko, currently ranked 14th in the WTA standings, previously dated fellow tennis player Igor Andreev for years. They broke up in 2011, apparently not long before she started the relationship with Alex.

  • Top three seeds victorious on the second day of Sofia

    Top three seeds were in action on Day 2 of the Tournament of Champions in Sofia and all the three won their round-robin matches.

    Seed No.1 Caroline Wozniacki yesterday eased past Hsieh Su-Wei and today she had another straightforward victory, 6-3 6-1 against Roberta Vinci, to whom she lost last year at the Rogers Cup 6-4 7-5, despite having multiple set points in the second set. At the the 2011 Rogers Cup Wozniacki was not only defending her title, at the time she was ranked No.1.

    The world No.11 Dane now has a chance to get back in the Top 10. To achieve that she needs to either win the Tournament of Champions title or reach the final undefeated. Tomorrow Wozniacki plays her last round-robin match in the Serdika Group, against Daniela Hantuchova, who lost to Roberta Vinci yesterday.

    In the Sredets Group, seed No.2 Nadia Petrova and seed No.3 Maria Kirilenko, doubles partners who have just this weekend clinched the huge WTA Championships title, both won their singles matches in Sofia, defeating Zheng Jie 6-3 6-3 and home darling Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1 6-4 respectively, and on Thursday they will face each other in the opening match of the day.

    Roberta Vinci vs. Hsieh Su-Wei is the third and last match on the Day 3 schedule. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

  • Caroline Wozniacki safely through to Seoul quarters

    Top seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past qualifier Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the KDB Korea Open in Seoul. Her previous victory at the tournament was also confident, 6-1 6-2 against Arantxa Rus, which is a nice recovery for the Dane after her first-round loss at the US Open. Next for Wozniacki is seventh seed Klara Zakopalova, who beat Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1 7-6(6).

    Maria Kirilenko, the 2008 Seoul champion and second seed this year, retired yesterday at 1-all in the first set against Korean wildcard Lee So-Ra due to a left back injury. Fourth seed Nadia Petrova also fell victim to a back injury, withdrawing today before her second-round encounter with the newlywed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The Spaniard is defending her Seoul title this week, but last time she entered the tournament ranked 36th, while now she’s No.93 – at the end of 2011 she had a knee surgery and this season she joined the circuit in May due to right thigh injuries. (via WTA Tour, photo: sr_cranks)

  • Petra Kvitova’s successful US Open Series gets New Haven title

    Petra Kvitova is the one taking Caroline Wozniacki’s throne at the $637,000 New Haven Open at Yale. In the final against Maria Kirilenko (against whom Wozniacki retired in the previous round), after saving set points in both sets, Kvitova won the title that used to be Wozniacki’s in the past four years.

    Six service breaks in the first set led it to a marathon tiebreak in which Kvitova fended off her first set point and after working her way to victory in the first set, the Czech fell 2-5 in the second set and Kirileko again earned a set point. However, Kvitova had no room for discouragement and won all the remaining games to win the match 7-6(9) 7-5.

    After a first-round bye, the second-seeded Kvitova defeated Nicole Gibbs, then eighth seed Lucie Safarova, fourth-seed Sara Errani in the semifinals, and finally the seventh-seeded Maria Kirilenko.

    Just 12 days ago Kvitova won the $2,168,400 Rogers Cup, then reached the semifinals of the 2,168,400 Western & Southern Open, thus becoming the US Open Series winner, and then went on to win New Haven – notice, all the three are Premier-level tournaments. At the US Open Kvitova is seeded fifth and Polona Hercog is her first opponent. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

  • Colors of fall inspire Adidas for Maria Kirilenko’s US Open 2012 outfit

    Exploring Pinterest today, I came across Tennis Warehouse’s profile and found this photo of Maria Kirilenko in her Adidas apparel for the upcoming US Open.

    The women’s doubles bronze medalist at the recently-finished Olympic Tennis Event will wear Adidas Women’s Autumn Adipower Barricade collection in the colors resembling the falling leaves – very dark purple, looking like brown from afar, and golden yellow. It is a very different approach from the Adidas Adizero line dominated by eye-popping colors, as seen on Ana Ivanovic. (more…)

  • Olympic WTA awards: Golden Empress, Bridesmaids, Gutsy Performers and others

    Our guest blogger Omair likes to give WTA players unofficial titles on the account of their performance at big events. Notice how Serena improved from the Biggest Disappointment at Roland Garros, to Grass Empress at Wimbledon, to shortly afterwards become a Golden Empress at the Olympics.

    SERENA WILLIAMS – GOLDEN EMPRESS

    With her first gold medal in singles at the Olympics, Serena completed her Career Golden Slam, joining Steffi Graf and becoming only the second woman to achieve such a feat. Moreover, Serena did that in style, losing a total of 17 games in six matches. En route to the medal, Serena defeated four players who have ranked world number one at some point (Jelena Jankovic in the first round, Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals and Maria Sharapova in the final). She also became the only tennis player in history to complete Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. With such a strong performance, Serena reinforces her title of grass empress earned during Wimbledon 2012.

    MARIA SHARAPOVA, VICTORIA AZARENKA – BRIDESMAIDS

    Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Sharapova and Azarenka were both the victims of Serena at the Olympics, and have combined three wins against her in 21 matches.

    Sharapova rebounded strongly from her Wimbledon disappointment, however, she lost her plot completely once in the final and managed to win just one game in the most lopsided Olympic gold medal match.

    Azarenka seemed determined to be on the course to win gold, but just like at Wimbledon, it was Serena who stood in her way. Azarenka had a chance to avenge her Wimbledon loss, but went down meekly, winning just three games against Serena. (more…)