Personal

Coached by Jens Gerlach since 2002; also Larisa Savchenko ... Represented by International Sports Advisors Company ... Father is Andrey; mother is Galina ... Has a Scottish Setter named Gorde ... Favorite foods include sushi, white sausages and gnocchi ... Hobbies include reading, watching movies and hanging out with friends in Moscow ... Most memorable tennis experiences are winning 2004 Roland Garros, the Kremlin Cup 2003-04 and competing in the 2004 Olympic Games.

Career Highlights

SINGLES
Winner (10): 2005 - Kolkata; 2004 - Roland Garros, Doha, Moscow; 2003 - Doha, Sarasota, Leipzig, Moscow; 2002 - Bahia; 1999 - Palermo, ITF/Gorizia-ITA; 1998 - ITF/Tallinn-EST; 1997 - ITF/Batumi-GEO.
Finalist (9): 2006 - Istanbul, Eastbourne, Stockholm; 2005 - Stockholm; 2004 - San Diego; 2003 - Philadelphia; 2002 - Birmingham, Eastbourne, Leipzig.

DOUBLES
Winner (5): 2006 - Warsaw (w/Likhovtseva); 2005 - Kolkata (w/Likhovtseva), Filderstadt (w/Hantuchova); 2004 - Bali (w/Sugiyama), Moscow (w/Zvonareva); 1997 - ITF/Istanbul-TUR, ITF/Tbilisi-GEO, ITF/Batumi-GEO (all w/Dementieva).
Finalist (1): 2003 - Moscow (w/Zvonareva).

ADDITIONAL
Russian Fed Cup Team 1998, 2002-05. Russian Olympic Team 2000, 2004.

Career in Review

1995 - Played first three ITF Circuit events in Russia.

1996 - Played first Tour qualifying at Moscow.

1997 - Won first pro title at ITF/Batumi-GEO (ranked No.762, d. No.514 Dementieva in final).

1998 - Won ITF/Tallinn-EST and reached two other ITF Circuit finals.

1999 - First Top 100 finish; qualified for Tour debut at Tashkent, then again as qualifier won ITF/Gorizia-ITA (d. top seed Montolio in final); at next tournament, reached final of ITF/Orbetello-ITA; in only second Tour main draw, won first Tour title at Palermo (as qualifier, d. Dementieva in SF and Montolio in final); would also qualify for next three Tour events, Knokke-Heist, US Open (Grand Slam debut, reaching 2r and breaking into Top 100 afterwards at No.93) and Moscow (d. No.23 Rubin and stretched No.8 Schett to 3s in 2r).

2000 - Reached second Tour SF at Sopot (d. No.17 Schett in SF for first Top 20 win); qualified for Znrich and reached QF (d. Schnyder and Dementieva); also 3r at Wimbledon (on debut, d. Clijsters), Miami and Birmingham; qualified for Eastbourne and represented Russia at Sydney Olympics, reaching singles 2r.

2001 - Finished at No.59 after falling to No.123 in August; missed Australian Open after undergoing left wrist surgery, returning at Miami; won first singles match in six months over Majoli in Amelia Island 1r; qualified for four Tour events, Rome, New Haven (d. No.13 Coetzer), Bahia (forfeited 2r vs. Nagyova with throat infection) and Linz; as a LL, reached Leipzig QF (d. No.20 Kournikova, her first Tour loss to a fellow Russian, having d. eight different Russians since 1996), l. to eventual runner-up Mag.Maleeva; as WC, reached first Tier I SF in Moscow (d. Mag.Maleeva and Schett for third and fourth Top 20 wins of 2001 en route, l. to compatriot Dementieva 75 third set).

2002 - Began season ranked No.59, qualifying for early events before reaching Doha QF and having breakthrough result in stretching No.2 V.Williams to 3s in QF of Dubai; at Miami served for match vs. No.1 Capriati before falling in 3s; QF again at Amelia Island (l. to V.Williams), Charleston (d. Sßnchez-Vicario) and Rome (scored first Top 10 win over defending champion Dokic); won second career title at Tier II Bahia (d. world No.4 Dokic en route); runner-up at Birmingham, Eastbourne (ranking moved up to No.15) and Leipzig (d. two-time defending champion and world No.8 Clijsters 76 third set, l. to S.Williams); SF at New Haven (d. No.7 Henin and No.8 Hingis, after being one point from 76 51 deficit to win 11 straight games); after US Open took over top Russian ranking for first time; finished season qualifying for season-ending Championships (l. 1r to Dokic), with world No.11 ranking, winning 50 matches (50-28) for second time in her career (1999).

2003 - First Top 10 finish; won four singles titles (joint third for the year with S.Williams) and over $1 million in prize money; titles came at Doha (d. Likhovtseva in first all-Russian final on Tour and debuted in Top 10 after that win on February 17 at No.10), Sarasota (d. Petrova and Dementieva en route), Leipzig (No.1 Clijsters ret. in SF, d. Henin-Hardenne in final, from 63 32 deficit, ending her 22-match win-streak - longest of 2003 - and becoming first player since Austin-1979 Filderstadt to d. Top 2-ranked players at a Tour-only event in Europe), and Moscow (first Tier I win, first Russian to claim the title in eventÆs 10-year history, d. No.2 seed Mauresmo in final); runner-up in Philadelphia (l. to Mauresmo in 3s) to move above Dementieva back to Russian No.1 spot (briefly lost it September 15 to November 2); QF at seven other Tour events, including firsts at Australian and US Opens; qualified for season-ending Championships for second time, d. Sugiyama, but falling to Capriati 75 57 64 and Henin-Hardenne 75 57 75 after being two points from victory on Henin-HardenneÆs serve at 5-4 (match was second-longest in terms of games in the eventÆs 32-year history); split singles rubbers in RussiaÆs 3-2 Fed Cup SF loss to France; first Tour doubles final in Moscow (w/Zvonareva).

2004 - Career-best season highlighted by first Grand Slam title and Top 5 finish (one of three Russians in Top 5 year-end rankings); at Roland Garros, having never advanced past 2r in four previous attempts, d. Kuznetsova 16 64 86 in 4r (saving mp at 5-6 third set, at the time the only Roland Garros champion to recover from mp down after DuPont in 1946 and Court in 1962), V.Williams in QF (first win in three meetings), Capriati in SF (second win in seven meetings), and compatriot Dementieva 61 62 in first all-Russian Grand Slam final, becoming first female Russian Grand Slam singles champion (fifth country to have both finalists after USA, Australia, France and Belgium û crossed $3 million in career earnings following win); first successful title defenses at Doha (d. Kuznetsova in final in 3s) and Moscow (d. Davenport for first time in SF; d. Dementieva in first all-Russian final there); runner-up at San Diego (d. Sharapova in QF, ending her 14-match win streak that included Wimbledon, then Zvonareva 62 67(4) 76(15) in SF after trailing 5-2 in third set, saving 9mp, eight in tie-break, and closing out longest singles third-set tie-break in Tour history on fifth mp, also the longest tie-break this year, falling to Davenport in final); SF at Indian Wells (l. to Henin-Hardenne), MontrTal [Canadian Open] (l. to Likhovtseva in 3s), Sopot (withdrew prior to match vs. Koukalova with right rib strain), Olympics (l. to Henin-Hardenne 75 57 86 after leading 5-1 third set, also falling to Molik in bronze medal play-off), Filderstadt (l. to Davenport) and season-ending Championships (finished top of Red Group after RR phase, d. Dementieva and No.1 Davenport, losing to S.Williams in 3s; qualified for SF, falling to eventual champion Sharapova in 3s for first time in four meetings); reached QF five other times, incl. Australian Open (l. to Clijsters 62 76(9) after leading 5-1 second set); made Top 5 debut at No.5 after Doha on March 8 (first Russian woman in Top 5 since inception of computer rankings in 1975), moved up to No.3 after Roland Garros on June 7, reaching career-high No.2 on September 13, finishing year at No.3; following MontrTal [Canadian Open] (August 9), five Russians ranked Top 10 û Myskina (No.3), Dementieva (No.6), Sharapova (No.8), Zvonareva (No.9) and Kuznetsova (No.10), matching only USA (1980-88; 2001 û November 9, 2003) in Open Era; three Russians in Top 5 for first time on October 18 û Myskina (No.3), Kuznetsova (No.4) and Dementieva (No.5); represented Russia in all four rounds of Fed Cup en route to its first-ever title; went 3-0 in 5-0 Finals victory over France (d. Dechy, Golovin in singles, d. Bartoli/Loit w/Zvonareva in deciding doubles rubber); won first two doubles titles at Bali (w/Sugiyama) and Moscow (swept w/Zvonareva û d. Ruano Pascual/Sußrez in final), also reaching four other SF; at Olympics, l. in 1r of doubles (w/Dementieva); earned career-best $2,115,847 in prize money; withdrew from Miami, Warsaw, and prior to 2r doubles match at Wimbledon with left toe sprain suffered at Indian Wells, from Eastbourne for rest and recovery, from Linz with influenza, and prior to doubles SF at Philadelphia with right shoulder strain.

2005 - Strong second half of season, but first non-Top 10 finish in three years, largely due to disappointing results in first half of season; won consecutive matches just three times in first 10 events, reaching 4r at Australian Open (as No.3 seed, l. to No.19 seed and eventual semifinalist Dechy), SF at Antwerp (l. to V.Williams in 3s) and 4r at Miami (l. to eventual champion Clijsters), also reaching QF at Dubai (l. to Schnyder in 3s); in 10th event of season, became first defending Roland Garros champion in history to lose 1r the next year (and just the third Grand Slam champion overall), falling to Sßnchez Lorenzo in 3s; turned season around afterwards, reaching QF or better at eight of last nine events, winning 10th career Tour singles title at Kolkata (without losing a set; d. Sprem in final), finishing runner-up at Stockholm (l. to Srebotnik in final), reaching SF at Toronto [Canadian Open] (hindered by sprained left ankle during loss to Clijsters) and Znrich (l. to Davenport); reached QF at Eastbourne (l. to qualifier Vinci), Wimbledon after a series of comebacks (d. qualifier Bohmova in 1r after trailing 4-1 second set and 4-2 third set; Jankovic 10-8 third set in 3r after trailing 5-1, having held 3 mp in second set (300th career match win); and Dementieva in 4r after trailing 61 30 and saving 2 mp before winning 16 76(7) 63; l. to Mauresmo in first Wimbledon QF), Filderstadt (l. to Davenport in 3s) and Moscow (as two-time defending champion, l. to Dementieva); also 3r finish at US Open (l. to Likhovtseva 76 third set, having held 5 mp); won third and fourth career Tour doubles titles, at Kolkata (w/Likhovtseva) and Filderstadt (w/Hantuchova), also reached SF at Australian Open (w/Zvonareva); achieved new career-high doubles ranking of No.15 on February 21; was 2-0 in RussiaÆs 4-1 Fed Cup World Group I SF victory over United States (d. Craybas and new Wimbledon champion V.Williams) and 0-2 in 3-2 final victory over France (l. to Mauresmo, Pierce); began season at Hopman Cup, going 3-0 (d. Groenefeld, Dulko, Schiavone); withdrew from Rome due to personal reasons, from New Haven due to left ankle sprain, and from QuTbec City due to right shoulder injury.

2006 - Fifth consecutive Top 20 finish in season highlighted by reaching three finals, at Istanbul (as top seed, l. to No.4 seed Peer 16 63 76(3) in final), Tier II Eastbourne (as No.11 seed, upset No.4 seed Kuznetsova in SF, falling to No.3 seed Henin-Hardenne 46 61 76(5) in final; win over world No.7 Kuznetsova was lone Top 10 win of year) and Stockholm (as top seed, l. to No.3 seed Zheng 64 61 in final); now 10-9 lifetime in Tour singles finals; one-time semifinalist, at Tier I Tokyo [Pan Pacific] (as No.4 seed, l. to No.2 seed and eventual champion Dementieva in 3s); two-time quarterfinalist, at Miami (as No.10 seed, l. to No.4 seed Sharapova) and Wimbledon (as No.9 seed, l. to top seed and eventual champion Mauresmo in 3s; was second straight QF there); 4r three times, at Australian Open (as No.12 seed, l. to No.7 seed Schnyder), Indian Wells (as No.5 seed, upset by No.10 seed Safina) and Roland Garros (as No.10 seed, l. to No.5 seed and eventual champion Henin-Hardenne); 3r once, at Rome (l. to Kuznetsova); 2r three times and 1r five times, incl. US Open (as No.11 seed, stunned by Azarenka); withdrew from Stuttgart, Moscow and Hasselt w/left toe inflammation; year-end No.16 was lowest in five years; won fifth career Tour doubles title at Warsaw (w/Likhovtseva); passed $5 million in career prize money earnings.