Personal

Coached by Olli Leppänen ... Travels on Tour with her coach or her sister (and best friend) Essi, who also plays professionally ... Mother, Erika, was a swimmer, while father, Erkki, was an ice hockey player, winning an Olympic silver medal at 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics ... Introduced to tennis at age 5 by her parents; baseliner who prefers hardcourts ... Favorite places to visit are Melbourne and Stockholm ... Speaks Finnish, Swedish, English ... Favorite movies are Troy, Titanic ... Favorite food is pasta ... Tennis person most admired is Andre Agassi for his good attitude on and off the court ... Favorite thing about being a pro tennis player is travelling and seeing different countries, cultures and people ... Likes many sports, in particular ice hockey ... Goal is to improve her tennis and ranking.

Career Highlights

SINGLES
Winner: 2005 - ITF/Helsinki-FIN; 2004 - ITF/Tipton-GBR, ITF/Capriolo-ITA, ITF/Torre del Greco-ITA.
Quarterfinalist (1): 2006 - Pattaya City.

DOUBLES
Winner: 2007 - ITF/Rome Tiro A Volo-ITA (w/Domachowska), ITF/Zagreb-CRO (w/Szavay); 2005 - ITF/Capriolo-ITA (w/Koryttseva).
Semifinalist (2): 2006 - Cincinnati (w/Sromova), Beijing (w/Martinez Sanchez).

ADDITIONAL
Finnish Fed Cup Team, 2001-05.

Career in Review

2001 - Career debut at ITF/Tallinn-EST, falling in final round of qualifying.

2002 - Made Tour debut as unranked WC into main draw at Helsinki, falling 1r (l. to Mandula).

2003 - Fell 1r at Helsinki again (as WC, l. to Ondraskova).

2004 - Won career-first Tour main draw singles match at Luxembourg (as qualifier, d. No.4 seed Maleeva 57 64 63 in 1r before falling to Safina in 2r); fell in qualifying at Stockholm; breakthrough season on ITF Women’s Circuit; reached seven singles finals, capturing first four titles; also won first five ITF Circuit doubles titles.

2005 - First Top 100 finish in season highlighted by career Grand Slam main draw debut; ranked No.116 at US Open, qualified then d. world No.35 Peng 36 76(4) 62 in 1r, falling to No.25 seed Schiavone in 2r; afterwards on September 12, surged to No.84 for Top 100 debut; 2r three other times on Tour, as qualifier at Stockholm (l. to Castaño) and as direct entrant into Tashkent (l. to K.Bondarenko) and Québec City (l. to No.3 seed and eventual semifinalist Bartoli 26 61 75, having led 5-3 third set and holding 2mp); qualified for main draws two other times, falling 1r (Beijing, Seoul) and failed to qualify at 10 events (incl. Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon); claimed fifth singles title at $25K ITF/Helsinki-FIN, also sixth doubles title at $25K ITF/Capriolo-ITA (w/Koryttseva).

2006 - Season highlighted by career-first Tour singles QF, at Pattaya City (d. No.8 seed Santangelo; l. to eventual runner-up Kostanic in 3s), 4r at Indian Wells (l. to No.17 seed Dulko) and 3r at San Diego (l. to No.6 seed and defending champion Pierce; afterwards on August 7, made career Top 50 debut at No.50); debuted at three of four Grand Slams, reaching Australian Open 2r (l. to WC Hingis), Roland Garros 2r (l. to No.11 seed V.Williams 76(2) 62, having led 4-0 first set), and Wimbledon 1r (l. to No.31 seed Dulko); fell 2r for second straight year at US Open (l. to No.4 seed Dementieva); first two Tour doubles SF of career, at Cincinnati (w/Sromova) and Beijing (w/Martínez Sánchez).