From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maria Kirilenko

Country	Russia
Residence	Moscow, Russia
Date of birth	January 25, 1987 (1987-01-25) (age 20)
Place of birth	Moscow, Russia
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	57.6 kg (127 lb)
Turned Pro	2001
Retired	Active
Plays	Right
Career Prize Money	$1,356,472
Singles
Career record:	153-110
Career titles:	2 (3 ITF Circuit titles)
Highest ranking:	No. 20 (June 12, 2006)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3r (2006-07)
French Open	3r (2006)
Wimbledon	2r (2005)
U.S. Open	3r (2003, 2006, 2007)
Doubles
Career record:	82-68
Career titles:	3
Highest ranking:	No. 21 (February 6, 2006)
Infobox last updated on: September 16, 2007.

Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко; born January 25, 1987 in Moscow) is a Russian professional tennis player. She won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-4 in the China Open. Kirilenko reached #20, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in June 2006. She is a good friend of Maria Sharapova. She is affectionately called Makiri.

Maria Kirilenko 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.

In 2006, she was selected to be the face of adidas by Stella McCartney tennis range, designed by noted British fashion designer Stella McCartney, which saw her playing in adidas clothing and footwear designed by Stella McCartney at all upcoming tournaments, starting with the 2006 Australian Open.^[1]

Contents 1 Tennis career 2 WTA Tour titles (5) 2.1 Singles (2) 2.2 Doubles (3) 3 References 4 External links

Maria Kirilenko started showing a passion towards tennis aged 5, but it was difficult to get the practice in while she attending school but 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 her to work together. 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.

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 12th, 2006.

Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the nation-based Fed Cup tournament on 22/23 April 2006 on the World Group Quarter-Final tie against Belgium. Maria lost a singles rubber against '05 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 Rezai.

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 Peer 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 Hantuchova 6-2 4-6 6-7 (4/7).^[2]

At the Acura Classic in San Diego, California, Kirilenko upset second seeded Jelena Janković 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.

Unseeded at the U.S. Open, she faced Martina Müller 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 U.S. Open, she appeared in the Sunfeast Open. There, Kirilenko won her second WTA Tour singles title, defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva of the Ukraine in straight sets 6-0,6-2. En route to the finals, she had beaten some very in form players namely Daniela Hantuchova, Flavia Pennetta, up and coming Ekaterina Ivanova and Indian qualifier Neha Uberoi. This win will proppell her back into the top 30 with a chance of going higher.

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.

Legend

Grand Slam (0)

WTA Championships (0)

Tier I (0)

Tier II (1)

Tier III (1)

Tier IV (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	September 5, 2005	Beijing, P.R. China	Hard	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	6-3 6-4
2.	September 23, 2007	Kolkata, India	Carpet (i)	Mariya Koryttseva	6-0 6-2

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	June 13, 2004	Birmingham, Great Britain	Grass	Maria Sharapova	Lisa McShea Milagros Sequera	6-2 6-1
2.	October 9, 2005	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Gisela Dulko	Shinobu Asagoe Maria Vento-Kabchi	7-5 4-6 6-3
3.	March 3, 2007	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Martina Hingis	Agnes Szavay Vladimíra Uhlířová	6-1 6-1

Grand Slam performance (singles)

Tournament	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Australian Open	A	A	A	2R	3R	3R	0 / 3	5-3
French Open	A	A	2R	1R	3R	2R	0 / 4	4-4
Wimbledon	A	A	1R	2R	1R	1R	0 / 4	1-4
U.S. Open	A	3R	2R	2R	3R	3R	0 / 5	8-5
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 16	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	2-1	2-3	3-4	6-4	3-3	N/A	19-15

• Official website
• Site about Maria Kirilenko (ENG)(RUS)
• Maria Kirilenko profile on the WTA Tour's official website