15. Anastasia Myskina
Anastasia Andreyevna Myskina is a professional tennis player from Russia. In 2004 she won the French Open, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Grand Slam event. Subsequent to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to reach the top three in the history of the rankings. In September 2004 she reached a career high of No.2, but she has not played professional tennis since 2007, and has stated she does not know whether she will return or not. Injury has prevented her from advancing for the past several years.
14. Alyona Bondarenko
Alyona Bondarenko is a Ukrainian tennis player. She has a younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko who also plays on the Tour. She formerly paired with her older sister Valeria in doubles. She is currently ranked 26 in singles and 39 in doubles by the WTA. She won the 2008 Australian Open women’s doubles tournament with sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe’er in the finals.
13. Nicole Vaidisova
Nicole Vaidisova is a former Czech female tennis player. On 9 August 2006, at the age of 17 years, three months, and two weeks, she became the 12th-youngest player in WTA Tour history to be ranked in the top 10. She achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 7 on 14 May 2007. As of 22 February 2010 Vaidisova is ranked World No. 177.
12. Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Fiodorovna Azarenka s a Belarusian professional tennis player who, as of 26 October 2009, is ranked World Number 6. Azarenka has won two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles — 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan. She has also won three singles titles, all in 2009.
11. Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. She is a former World No. 1 ranked player in singles and in doubles. As of February 1, 2010, Clijsters is ranked World No. 17. Clijsters has won 36 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She won the US Open singles title in 2005 and 2009. She has also won the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002 and 2003. In doubles, she’s won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters was twice a singles runner-up at the French Open and a one-time runner-up at the Australian Open, also reaching two Wimbledon singles semi-finals.
10. Tamira Paszek
Tamira Shelah Paszek is a professional tennis player from Austria. As of September 11, 2009, she is the third ranked tennis player from Austria in the WTA ranking, at No. 88. She was introduced to tennis by her mother, Francoise Paszek, at age four-and-a-half. Her mother is Chilean born, and her father is Ariff Mohamed, who is Tanzanian-born, Kenya-raised and lived in Canada. Both her paternal grandparents are from India. She is currently being coached by Angel Giminez having previously been coached by Larri Passos.
9. Elena Dementieva
Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva born 15 October 1981) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won two Olympic medals in singles, including the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She has also reached the finals of two Grand Slam events. Her career high ranking was World No. 3 which she achieved on April 6, 2009. As of 22 February 2010, she is ranked World No. 7.
8. Tatiana Golovin
Tatiana Golovin is a French professional tennis player of Russian descent (born in Moscow as Татьяна Головина, Tatiana Golovina). She is best known for winning the 2004 French Open mixed doubles event with her countryman Richard Gasquet, and also for reaching the singles quarterfinal at the 2006 U.S. Open, losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova. The 22-year-old’s highest singles ranking to date is 12. She is currently coached by former World No. 1 Mats Wilander, having previously been coached by Brad Gilbert and Dean Goldfine. She lives in Hampstead, north London with her boyfriend, Arsenal footballer, Samir Nasri.
7. Jelena Dokic
Jelena Dokic is an Australian female professional tennis player of Serbian descent. During the height of her career, she played for Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to February 2003) and reached a career-high ranking of World No. 4 on 19 August 2002. The highlights of Dokić’s career include reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and reaching the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2002 and the Australian Open in 2009.
6. Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova born April 19, 1987) is a former World No. 1 Russian professional tennis player and three time Grand Slam singles champion. When Sharapova was six, she and her father moved from their life of poverty in Russia to the United States, to enroll her in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. After rising rapidly through the junior and professional ranks in the years that followed, Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17. In the two years that followed, Sharapova won eight titles on the WTA Tour and had two brief stints as the World No. 1. However, she lost all five Grand Slam semifinals she played during this period. She ultimately won her second Grand Slam title at the 2006 US Open. Sharapova’s public profile extends beyond tennis. She has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Sharapova was the most searched-for athlete on Yahoo! in both 2005 and 2008.
5. Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova born 7 June 1981) is a Russian professional tennis player and model. Her celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis players worldwide. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name one of the most common search strings on the Internet search engine Google. Although also successful in singles, reaching No. 8 in the world in 2000, Kournikova’s specialty has been doubles, where she has at times been the World No. 1 player. With Martina Hingis as her partner, she won Grand Slam titles in Australia in 1999 and 2002. Kournikova’s professional tennis career has been curtailed for the past several years, and possibly ended, by serious back and spinal problems. She currently resides in Miami Beach, Florida.
4. Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza is an Indian tennis player. She started her tennis career in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian Government. She is known for her powerful forehand ground strokes. Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Earlier in 2005, she had become the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner-up at the Asian Tennis Championship. In winning, with Mahesh Bhupathi, the Mixed Doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman to win any grand slam event.
3. Daniela Hantuchova
Daniela Hantuchova born April 23, 1983) is a Slovak professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top ten. She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.
2. Ana Ivanovic
Ana Ivanovic born November 6, 1987, in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a former World No.1 Serbian tennis player. As of March 8, 2010, she is ranked World No. 28 by the Women’s Tennis Association. She won the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open.
1. Maria Kirilenko
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko born in Moscow on January 25, 1987 is a Russian professional tennis player. Kirilenko won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. She won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian Open, as well as the 2002 US Open junior tournament. She has reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2010 Australian Open. As of February 1, 2010, Kirilenko is ranked World No. 37.
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