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Anastasia Myskina

Anastasia Andreyevna Myskina (Анастасия Мыскина; ) (born July 8, 1981, Moscow, Russia) is a professional tennis player from Russia. In 2004 she won the French Open, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Slam. Subsequently to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to reach the top three, since the ranking was created, in September of 2004 she reached at number 2, arriving very next to becoming the first Russian female tennis player to reach world number 1, but failed. She has not played professional tennis for fifteen months, and has subsequently fallen to world no. 417, as of September 1, 2008. She is set to return to professional tennis in 2009 and is a hopeful for a wild card for the Australian Open.

Tennis career

1999-2001

Myskina turned professional in 1998, the year in which she broke into the WTA top 500. She won her first WTA title in Palermo in only her second appearance in the main draw of a WTA tournament. She made her debut in a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open and the Fed Cup (playing doubles). In 2000, Myskina scored first career Top 20 victory over number 17 Barbara Schett en route to a Sopot semifinal. She debuted at Roland Garros (which she would later win) and Wimbledon. She played in the Sydney Olympics and reached her first Tier I quarterfinal in Zurich, where she lost to world number 1 Martina Hingis. Myskina was plagued by injury that forced her to miss the Australian Open. As a result, she fell out of the Top 100 Rankings. She then had a solid indoors performance, reaching the quarterfinals in Leipzig (became the first Russian to beat Anna Kournikova) and to the semifinals in Moscow, her first career Tier I SF).

2002

2002 was a breakthrough season for Myskina. She scored her first Top 10 win over defending champion Jelena Dokic in Rome, and entered the Top 20 afterwards. Myskina reached back-to-back grass court finals in Birmingham and Eastbourne, and rose to number 15 in the rankings. She won her first Tier II title in Bahia, and another runner-up finish in Leipzig confirmed her spot in WTA Tour Championships. She finished the 2002 season in the top 15 for the first time in her career.

2003

Myskina reached the Australian Open quarterfinals (her first Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance of six). After claiming the title in Doha and defeating friend Elena Likhovtseva in the first all-Russian final in WTA history, she cracked the Top 10. Established her place among the game elite with a win in Sarasota, Myskina also had mediocre results during the summer season were followed by a quarterfinal appearance at the U.S. Open, back-to-back titles in Leipzig (defeating No.1 Kim Clijsters and No.2 Justine Henin) and Moscow, which was her first Tier I title. She became the first Russian woman to win the Kremlin Cup), and she made the finals in Philadelphia. Myskina qualified for the Tour Championships. She earned more than $US1 million in prize money, and finished the year in the Top 10 for the first time in her career.

2004

2004 was Mykina's best season to date. Myskina successfully defended her Doha title, afterwards becoming the second Russian woman to break into the Top 5, the first was Natasha Zvereva, who rose to number 5 in the World in May of 1989. The highlight of Myskina's 2004 season was a victory at the French Open, where she saved match points in the fourth round against Svetlana Kuznetsova, then defeated former world number 1 players Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati, en route to a 6–1, 6–2 victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva in the first all-Russian Grand Slam final, thus making her the first female Russian to win a Grand Slam singles title. Prior to her French Open victory, she had never made it past the 2nd round at Roland Garros. Following her win in Paris, she rose to No.3 in the rankings. She reached the final in San Diego, breaking Maria Sharapova’s 14-match winning streak that included Wimbledon and beat Vera Zvonareva 17-15 in a third set tie-break, saving 9 match points, winning the longest final set tie-break in WTA Tour history. She lost in the 2004 Athens Olympics semifinal to Justine Henin, having led 5–1 in the final set. She rose to a career-high number 2 in the rankings. Myskina recovered from the tough loss to win the Kremlin Cup for the second straight year, and beat number 2 Lindsay Davenport for the first time in 5 meetings en route to doing so. She finished on the top of her group at the WTA Tour Championships, and scored her second win over a world number 1 by again beating Davenport, but lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion Sharapova. Myskina led Russia to its first Fed Cup title, winning 8 out of 9 matches played, including winning all of her 3 matches in the final. Finished the season as world number 3, a career-best year-end rank for a female Russian, and won over $2 millions in prize money, having scored ten Top 10 wins during the 2004 season.

2005

2005 brought Myskina mixed fortunes. She spent the first half of 2005 poorly, due to personal issues regarding her mother's health. Myskina surrendered her Doha and Roland Garros titles in the very first round, and became the first Roland Garros champion to lose in the opening round. Bringing an 8-10 win-loss record to the beginning of the grass court season, Myskina managed to turn it around at Wimbledon by reaching her career-first quarterfinal at the event with three comeback wins over Jelena Janković (from a 1–5 final set deficit), and over Dementieva (being 1–6, 0–3 down and facing match points in the second set tiebreak). She fell out of the Top 10 in August. She then won a tenth career title in Kolkata beating lower-ranked opponents. She did, however, beat the 2005 Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in Fed Cup semifinals, but then lost both of her matches in the final. Myskina finished inside Top 15 for the fourth straight time.

2006

2006 was another disappointing season for Myskina. Having had several chances to return to the Top 10, she failed to convert any of them. In Warsaw, she suffered her worst defeat in terms of the rankings on WTA Tour level, falling to a wild card, Agnieszka Radwańska, ranked No. 309. She showed splashes of her old form during the grass season, having reached the Eastbourne final beautifully, losing to Justine Henin in a close final concluded in a third set tiebreak. She made the Wimbledon quarterfinals, but lost to eventual champion Amelie Mauresmo in three sets. She had solid performance at the first two Grand Slams, making the 4th round on each occasion. After Wimbledon, her game completely fall apart. Along with second straight runner-up finish at the Tier IV event in Stockholm, she didn't manage to win a single match in North America, going 0–3 during the US Open Series. The downfall reached its nadir with a first round loss at the U.S. Open, having entered the event under an injury cloud carried over from New Haven. Anastasia sat out for a majority of the indoor season with a foot and toe injury, pulling out of Stuttgart and her home tournament in Moscow. She returned to play in Zurich, but lost to unknown Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky, 6–3, 6–3.

2007

Myskina only played two singles matches, having been injured. She lost both of those matches; including to Meghann Shaughnessy at the French Open, only winning a game. As of July 25, 2007, Myskina fell to the same ranking as the wildcard she lost to, Agnieszka Radwańska, of Number 309. She also is unranked for doubles. Myskina is taking time off due to a career-threatening injury.

Playing style

Myskina is one of the better baseline players in the game today, as shown with her French Open title in 2004. Despite this she prefers faster court surfaces, although having all the hallmarks of a genuine clay court champion (fast feet, stamina, all court play, deft touch and court smarts). Her game is characterized by a combination of consistent rallying and aggressive baseline points. Known as one of the smartest players on the tour, Myskina often out-thinks her opponents, toying with them, thus forcing them into error. Her backhand is her best shot, as her forehand tends to break down during matches. She is adept at using the 'angles' of the court to exploit slower opponents, and is able to mix the pace of her groundstrokes during a point. The major weaknesses in her game are her second serve, her forehand, and occasional inconsistency.

Personal life

Her German coach, Jens Gerlach, is also a former boyfriend. Myskina's supposed current boyfriend is HC Dynamo Moscow hockey player Alexandr Stepanov, and she has also been linked to Austrian tennis pro Jürgen Melzer. On October 10, 2006 Melzer commented: ''"We're happy as a couple, but everything else is none of your business, it's our private life!"

In October 2002, Myskina had a series of photos taken for GQ magazine by the photographer Mark Seligerfor a spread in the October 2002 edition of GQ, in which one approved photo of her fully clothed was published. After she won the French Open in 2004, some photographs from the shoot, in which she appeared topless, were published in the July/August 2004 issue of the Russian magazine Medved (Bear). In August 2004, she filed an $8 million USD lawsuit against the men's magazine GQ for allowing her topless photographs to appear in a Russian magazine Medved without her consent. On June 19, 2005, U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey, later United States Attorney General, ruled that Anastasia Myskina could not stop the distribution of the topless photos, because she had signed a release. Myskina had claimed that she did not understand the photo release form and that she was not fluent in English at the time.

Myskina announced that she was pregnant with her first child, due in May 2008. She has previously dated Russian hockey player Konstantin Korneev, but refuses to state the name of the father. On April 28, 2008 Myskina gave birth to her first child, a boy named Zhenya.

Grand Slam singles finals

Win (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2004	French Open	Elena Dementieva	6–1, 6–2

Career finals

Singles

WTA singles titles (10)

Legend
Grand Slam (1)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (2)
Tier II (3)
Tier III (2)
Tier IV (2)

Titles by Surface
Hard (3)
Grass (0)
Clay (3)
Carpet (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	July 18, 1999	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Angeles Montolio	3–6, 7–6(3), 6–2
2.	September 14, 2002	Bahia, Brazil	Hard	Eleni Daniilidou	6–3, 0–6, 6–2
3.	February 16, 2003	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Elena Likhovtseva	6–3, 6–1
4.	April 6, 2003	Sarasota, Florida, USA	Clay	Alicia Molik	6–4, 6–1
5.	September 28, 2003	Leipzig, Germany	Carpet (i)	Justine Henin	3–6, 6–3, 6–3
6.	October 5, 2003	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Amélie Mauresmo	6–2, 6–4
7.	March 6, 2004	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Svetlana Kuznetsova	4–6, 6–4, 6–4
8.	June 3, 2004	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Elena Dementieva	6–1, 6–2
9.	October 17, 2004	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Elena Dementieva	7–5, 6–0
10.	September 25, 2005	Kolkata, India	Carpet (i)	Karolina Sprem	6–2, 6–2

Runner-ups (9)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (1)
Tier II (4)
Tier III (2)
Tier IV & V (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	June 16, 2002	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Jelena Dokic	6–2, 6–3
2.	June 22, 2002	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Chanda Rubin	6–1, 6–3
3.	September 29, 2002	Leipzig, Germany	Carpet (i)	Serena Williams	6–3, 6–2
4.	November 2, 2003	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA	Hard (i)	Amélie Mauresmo	5–7, 6–0, 6–2
5.	August 1, 2004	San Diego, California, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–1, 6–1
6.	August 14, 2005	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 6–2
7.	May 27, 2006	Istanbul, Turkey	Clay	Shahar Peer	1–6, 6–3, 7–6(3)
8.	June 24, 2006	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Justine Henin	4–6, 6–1, 7–6(5)
9.	August 13, 2006	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Zheng Jie	6–4, 6–1

Path to the 2004 Roland Garros Title

Round	Defeated	Opponent's Rank	Score	Notes
First Round	Alicia Molik (Australia)	32	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Second Round	Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic)	68	6–0, 6–4	First time past the second round.
Third Round	Denisa Chladkova (Czech Republic)	70	6–3, 7–6 (3)
Fourth Round	Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)	11	1–6, 6–4, 8–6	Kuznetsova had match points.
Quarterfinal	Venus Williams (United States)	9	6–3, 6–4	First career win over Venus Williams, and only one in straight sets.
Semifinal	Jennifer Capriati (United States)	6	6–2, 6–2
Final	Elena Dementieva (Russia)	10	6–1, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2007 French Open, which ended on June 10, 2007.

Tournament	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career Win-Loss	Total
Australian Open	A	A	A	2R	QF	QF	4R	4R	A	0 / 5	14-5	N/A
French Open	A	1R	1R	1R	2R	W	1R	4R	1R	1 / 8	11-7	N/A
Wimbledon	A	3R	2R	3R	4R	3R	QF	QF	A	0 / 7	18-7	N/A
U.S. Open	2R	1R	1R	3R	QF	2R	3R	1R	A	0 / 8	10-8	N/A
Grand Slam SR	0 / 1	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	1 / 4	0 / 4	1 / 4	0 / 1	1 / 28	N/A	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	1–1	2–3	1–3	5–4	12-4	14-3	8–4	10-4	0–1	N/A	53-27	N/A
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	1R	4R	SF	A	A	A	0 / 3	3–5	N/A
Finals reached	1	0	0	4	5	4	2	3	0	N/A	N/A	19
Tournaments Won	1	0	0	1	4	3	1	0	0	N/A	N/A	10
Hard Outdoors Win-Loss	4–4	3–7	2–3	19-11	15-8	27-10	14-8	13-10	0–1	N/A	97-62	N/A
Hard Indoors Win-Loss	0–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	6–5	5–4	5–2	0–0	0–0	N/A	18-15	N/A
Clay Win-Loss	5–1	6–6	1–4	12-8	11-6	12-2	3–6	8–4	0–1	N/A	58-38	N/A
Grass Win-Loss	0–0	5–3	3–2	10-3	3–2	2–1	5–2	8–2	0–0	N/A	36-15	N/A
Carpet Win-Loss	1–1	0–0	5–2	6–5	11-1	9–1	9–2	2–1	0–0	N/A	43-13	N/A
Overall Win-Loss	10-6	16-18	11-12	47-28	46-22	55-18	36-20	31-17	0-2	N/A	252-143	N/A
Year End Rank [Career Best]	65	58	59	11	7	3	14	16	1038	N/A	N/A	[2]

Doubles finals

Wins

No.	Year	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents
1.	2004	Bali, Indonesia	III	Hard Outdoors	Ai Sugiyama	Svetlana Kuznetsova and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
2.	2004	Moscow, Russia	I	Carpet	Vera Zvonareva	Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez
3.	2005	Kolkata, India	III	Carpet	Elena Likhovtseva	Neha Uberoi and Shikha Uberoi
4.	2005	Filderstadt, Germany	II	Hard Indoors	Daniela Hantuchova	Kveta Peschke and Francesca Schiavone
5.	2006	Warsaw, Poland	II	Clay	Elena Likhovtseva	Anabel Medina Garrigues and Katarina Srebotnik

Runner-up

No.	Year	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner
1.	2003	Moscow, Russia	I	Carpet	Vera Zvonareva (Russia)

Awards

Trivia

Has twice received the WTA Diamond Aces Award, which is awarded for commitment to promoting the tour.
Boris Yeltsin personally congratulated her on her first Tier I victory at Moscow, and watched her become Russia's first ever female Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros in 2004.
In the Partners For Success program her mentor was Bulgarian tennis player Katerina Maleeva, a former top 10 player noted for her on-court tenacity. Myskina is often credited with on-court competitive drive by commentators of the sport, particularly Fred Stolle.
Likes sushi, white sausages and gnocchi.
Started her career as a World Team Tennis player for the Springfield Lasers.
Has either a winning or tied record with any Russian player she has played. 3–2 vs. Sharapova and Petrova, 9–6 vs. Dementieva, 4–1 vs. Safina, 3–1 vs. Zvonareva, 5–3 vs. Likhovtseva, 1–0 vs. Kournikova, and 4–2 vs. Kuznetsova. The only stain on her Russian dominance is a 1–1 tied head to head vs. Chakvetadze.