WTA Number 20: Maria Kirilenko in 2010
Maria Kirilenko, currently world number 20 on the Women’s Tennis Association’s charts, is a professional tennis player from Russia. The young player took away the title for the junior tournament at the 2002 Canadian Open. The same year, she also emerged
from the 2002 US Open junior event, with another victory. She turned pro almost ten years ago in 2001 and her first WTA Tour title win came in 2005, when she defeated Anna-Lena Gronefeld at the China Open. Kirilenko, who is twenty-three-years-old, reached
her career-high singles ranking in 2008.This is when she hit world number 18 on the WTA charts. This year, Kirilenko made it to her first Grand Slam semi final in January, at the 2010 Australian Open.
This year, Kirilenko has been steadily ranked at world number 8, since 8th November 2010. Maria Kirilenko began the year on an unexpectedly high note, with her first career majors semi-final at the tournament in Melbourne. The surprise showing
gave her a 21-spot jump in her rankings, moving her from world number 58 to number 37. She managed to defeat players such as compatriot and former world number 1 Maria Sharapova, Yvonne Meusberger, Roberta Vinci and second seed Dinara Safina (by retirement
in the fourth round), before falling to Zheng Jie. However, the downside to such a spectacular performance was also apparent. She was unable to follow through on this breakthrough and the rest of her tournaments in the year 2010 were mostly a letdown from
that moment on. She was unable to meet the high standards she set for herself at Melbourne. After January, she won only three games in a dismal loss to Regina Kulikova in Dubai. Kulikova was barely rated within the world’s top 100 players at that point. Kirilenko
withdrew from both Indian Wells and Miami.
Despite the lack of follow-up success, Kirilenko did not run a bad campaign in 2010. Her career year in 2009 left something to be desired when she ended the season at world number 63. This year, she rebounded from the previous year well, finishing the year
with a career high ranking and the position of world number 20. Although she hasn’t won any titles since 2008, she did add some impressive victories to her resume this year, such as her double defeats of Svetlana Kuznetsova and her victories over Maria Sharapova
and Shahar Peer. With these victories, Kirilenko (a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model) showed flashes of both talent and the ability to perform much better. While Kirilenko does not have much to boast about in stature, she does her best with her slight
frame. But as her lack of trophies indicates, her consistency is a field which requires considerable improvement. Her wins are, at the moment, considerably negated by her losses. Her best match of the year was undoubtedly her match against former Australian
Open champion, Maria Sharapova. Kirilenko traded rallies with her opponent, who is a former world number one and managed to defeat her by using her powerful serve and cross-court winners to her advantage.
While Kirilenko put up a solid show in 2010, she did not amass any titles. She will not be able to make much progress until she hones her talent and ability to defeat the Top 20 players consistently.
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