Nadia Petrova
Overall, she has won 26 WTA Titles, nine in singles and seventeen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No.
3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005 and in doubles, won the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in 2004 with Meghann Shaughnessy. As of August 24, 2009, Petrova is ranked World No 13 in singles and No 14 in doubles.
Biography
Early life
Petrova was born in Moscow.
Her parents were both very athletic - her father Viktor was a leading hammer thrower, while her mother Nadezhda Ilyina won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics in the 400 meter relay. As a child, Nadia did a lot of travelling around the world with her parents.
She eventually settled in Egypt, where she trained with Mohammed Seif and her parents.
Career
Early career
As a junior, Petrova won the 1998 French Open, beating Jelena Dokić in the final. The same year she finished runner-up at the Orange Bowl to Elena Dementieva and she also finished runner-up at the junior 1999 US Open to Lina Krasnoroutskaya.
In May 1998, she played her first WTA tournament at the J&S Cup as a wildcard entrant. She also received a wildcard for her home event in Moscow, the Kremlin Cup, where she picked up her first top twenty win over Iva Majoli.
By the end of 1999, Petrova had reached the top 100.
In 2000, she reached the third round of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of the Ericsson Open, beating Julie Halard-Decugis for her first top ten win before losing to Lindsay Davenport. 76 in the world, she reached the semifinals of the French Open, beating former No.
12.
2004
Petrova reached her second WTA final at Gold Coast, losing once again to Ai Sugiyama 1–6, 6–1, 6–4. She reached the semifinals at the Bausch & Lomb Championships, beating second-seeded Serena Williams before losing to Lindsay Davenport.
However, she failed to defend her semifinal points from the 2003 French Open, losing to Marlene Weingärtner in the third round 6–3, 6–2.
At the US Open, she pulled off the biggest win of her career by defeating Justine Henin 6–3, 6–2 in the fourth round. She reached her third career final at the Qatar Total German Open in May, beating Mary Pierce, Amélie Mauresmo and Jelena Janković, before losing to Justine Henin.
9, where she stayed for the next two years before dropping out in May 2007.
At the French Open, she lost in the semifinals to Henin 6–2, 6–3, but her ranking rose one place to No. A few weeks later at Wimbledon, she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Maria Sharapova 7–6, 6–3.
After Wimbledon, she reached five straight quarterfinals at Los Angeles, Toronto, the US Open, Luxembourg, and Filderstadt.
Petrova finally won her first title at the Generali Ladies Linz held in Linz, Austria. She beat Patty Schnyder in the final.
Her successful season meant she qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Los Angeles.
2006
At the Australian Open, Petrova was seeded 6th and defeated Sophie Ferguson, Martina Müller, Maria Elena Camerin and Elena Vesnina on her way to her first quaterfinal at the Australian Open.
She followed it with a quarterfinal showing at the NASDAQ-100 Open, losing to Mauresmo 6–3, 6–1.
Petrova then began her run that would take her to three titles, winning fifteen straight matches. One week later, she won her second straight title and fourth overall at the Family Circle Cup with a victory over Patty Schnyder.
She next entered the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, defeating Justine Henin.
This may have been caused by an ankle injury Petrova suffered during training before the tournament. After the loss, she claimed that the low back pain had been bothering her.
At Dubai, she lost to Katarina Srebotnik.
At the 2008 German Open in Berlin, Petrova was seeded 16th and defeated Katarina Srebotnik in the first round before losing in the second round to Maria Kirilenko. However, she managed to reach the third round before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-1.
Petrova's grass season began at Eastbourne, where she reached her first final of the year, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska.
At her final tournament of the season in Quebec City, she won her second title of the year and secured her status as the first alternate for the WTA Tour Championships should a player withdraw. She then came from a set down to beat Gisela Dulko 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Petrova lost to #8 Victoria Azarenka, in three sets, in the fourth round.
Petrova began her 2009 US Open Series campaign at Stanford where she was seeded 5th. After defeating her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets in the first round, Petrova lost again to Sharapova 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour.
Continuing her campaign on the 2009 US Open Series, she then received a wildcard as the 4th seed at the New Haven but again lost to compatriot Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.
Her next tournament was the final Grandslam of the year, the 2009 US Open. In 2002 and 2003, she also reached the finals of three Tier I events with Jelena Dokić.
WTA Tour titles (23)
Singles (9)
Doubles (17)
Runner-ups (20)
Singles (10)
Doubles (10)
Performance timelines
Singles
To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the 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.