Top Tennis Stars: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Ioana Raluca Olarupl playing style

Ioana Raluca Olarupl

Ioana Raluca Olaru born 3 March 1989 is a Romanian tennis player. As of August 2, 2010, she is ranked World No. 158 in singles and No. 104 in doubles. The winner of nine singles and six doubles ITF Circuit titles, Olaru reached one WTA Tour singles final, at the 2009 Gastein Ladies, to Andrea Petkovic 6–2, 6–3 She has also won one doubles title, at the 2008 Tashkent Open.
Olaru was a successful junior player. She was the runner–up in both singles and doubles at the 2005 French Open,[6] and captured the 2006 US Open doubles title along with Mihaela Buzărnescu. Her best professional grand slam result so far has been the third round of the 2007 French Open, when she defeated the 30th seed Julia Vakulenko in straight sets and lost to eventual runner–up, the 7th seed Ana Ivanović.[7] Olaru reached her highest singles ranking, World No. 53, on 27 July 2009, and her highest doubles ranking, No. 82, on 22 March 2010.
Contents
* 1 Personal life
* 2 Playing style
o 2.1 Career finals
* 3 WTA singles 1 (0-1)
* 4 WTA doubles 3 (1-1)
* 5 Grand slam junior singles 1 (0-1)
* 6 Grand slam junior doubles finals (1–1)
* 7 Singles performance timeline
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Personal life
Ioana Raluca Olaru currently resides in her hometown Bucharest. Her parents, Adrian and Doina, run a convenience store together. Her sister Cristina is sixteen years older than Olaru, and lives in London. Olaru began playing tennis aged seven, and cites Kim Clijsters,Martina Navrátilová and Roger Federer as her role models. She graduated from school in 2007, and is fluent in Romanian, English, French and Spanish.
Playing style
Olaru considers being a fighter as her biggest asset. She cites clay as her favourite surface backhand down the line as favourite shot, but she can play well on all surfaces and she likes mixing up her game with drop shots. Olaru is currently coached by former player Michael Schapers.

Ioana Raluca Olaru

Tatjana Malek professional German tennis player

Tatjana Malekova Bulgarian : Татяна Малек born 8 August 1987 in Bad Saulgau, West Germany is a professional German tennis player. She achieved her highest singles ranking of World No. 64 on 14 September 2009. Her highest doubles ranking of World No. 73 came on 3 May 2010. Malek has won 7 ITF singles titles and 2 ITF doubles title but no WTA tour singles or doubles titles. Her favourite surface is hard court.
Malek's first match in the Germany Fed Cup team was in 2006 against Sun Tiantian of China.
Contents
* 1 Titles
o 1.1 Singles
o 1.2 Doubles
* 2 Singles performance timeline
* 3 External links
Titles
Singles
Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (0)
Tier III (0)
Tier IV & V (0)
ITF Titles (5)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in Final Score in Final
1. July 30, 2006 France Les Contamines Clay Czech Republic Sandra Záhlavová 6–3, 6–4
2. August 13, 2006 Germany Hechingen Clay Romania Magda Mihalache 6–2, 6–3
3. October 28, 2007 Slovakia Bratislava Hard (I) Czech Republic Petra Kvitová 6–2, 7–6
4. November 9, 2009 Germany Ismaning Carpet Germany Kristina Barrois 6–2, 6–3
5. February 15, 2009 Sweden Stockholm Hard (I) Hungary Anikó Kapros 6–3, 6–2

Tatjana Malek

vera zvonareva in Moscow to Igor Zvonarev

Vera Igorevna Zvonareva Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, pronounced [ˈvʲɛrə zvənɐˈrʲɔvə] ( listen); born September 7, 1984 is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. She has reached a career high ranking of World No. 2 and is currently ranked World No. 3 by the WTA. Zvonareva has won eleven WTA Tour singles titles and reached the finals of the 2008 WTA Tour Championships, 2010 Wimbledon Championships and 2010 US Open. She also was a bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 1999–2001
o 2.2 2002
o 2.3 2003
o 2.4 2004
o 2.5 2005
o 2.6 2006
o 2.7 2007
o 2.8 2008
o 2.9 2009
o 2.10 2010
o 2.11 2011
* 3 Playing style
* 4 Personal life
* 5 Career statistics
o 5.1 Grand Slam finals
+ 5.1.1 Singles: 2 (0–2)
+ 5.1.2 Doubles: 2 (1–1)
+ 5.1.3 Mixed Doubles: 2 (2–0)
* 6 Singles performance timeline
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Early life
Zvonareva was born September 7, 1984 in Moscow to Igor Zvonarev and Nataliya Zvonareva (née Bykova). Igor played Bandy in the USSR championship with Dynamo Moscow, while Nataliya played field hockey and was the bronze medalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Vera was introduced to tennis at the age of six by her mother, although no other members of her family play tennis.

vera zvonareva

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Vince Spadea player from the United States

Vincent Spadea born 19 July 1974 in Chicago is an ATP Tour professional tennis player from the United States. He is one of only three players in history to defeat Roger Federer 6-0 in set, at a major event.
He reached a career high in the ATP Champions Race position of World No.10 in April 2003 , as well as a career-high ATP ranking of World No. 18, achieved in February 2005. He has career prize money earnings of over $5,000,000. Spadea has ATP career singles wins over Roger Federer (1-2 record), Pete Sampras (1-4), Andre Agassi (2-4), Rafael Nadal (1-1), Andy Roddick (1-2), Patrick Rafter, Richard Krajicek, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Marat Safin, and Gustavo Kuerten. He is a 2-time Olympian team member (2000 Sydney/2004 Athens).
Contents
* 1 Tennis career
* 2 Off the court
* 3 Titles
o 3.1 Singles Titles
* 4 References
* 5 External links
Tennis career
While in Boca Raton, he attended the Saint Andrew's School. During his time there he also helped to win the National Championship for his high school in 1990.
In 1999, he broke into the Top 20 players in the world for the first time. In 2000, had a string of injuries that dropped him drastically to a world ranking of 237 from 19. Vince set a new ATP benchmark with a 21-match losing streak in 2000. Working hard on the challenger circuit after his fall, he successfully recovered and eventually won his first career ATP Tour tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he defeated James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way in 2004 . He continued to back to the top of the world rankings from the 200s to a career high 18. This is considered one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history in terms of ranking spots improved.
In 2003, Spadea embarked on a Masters series tear, qualifying at the Pacific Life Open and reaching the semi-finals for the first time in his career, losing to World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.. He went on to the Monte Carlo Masters a month later and reached his 2nd semi-finals in a Masters series . Being one of only a handful of Americans to ever reach that far in a Masters claycourt event . This helped him reach a career high position of No.10 in the ATP Champions Race in April.
In 2005, Vince turned down numerous TV opportunities including a spot on ABC's hit show "The Bachelor" to focus on his inspiring tennis comeback that saw him rise from the bottom of the ranks to No.18 in Feb. Vince then signed a publishing deal with ECW Press to write a candid memoir on the behind the scenes life of a pro tennis player, violating a long-standing tennis rule that players do not reveal locker room secrets to the world in exchange for money.

Vince Spadea

Daniela Hantuchova Slovak professional tennis player

Daniela Hantuchová Slovak pronunciation: 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 is currently coached by Larri Passos. Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success" program was Martina Navrátilová, who was her doubles partner for a brief period in early 2005. As of June 20, 2011, Hantuchová is ranked World No. 23 in singles.
In 2005, she became the fifth female tennis player to have won the mixed doubles title in all four Grand Slam tournaments during her career.
Contents
* 1 Personal life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 2002
o 2.2 2003
o 2.3 2004
o 2.4 2005–2006
o 2.5 2007
o 2.6 2008
o 2.7 2009–2010
o 2.8 2011
* 3 Career statistics
* 4 Endorsements
o 4.1 Product endorsement and equipment
o 4.2 Video games
* 5 Achievements
o 5.1 Team achievements
o 5.2 Special achievements
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Personal life
Hantuchová was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) to father Igor, a computer scientist, and mother Marianna, a toxicologist.
When her parents split up in 2003, Hantuchová's performances temporarily worsened. At Wimbledon that year, she failed to convert several match points and was seen weeping on court. She also suffered from a weight problem during this period. She was suspected of being anorexic but denied this.
Hantuchová speaks three languages (Slovak, English and German), and was trained as a classical pianist. She is thought to be a perfectionist and puts a lot of pressure on herself during her training. She qualified for university in Slovakia but deferred it to pursue tennis.[citation needed]
She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.