Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova is currently the world’s No. 15 player. She started 2008 in relative bad form. She managed to get to the fourth round of the Australian Open but lost to Polish Agnieszka Radwanska. She did manage to create an uproar by beating Aussie’s very own Nicole Pratt in the first round.

In the Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts at the Gold Coast, Australia, she was taken out of the tournament by Tathiana Garbin in her first match. She also lost her title at the Open Gaz de France in Paris at the first round to Kateryna Bondarenko. Even her attempts at the 2008 Miami Masters (losing to Zheng Jie), the Qatar Total Open in Doha and the Dubai Tennis Championships resulted to upsets.

Nadia Petrova reached a career high with a World No.3 ranking in 2006 with a triumph at the Qatar Telecomm German Open beating Justine Henin. She won the junior French open in 1998 and was runner up in the junior US Open in 1999. She was already in the Top 100 by the end of 1999. By the next year, her quarter finals position on the Australian Open earned her a World’s No. 50 ranking. She reached the fourth round of the 2001 US Open placing her in the 38th world ranking and in March 2004, she was ranked World No. 9.

That same year, she beat World No. 1 Justine Henin in the fourth round of the US Open but lost the championship to Svetlana Kuznetsova. She won the Open Gaz de France in 2007 but lost her title in the Qatar Telecomm German Open in Berlin. Dogged by injuries such as low back pain and a left hip injury, she finished 2007 with a disappointing 14th World ranking. So far, Petrova has a record of 456 wins to 244 defeats. She also has 9 WTA titles and 4 ITF titles to date.