Kateryna Bondarenko

Kateryna Bondarenko was born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine on August 8, 1986. She has two sisters, Alyona and Valerie who also play tennis professionally. She started with tennis as early as 4 years old and is still being coached by her father until today.

She turned professional in 2000 and competed for the first time in the ITF Circuit in Ukraine. By 2002, she was already playing in her first Tour in Shanghai. She earned ITF titles in both singles and the doubles division. In 2003, she lost the first round at the Bogota tournament to Catalina Castano and reached the second round in the Pattaya Open.

Kateryna Bondarenko first won her ITF title in Pune in 2002, in Dubai in 2006 and in Birmingham in 2008. She reached the quarterfinals in Memphis in 2005, Tashkent in 2006, in Doha, Stuttgart in 2006 and Paris in 2008.

She entered her first singles grand slam match in 2005 in Wimbledon but was eliminated in the first round. She reached the second round the year after and also played in 2007. She reached the quarterfinals at Doha, defeating seventh-seeded Anna Groenefeld but lost to Jelena Jankovic. She also impressed the crowd in Stuttgart defeating fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic but lost to Tatiana Golovin. She had a third round finish in Rome and Los Angeles.

The same year saw her in the 2007 US Open (losing to No. 13 seed Safina) and the Roland Garros tournament (defeated by No. 14 seed Schnyder) managing a second round finish in both. She also qualified for the Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

Bondarenko opened 2008 with a doubles championship title she shared with sister Alyona in the Australian Open. She made headlines in February by defeating Nadia Petrova who was the Open Gaz de France defending champion. She is currently ranked No. 47 after winning her first WTA Tour singles in Birmingham June 2008.