Background
Coached by father, Yuri Kirilenko. Mother's name is Olga; engaged to NHL player Alexander Ovechkin. Started playing at age 7 when father introduced her to game at Dinamo Moscow Central Stadium.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia acknowledges the crowd after her win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus during the New Haven Open at Yale at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale on August 23, 2012 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Maria Kirilenko of Russian serves against Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic during their women's singles third round match on Day Six of the 2012 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 1, 2012 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic pose with their trophies after the final of the New Haven Open at Yale at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale on August 25, 2012 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Bronze medalists Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Nadia Petrova of Russia pose with their medals during the medal ceremony for the Women's Doubles Tennis on Day 9 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on August 5, 2012 in London, England.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia reacts during her Ladies' Singles quarterfinal match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland on day eight of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 3, 2012 in London, England.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia plays a forehand in her women's singles first round match between Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Victoria Larriere of France during day three of the French Open at Roland Garros on May 29, 2012 in Paris, France.
Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova of Russia pose for photographers after defeating Sara Errani Roberta Vinci of Italy after the doubles final of the Sony Ericsson Open at the Crandon Park Tennis Center on April 1, 2012 in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia plays a backhand in her match against Samantha Stosur of Australia during the day three of the Toray Pan Pacific Open at Ariake Colosseum on September 27, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia, signs autograph for fans at the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank at the Rexall Centre on August 8, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Victoria Azarenka (L) of Belarus and Maria Kirilenko of Russia with the winners trophies after defeating Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in the doubles final during day eight of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open Tennis on May 7, 2011 in Madrid, Spain.
Coached by father, Yuri Kirilenko. Mother's name is Olga; engaged to NHL player Alexander Ovechkin. Started playing at age 7 when father introduced her to game at Dinamo Moscow Central Stadium.
2001 - Played first events of career on ITF Circuit.
2002 - Played first three WTA main draws, falling 1r at all three (Bali, Tokyo [Japan Open], Pattaya City); fell in qualifying once; continued to play on ITF Circuit.
2003 - QF at Hyderabad; reached 3r once (US Open) and 2r once; fell 1r twice and in qualifying three times (incl. Wimbledon); won one singles title on ITF Circuit.
2004 - Runner-up at Hyderabad (l. to Pratt in final); reached 2r four times (incl. Roland Garros, US Open); fell 1r four times (incl. Wimbledon) and in qualifying four times (incl. Australian Open); made Top 100 debut on May 24 (rose from No.102 to No.100); won one WTA doubles title; won one singles title on ITF Circuit.
2005 - First Top 30 season; won first WTA title at Beijing (d. Groenefeld in final); SF twice at Hyderabad (l. to Mirza) and Tokyo [Japan Open] (l. to Vaidisova); QF twice at Doha and Guangzhou; reached 4r once and 2r 11 times (incl. Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open); fell 1r five times (incl. Roland Garros) and in qualifying twice; made Top 50 debut on March 21 (after Indian Wells; rose from No.66 to No.48); won one WTA doubles title.
2006 - Another Top 30 season; QF four times at Auckland, Tokyo [Pan Pacific], Dubai and Zürich; reached 4r once, 3r five times (incl. Australian Open, Roland Garros, US Open) and 2r four times; fell 1r 11 times (incl. Wimbledon); made Top 20 debut on June 12 (after Roland Garros; rose from No.22 to No.20).
2007 - Near-Top 30 season (finishing No.31); won second WTA title at Kolkata (d. Koryttseva in final); runner-up at Seoul (l. to V.Williams in final); QF twice at San Diego and Los Angeles; reached 3r four times (incl. Australian Open, US Open) and 2r eight times (incl. Roland Garros); fell 1r 12 times (incl. Wimbledon); won one WTA doubles title; won one singles title on ITF Circuit.
2008 - Another Top 30 season; won third through fifth WTA titles at Estoril (d. Benesova in final), Barcelona (d. Martínez Sánchez in final) and Seoul (d. Stosur in final); SF at Cincinnati (l. to Petrova); QF twice at Auckland and Portoroz; reached 4r once (Australian Open), 3r twice and 2r seven times (incl. Roland Garros); fell 1r nine times (incl. Wimbledon, US Open); won two WTA doubles titles.
2009 - Another Top 100 season; runner-up at Barcelona (l. to Vinci in final); SF at Seoul (l. to Date-Krumm); QF three times at Estoril, Bastad and Moscow; reached 3r once (US Open) and 2r six times (incl. Wimbledon); fell 1r 12 times (incl. other two majors) and in qualifying once.
2010 - First Top 20 season (finishing No.20); runner-up at Moscow (l. to Azarenka in final); SF at New Haven (l. to Petrova); QF four times at Auckland, Australian Open (first Grand Slam QF; l. to Zheng), Rome and Stanford; reached 4r once (Roland Garros), 3r five times (incl. Wimbledon, US Open) and 2r eight times; fell 1r three times; won two WTA doubles titles.
2011 - Another Top 30 season; SF at Guangzhou (l. to Scheepers); QF three times at Strasbourg, Tokyo [Pan Pacific] and Beijing; reached 4r twice (Roland Garros and US Open - l. to Stosur 62 67(15) 63, longest Grand Slam tie-break ever), 3r three times (incl. Wimbledon) and 2r eight times (incl. Australian Open and Pattaya City - l. to Voskoboeva 16 75 64; held 3mp at 61 54); fell 1r six times (incl. Madrid - l. to Gajdosova 75 36 76(4); held 2mp at 6-5 third set); won two WTA doubles titles; made doubles Top 10 debut on January 31 (rose from No.14 to No.9) and doubles Top 5 debut on October 24 (rose from No.7 to No.5).
2012 - Second Top 20 season (finishing No.14); runner-up twice at Pattaya City (l. to Hantuchova in final) and New Haven (l. to Kvitova in final); SF at Olympics (l. to Sharapova; l. to Azarenka in bronze medal match); QF three times at Indian Wells, Wimbledon (second Grand Slam QF; l. to A.Radwanska) and Moscow; reached 4r once, 3r twice (Australian Open, US Open) and 2r four times (incl. Roland Garros); fell 1r six times (incl. 's-Hertogenbosch - l. to Schiavone 64 36 75; held mp at 5-3 third set) and in qualifying once; fell in RR stage at Sofia (went 1-1 in RR then withdrew w/illness); set career-high No.12 on August 27; won two WTA doubles titles at Miami and WTA Championships and Olympic doubles bronze medal (all w/Petrova); retired in Australian Open 3r w/left leg muscle injury, from Strasbourg 1r w/right ankle injury and from Seoul 1r w/back injury, also withdrew from Montréal w/right leg injury and from Tokyo [Pan Pacific] w/back injury.
SINGLES.
Winner (5): 2008 - Estoril, Barcelona, Seoul; 2007 - Kolkata, ITF/Dubai 2-UAE; 2005 - Beijing; 2004 - ITF/Saint Gaudens-FRA; 2003 - ITF/Boca Raton-United States of America.
Finalist (5): 2012 - Pattaya City; 2010 - Moscow; 2009 - Barcelona; 2007 - Seoul; 2004 - Hyderabad.
DOUBLES.
Winner (11): 2012 - Miami (w/Petrova) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2011 - Madrid, Stanford (both w/Azarenka) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2010 - San Diego (w/Zheng), Cincinnati (w/Azarenka) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2009 - Moscow (w/Petrova) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2008 - Estoril (w/Pennetta), Cincinnati (w/Petrova) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2007 - Doha (w/Hingis) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2005 - Tokyo [Japan Open] (w/Dulko) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2004 - Birmingham (w/Sharapova).
Finalist (12): 2012 - Roland Garros, 's-Hertogenbosch (both w/Petrova) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2011 - Australian Open, Toronto (both w/Azarenka) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2009 - Dubai, Los Angeles (both w/A.Radwanska), Fès (w/Cirstea) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2008 - Montréal (w/Pennetta), Seoul (w/Dushevina) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2006 - 's-Hertogenbosch (w/Ivanovic) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `description` = VALUES(`description`); 2005 - Rome (w/Medina Garrigues), New Haven (w/Dulko).
Russian Fed Cup Team, 2006, 2011; Russian Olympic Team, 2012.
Olympic medal record: Bronze (London, 2012) Doubles
Relaxes by reading books, watching movies, fishing, cooking.Her favorite movies are: ”The Barber of Siberia” and ”The Story of a Knight”. Generally, she prefers comedies.
Her favorite books are Dumas’ ”The Three Musketeers” and ”Twenty Years After”, Victor Hugo’s ”Notre-Dame de Paris”, ”White Fang” by Jack London, and short stories by O’Henry. She likes ”The Twelve Chairs” and ”The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov. Masha also reads ”Harry Potter” and enjoys detective stories.
Classical music (especially Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach or Beethoven).
