Top Ten Russian Female Players of 2008

In female Tennis, Russian players are doing very well. Maria Sharapova is the number 2 player now. She was the number one until French Open. Here, I have written about top ten Russian Female Tennis players of 2008. I have made this list according to WTA ranking. You may agree or disagree with my list but I have
compiled the list purely on the basis of current ranking. So, here are they:

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova is Russia’s top ranked female tennis player who is currently ranked 2^nd in the WTA ranking. The three Grand Slam titles winner has already reached the zenith of fame thanks to her excellent talent and skill. Turned professional in 2001 at the age of 14, the Russian tennis star began her grand slam campaign from 2003. Her first Grand Slam success came in Wimbledon 2004 as she defeated Serena Williams 6–1, 6–4 in the final to clinch her first grand slam title. Though Sharapova did not get any other Grand Slam success in 2005, she reached at the top of the ranking for the first time in August 2005. Two years after Sharapova had won her first grand slam title. She got the second success in grand slam in US Open 2006 and in Austrian Open 2008, she won her third grand slam title. Thus, Maria Sharapova now needs to win the title of French Open in order to achieve the career grand slam. Overall Sharapova has 19 singles titles so far in her career.

Sharapova is also a familiar face out of the court thanks to her immense beauty. Tennis skill mingled with her beauty has earned her a handful of offers for television commercial. Thus, the 21-year old Russian has already become a global sports celebrity. In fact, she is the world’s highest paid female athlete. So, success came in both ways for the Russian star, but even her die heard fans would also admit that Maria Sharapova lacks consistency. However, whatever she achieved at this age, it is phenomenal and she has a long career ahead of her.

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Kuznetsova is ranked 4^th according to WTA ranking. However, among the Russian female singles tennis players, Svetlana Kuznetsova stands second after Maria Sharapova. The 23-year old Russian turned professional in 2000 and started to participate in the grand slam singles tournaments since 2002 at the age of 17. She won her only grand slam title in US Open 2004 defeating fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in the final. Besides that, Kuznetsova appeared in the final of French Open 2006 and US Open 2007. She also has a Grand Slam women’s doubles title to her credit. Kuznetsova partnered with Alicia Molik won the Austrian Open 2005 women’s doubles title. Her best ever ranking in singles is 2 which she achieved in September 2007. Overall, Kuznetsova has 24 singles titles in her career till date.

Elena Dementieva

The 26 year old Russian stands fifth in the WTA ranking now. Elena Dementieva could not win any grand slam singles title in her career yet, but thanks to the consistency, she has been in and around the top ten for the last few years. At the age of 17, she started playing professional tennis and gave her first shot at a grand slam tournament in US Open 1999, but failed to get into the final competition being ruled out from qualifying round. However, Elena Dementieva has been a familiar face in grand slam tournaments since Austrian Open 1999. So far, she appeared in two grand slam singles finals; the first being in French Open 2004 and the last one in US Open 2004. She has 13 WTA singles titles to her credit so far in her career. Dementieva has 13 WTA titles to her credit so far in her career. The Russain tennis star accomplished her highest ranking in October 2004 when she reached at the fourth place in WTA ranking. Elena Dementieva also won a silver medal in 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Chakvetadze is the fourth highest ranked female tennis players from Russia. In WTA ranking, she stands eighth, but she does not have any grand slam success to her credit till date. The 21-year old Russian reached the semi final of US Open 2007 which is her best ever Grand Slam success since she started playing in grand slam tournament in 2004, a year after becoming professional. In 2003, she reached the final of Wimbledon Junior Championship. Chakvetadze experienced her best ever ranking in September 2007.

Anna Chakvetadze won seven WTA titles so far in her short career. She is still 21 and has a lot more years left ahead of her. So, if she can continue improving her skill and flourishing her potential then I think, Anna Chakvetadze has a successful career ahead of her.

Dinara Safina

Dinara Safina has been one of the familiar faces of major tennis tournaments now-a-days. She is currently ranking 9^th in WTA ranking and one of the five Russian female tennis players in the top ten ranking. At 22, she has not won any grand slam titles, but has six WTA singles titles to her credit.

Following the feet of elder brother Marat Safin, the former world no. 1 of men’s tennis, she turned professional in 2001, she started taking part in grand slam tournament since 2002. She reached the final of French Open 2008, which is the best ever grand slam success of Dinara Safina. She accomplished her highest ranking 9 in May 2007.

Vera Zvonareva

I liked the official website of Vera Zvonareva. In fact, it is one of the most beautiful websites about any player. In this September, Vera Zvonareva is going to become 24 years old. So, you can easily imagine that she has passed her best years already. Her height is 1.72 m and this is attractive height for a European girl. Her current ranking is 14. She is beautiful and she even became one of the top 10 ranked female players in August 2004. In her career, she has earned $3,935,193 of prize money so far. That is not bad amount considering the fact she was never impressive in any Grand Slam Tournament. By the way, I could only enter into the home page of her official website but I could not enter inside. So, check if there is any problem.

Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova has been playing professional tennis since 1999. So, next year, it will be one decade of pro-tennis for her. She is now 26 years old. In the last 9 years, Nadia Petrova has seen ups and downs in her ranking and career. Right now, she is the number 18^th ranked female tennis player in the world. That should surprise you to know that she was ranked 3 in 2006 when she defeated the mighty Justine Henin. In this year’s Wimbledon, she is still going on and she is the 4^th round now. Nadia Petrova is quite tall (5 feet 10 inches). Her career prize money earning is $6,262,810. She has 7 WTA singles titles and 12 doubles titles. This shows that she has impressive record.

Maria Kirilenko

At the age of 5, did you have any idea what you would want to become in life? Perhaps, Maria Kirilenko had some idea and she became a fan of tennis at a very early age. She is now 21 years old and she was born in Moscow. I liked her official website and it contains a decent number of her pictures. She even encourages her fans to send beautiful pictures of hers. Since, the official website in a blog platform, anyone can write comments in the entries. Maria Kirilenko is now 19^th ranked player and this is her best ranking. She is improving a lot recently. Her beautiful face has attracted Addidas and became a professional player in 2001. She has become matured now and hopefully, she will do better in the coming months.

Alisa Kleybanova

Alisa Kleybanova is a young player and she is just 19 years old. In fact, she is going to celebrate her 19^th birthday on this 15^th July. She became a professional tennis player in 2003 at the age of just 14 and she is improving all the time. I could not find any official website of Alisa Kleybanova and I would strongly recommend her to have one. That way, we can more information about her. Right now, Alisa Kleybanova’s ranking is 42. She is playing in Wimbledon 2008 now and she has advanced to the fourth round. Alisa Kleybanova is a beautiful girl and she is almost 6 feet tall. I think that she has the shadow of Maria Sharapova in her. She is a star of tomorrow.

Elena Vesnina

Elena Vesnina is 21 years old and she was born in Ukraine. She has been in pro-tennis since 2002. She has not been able to win any WTA singles title but she has won 3 doubles titles so far. She is famous for being patient and a baseline player. Her best perforimacne in any Grand Slam Tournament was in Australian Open Tennis 2006 where she went to the 4^th round. She has a lovely official website and it contains a number of beautiful pictures. Her current WTA ranking is 46. In her career, Elena Vesnina has earned $858,915 of prize money so far.