Alyona Bondarenko

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Alona Bondarenko
Альона Бондаренко

Country	Ukraine
Residence	Kharkiv, Ukraine
Date of birth	August 13, 1984 (1984-08-13) (age 23)
Place of birth	Kryvyi Rih, Soviet Union now Ukraine
Height	168cm (5ft 6in)
Weight	59kg (130lb)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$1,379,515
Singles
Career record:	262-196
Career titles:	1 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 19 (April 14, 2007)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3r (2007)
French Open	2r (2007)
Wimbledon	3r (2005, 2007)
US Open	3r (2007)
Doubles
Career record:	139-126
Career titles:	3 WTA, 8 ITF
Highest ranking:	14 (April 7, 2008)
Infobox last updated on: May 26, 2008.

Alyona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko (Ukrainian: Альона Володимирівна Бондаренко, born August 13, 1984) is a Ukrainian tennis player. She has a younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko who also plays on the Tour. She formerly paired with her older sister Valeria (b. 1982-06-20) in doubles.

Her career high singles ranking is No. 19, achieved on April 14, 2007.

She won the 2008 Australian Open women's doubles tournament with sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er in the finals.

1 Tennis career
2 Grand Slam doubles final
- 2.1 Win (1)
3 Career finals (19)
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Tennis career

In 2005, she made her grand slam debut at the Australian Open, where she suffered a first round loss to sixth seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6–3 6–3. Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA tour quarterfinal at Pattaya City, Thailand, where she lost to eventual runner-up, Anna-Lena Grönefeld of Germany, in straight sets.

The following week at Hyderabad, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza, in three tight sets. Following her loss, she made her first appearance in the women's top 100 rankings. The rest of 2005 saw many more successes for the Ukrainian. She made numerous appearances in top WTA tour events, including making the third-round of Wimbledon, defeating Tatiana Golovin of France on the way. She also made the quarter-finals of a Tier III event in Bali. In that tournament she beat Alicia Molik for the best win of her career thus far at that point, with Molik being ranked No. 14.

2006 has seen Bondarenko's rise up into the top 100 and closing in on the top 50. She has reached three quarter-final appearances at Hobart, Bangalore and Prague respectively, and a semifinal at Rabat. She has also won an ITF title at Orange in California. Her success in doubles is also growing with her first WTA tour doubles title at Istanbul partnering Anastasiya Yakimova.

Bondarenko won her first WTA tour singles title on October 1, 2006 at the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg City in a surprising title run at the Tier II event, defeating Mary Pierce 6–3, 6–3 in the first round, Katarina Srebotnik 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 in the second, Nathalie Dechy 5–7, 6–4, 6–0 in the quarterfinals, Květa Peschke 6–3, 5–7, 7–5 in the semifinals, where she trailed 5–2 and saved one match point in the first set and No. 5 seed Francesca Schiavone in the finals 6–3, 6–2. The win meant that she was the second lowest-ranked player ever to win a Tier II title, being ranked a lowly no. 62. The record is held by Kim Jones-Schaefer who was ranked no. 64.

On May 7, 2007 she finished runner-up to Justine Henin at the Tier II J&S Cup held in Warsaw, Poland losing 6–1, 6–3. In the semi-finals, she got the first top ten win of her career over then number five Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets 6–2, 7–6(4). The performance saw her rise into the top 30 for the first time, at No. 29.

She followed it by making the semifinals of the Istanbul Cup, losing to Elena Dementieva, the eventual winner, and five other quarterfinals through the year: Birmingham, 's-Hertogenbosch, New Haven, Zurich and Linz.

She hit her career high shortly after Wimbledon, where she made the third round before losing to Patty Schnyder 6–4, 3–6, 8–6 after holding a 4–1 lead in the final set.

On the October 17, 2007 Bondarenko beat Amélie Mauresmo 2–6, 6–4, 6–1 at the 2007 Zürich Open to reach her first ever Tier I quarter-final, but lost to Nicole Vaidišová there. On October 22, she passed $1 million in career prize money, the first player representing Ukraine to pass that prize money milestone.

On the 25th of January 2008, Alona won the Australian Open women's doubles title, partnering with her younger sister Kateryna. They defeated the pairing Shahar Peer and Victoria Azarenka 2–6, 6–2, 6–4. They became only the second pairing of sisters to win the title, the first being the Williams sisters.

She is coached by her mother Natalia Bondarenko.^[1] Her K-Swiss advertisement under the slogan "Keep it pure." lying on the tennis court with her blonde across her arms and a bare midriff tennis outfit has become very popular on fan sites. It is such the talk that on an ESPN replay of her April 11, 2008 match with Maria Sharapova the announcers showed the picture and commented on her ad campaign. She is currently, along with Anna Kournikova a spokesperson for K-Swiss.^[2]

[edit] Grand Slam doubles final

[edit] Win (1)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score/Final
2008	Australian Open	Kateryna Bondarenko	Victoria Azarenka Shahar Pe'er	2–6, 6–1, 6–4

[edit] Career finals (19)

[edit] Singles titles (6)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (1)
Tier III (0)
Tier IV & V (0)
ITF Circuit (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	June 24, 2002	Fontanafredda, Italy	Clay	Mara Santangelo	6–3, 6–0
2.	September 1, 2003	Zhukovsky, Russia	Clay	Olga Savchuk	6–2, 6–3
3.	April 19, 2004	Bari, Italy	Clay	Katerina Bondarenko	2–6, 6–2, 6–4
4.	March 14, 2006	Orange, California, U.S.	Hard	Yvonne Meusburger	6–3, 7–5
5.	September 25, 2006	Luxembourg City	Hard (I)	Francesca Schiavone	6–3, 6–2
6.	September 10, 2007	Kharkov, Ukraine	Hard	Vesna Manasieva	6–1, 6–1

[edit] Singles runner-ups (2)

February 12, 2005: Hyderabad (lost to Sania Mirza 4–6, 7–5, 3–6)
May 6, 2007: Warsaw (lost to Justine Henin 1–6, 3–6)

[edit] Doubles titles (11)

Legend
Grand Slam (1)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (1)
Tier III (1)
Tier IV & V (0)
ITF Circuit (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Finalists	Score
1.	June 18, 2000	Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Poland	Clay	Valeria Bondarenko	Elena Kovalchuk Olga Lazarchuk	6–4, 6–2
2.	October 14, 2002	Joué-lès-Tours, France	Hard (I)	Valeria Bondarenko	Michaela Paštiková Jasmin Wöhr	7–6, 4–6, 6–3
3.	June 1, 2003	Warsaw	Clay	Valeria Bondarenko	Iryna Kuryanovich Olga Lazarchuk	6–3, 6–4
4.	September 7, 2003	Zhukovsky, Russia	Clay	Valeria Bondarenko	Gulnara Fattakhetdinova Maria Kondratieva	6–7, 6–4, 6–3
5.	July 4, 2004	Orbetello, Italy	Clay	Galina Fokina	Yuliana Fedak Andreea Vanc	6–7, 6–2, 7–5
6.	July 25, 2004	Innsbruck, Austria	Clay	Galina Fokina	Stanislava Hrozenska Lenka Nemeckova	6–2, 6–4
7.	September 26, 2004	Batumi, Georgia	Hard	Galina Fokina	Anna Bastrikova Irina Kotkina	6–2, 6–2
8.	March 19, 2006	Orange, California, U.S.	Hard	Kateryna Bondarenko	Stéphanie Dubois Lilia Osterloh	6–2, 6–4
9.	May 27, 2006	Istanbul	Clay	Anastasiya Yakimova	Sania Mirza Alicia Molik	6–2, 6–4
10.	January 26, 2008	Australian Open	Hard	Kateryna Bondarenko	Victoria Azarenka Shahar Pe'er	2–6, 6–1, 6–4
11.	February 10, 2008	Paris	Hard (i)	Kateryna Bondarenko	Vladimíra Uhlířová Eva Hrdinová	6–1, 6–4