Anna Lapushchenkova

Anna Lapushchenkova is a Russian professional tennis player who was born on October 24th, 1986.

Career Summary

Lapushchenkova began competing occasionally on the ITF women's circuit in October 2002, shortly before her sixteenth birthday. She started to compete regularly early in 2005, enjoying steady improvements over the following two years; and after at first seeming to reach a plateau around World No. 300 in the first half of 2007, she had risen rapidly to a career high of World No. 140 by January 14th, 2008.

To date she has won two $50,000 ITF titles and three $10,000 titles, and reached the final of a $100,000 event. Although she has so far struggled to qualify for major WTA Tour main draws, she has beaten several Top 100-calibre players at lesser events and in qualifying rounds for WTA events.

2002-4

In her first three years on the ITF circuit, the young Russian competed in only seven tournaments and won just six matches - five of them in qualifying rounds, and just one in a $10,000 main draw, which was in fact her very first tournament, the event at Minsk in October 2002, where she won through qualifying and comfortably defeated Oxana Lyubtsova of the Ukraine in the first round proper before bowing out to Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus in a close second-round match, 5–7 6–7.

In all, she entered herself for five $10,000 tournaments and two $25,000 tournaments, but did not qualify for either of the latter.

At no point in these years did she crack the WTA Top 1000, and no year-end ranking is recorded for her in either 2002 or 2004, though she finished 2003 ranked at No. 1067.

2005

In 2005, the young Russian, now eighteen, dramatically stepped up her participation on the circuit.

At first she struggled, but in April she did at least equal her then still career-best feat of qualifying for a $10,000 tournament and winning her first round match, the venue once again being Minsk. Although clamiing as her first round scalp her compatriot and fellow future international star Ekaterina Ivanova, she narrowly lost a closely-fought tie in the second round.

She qualified for three of her next five tournaments but one only one further main-draw match, at Krasnoarmeisk, Russia, in July.

Regardless, at August she decided to push herself up to the next level, and entered qualifying for a $25,000 tournament for the first time since August 2003. The venue was Moscow, and the experiment was a success, as she won through into the main draw for the first time at this level, and also won her first round match there, beore being trounced by compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva in Round Two.

Encouraged by this result, she entered another $25,000 qualifying draw at Balashikha, also in Russia, the very next week, and again won through the qualifying draw and won her first round of the main draw before losing to a little-known fellow-Russian player at the second stage.

On the back of the ranking points accrued through these results, she gained direct entry to her next $10,000 event at Tbilisi, Georgia in September, and for the third time that year and the fourth in her career won her first round match at this level, but then lost a close three-set battle to a high-quality opponent in the form of compatriot Evgeniya Rodina in the next round.

At the end of that same week, still at Tbilisi, she qualified for her third $25,000 main draw; but then she fell to Margalita Chakhnashvili of Georgia in straight sets in the first round of the main draw.

In late October, she qualified for her fourth $25,000 main draw at the venue where she started her career, Minsk, and it once again proved a lucky place for her to play tennis, as she won two straight rounds in the main draw to reach her first ever ITF main draw quarterfinal at any level, recording straight-sets wins over familiar opponents Ekaterina Ivanova and Ekaterina Dzehalevich. But at the quarter-final stage, she lost a very close three-set tussle to Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.

In December, she qualified for her fifth $25,000 main draw but was cut down by German Greta Arn, who allowed her only two games in the match.

Still, the young Russian ended her first full year on the tour with some useful experience, and with her first serious world ranking of 527.

2006

After taking a few months' break at the beginning of 2006, she returned to Minsk in March, where a $10,000 event afforded her direct entry. After fighting her way past a couple of tricky opponents en route to her career-first semi-final at any level, she dominated Ekaterina Ivanova to reach her first ever final, only to be denied the title by upcoming Ukranian Galyna Kosyk, who defeated her 6–1, 7–6.

Buoyed nonetheless by her auspicious recent results, at Lebanon in May she attempted to qualify for a $75,000 tournament for the first time. Despite winning her first round match for the loss of just five games, she lost the second by an identical margin to an opponent she had previously beaten elsewhere, Olga Panova.

Later that month, she challenged herself still further by entering qualifying for a WTA Tour event for the first time. This took the shape of the Tier III tournament at Istanbul, but Lapushchenkova lost a close three-set match in the first round of qualifying to Eva Hrdinová of the Czech Republic.

Late in June, the Russian teenager retreated to the $10,000 arena at Kharkiv, Ukraine, and for the second time in succession at this level fought her way through to the final, before losing to another little-known Ukranian, Veronika Kapshay.

But the very next week, another $10,000 tournament held at Zhukovsky, Russia would bring Lapushchenkova her long-awaited career-first ITF title, although she struggled once more against a little-known opponent in the final, this time a Russian player called Yulia Solonitskaya, before finally taking the match 1–6, 7–5, 7–5.

Lapushchenkova suffered some mixed results over the summer, though she was now able to enjoy direct entry to $25,000 events, and achieved a career-best performance in reaching the semi-final of one of them at Moscow in late August, where she was ultimately defeated by her upcoming compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, 0–6, 5–7.

Returning to Tbilisi in September, she entered another $10,000 event there, and this time raced through the draw for the loss of just one set to claim her second career ITF title.

Later that month, she reached the quarter-final stage in another $25,000 tournament at Batumi, Georgia, but then lost to an unheralded Romanian called Agnes Szatmari.

Her second attempt at qualifying for a WTA Tour main draw followed at Moscow in October, but it was a very ambitious move to make since this was a Tier I event. She encountered an improved Oxana Lyubtsova in the first round of qualifying and beat her in three sets despite losing the first 1–6. But she ultimately lost to Czech star Iveta Benesova in what began as a very evenly matched clash in Round Two, 6–7 2–6.

In November she returned again to Minsk, which once more proved fortunate for her, as she reached her second career $25,000 semi-final, again beating Ekaterina Dzehalevich on the way there. But compatriot Evgeniya Rodina narrowly won their semi-final tie 7–6 7–5.

The following week she entered the $25,000 contest at Opole, Poland, but this time could only reach the second round, where she came up against an unexpectedly high-ranked opponent for this level of event, Yulia Beygelzimer of the Ukraine, and despite putting up a close fight in the second set, lost to her 2–6, 6–7.

Lapushchenkova ended a year of steady gains ranked at World No. 313, up 214 places on her performance in 2005.

2007

The new year began poorly for the young Russian as she lost in the first round of three of her first four draws, all of them at $25,000 level, and reached only the second round at the fourth. This string of disappointments for her included an uncharacteristically early first-round loss at Minsk, where she was surprised by a British player, Amanda Keen.

But at the end of April, and not for the first time in her career, she responded defiantly to her indifferent recent run of results by challenging herself to step up to a higher level of competition, entering the qualifying draw for the WTA Tier II tournament at Warsaw. Although she did not quite succeed in qualifying, she achieved a significant personal breakthrough by defeating two highly respected players in succession in the first two rounds of the qualifying draw, taking out Stephanie Foretz of France 3–6 6–3 6–0 in Round One and fellow-Russian Yaroslava Shvedova 6–7 6–1 0–0 (RET) in Round Two. And she put up a close fight against Bulgarian star Tsvetana Pironkova in the qualifying round, but lost by a single break of serve in each of two straight sets.

In May, she gained direct entry into a $75,000 tournament for the first time at Jounieh, Lebanon, but lost in the first round to Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus, 0–6 3–6.

Later that month, she made her fourth attempt to qualify for a WTA Tour main draw, and her second at Istanbul, but was vanquished in the opening round of the qualifying draw by Romanian Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea.

A couple of disappointing though close first-round losses at lower-level ITF tournaments followed, and it was not until July that Lapushchenkova next won back-to-back main draw matches, reaching her career-first semi-final at $50,000 level at Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, thanks in part to a second-round gift by Johanna Larsson of Sweden, who withdrew injured without a point being played. Her most hard-fought win came against her compatriot Anastasia Pivovarova at the quarter-final stage, Pivoravova taking the first set before losing the match. But in the semi-finals Lapushchenkova lost to little-known Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, 4–6 3–6.

At the end of that month, she found herself in Sweden itself, entering the qualifying draw for the Tier IV WTA event at Stockholm, her fifth attempt to gain entry to a WTA Tour main draw. She won through to the final round of qualifying with victories over Liana-Gabriela Ungur of Romania and Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, but lost a nail-bitingly close three-setter at the last hurdle to veteran Lina Stanciute of Lithuania, 6–7 6–2 5–7.

In August, she returned to Moscow to play her first $10,000 level draw of the year, and won it fairly comfortably, losing just one set in her semi-final match, to gain her third career title.

The following week, she easily surpassed her career-best result by emerging victorious from a $50,000 tournament at Penza, Russia, without dropping a set. She beat Kristina Antoniychuk of the Ukraine in the final 6–4 6–2.

The very next week, she extended her winning streak to fourteen matches at a $25,000 event in Moscow, with victories over her familiar opponent Oxana Lyubtsova and emerging fellow-Russian talent Vesna Manasieva at the quarter-final and semi-final stages respectively, but in the final Anastasia Pivovarova avenged her recent defeat at the hands of her compatriot by conqueroring her in straight sets, 6–3 6–4.

The following week, however, still in Moscow, Lapushchenkova's run of success was resumed, as she notched up her second career $50,000 tournament title for the loss of just twenty-two games spread over five matches. This was her fourth career ITF singles title to date and her third of the same summer. Her vanquished opponents included Oxana Lyubtsova and Lina Stanciute at the second-round and quarter-final stages respectively, and Galyna Kosyk of the Ukraine, who had won all three of their previous head-to-heads, in the final.

In September, she gained direct entry to her career-first $100,000 tournament, and defeated capable player Darya Kustova of Belarus in the first round before losing to Russian veteran Galina Voskoboeva in the second.

Her run of summer successes having improved her ranking sufficiently to afford her direct entry to a WTA Tour main draw for the first time, despite the fact that she had never succeeded in qualifying for one in five attempts, the young Russian came up against an inspired Nathalie Vierin in the first round of the Tier IV event at Portoroz, Slovenia, and could only take one game from her in suffering a fairly comprehensive drubbing at her hands.

In October, she found herself back in the qualifying draw of the next WTA Tour event for which she entered herself, which was the Tier IV event at Tashkent. She failed to qualify after losing in the second round of the draw to compatriot Evgeniya Rodina, 5–7 4–6.

A week later she tried for the seventh time to qualify for a WTA event, and for the second time it was the Tier I event at Moscow that she targeted with this ambition. Despite again beating Darya Kustova in the first round of qualifying, she suffered an uncharacteristic loss to Oxana Lyubtsova in Round Two, 4–6 4–6.

Returning to the ITF circuit later that month to enter a $25,000 event at Podolsk, Russia, Lapushchenkova had few problems in the first few rounds, but had to battle past a gritty opponent in the form of compatriot Vesna Manasieva at the semi-final stage, beating her 7–6 2–6, 6–4. In the final, she then came up against Evgeniya Rodina for the fourth time in her career, and as every time previously, came out the loser, this time by the convincing margin of 1–6 3–6.

In November, she could only reach the second round of a $50,000 event at what was formerly her luckiest venue, Minsk. She defeated upcoming Czech player Petra Kvitova in three sets in the first round, having previously lost to her at the first round of a $25,000 tournament back in June; but then in the second round she bowed out 6–7 2–6 to fellow-Russian Eugenia Grebenyuk, whom she had beaten comfortably in their only previous tie two weeks previously at the quarter-final in Podolsk.

Later that month, she came through qualifying into a $100,000 tournament for the first time (although she had previously gained direct entry to another) at Poitiers, France, beating fellow-Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the qualifying round 6–4 6–1. Then she enjoyed her most successful tournament yet in the main draw, racing past Angelique Kerber of Germany, Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, Viktoriya Kutuzova of the Ukraine and Stephanie Foretz en route to the final, without dropping a set. However, she then came up against an on-form Marta Domachowska of Poland, who snatched the title 7–5 6–0.

In December, after gaining direct entry into the main draw of a $75,000 tournament at Dubai, she faltered once again at the hands of her nemesis Evgeniya Rodina, who beat her 6–1 7–5 in the second round.

But after an unpromising start, 2007 had turned into a year of great improvement for Lapushchenkova, who finished up 169 places year-on-year at World No. 144, despite having still been ranked as low as No. 298 as recently as the middle of July that year. Her final win-loss record for the year was 43-21, a ratio of more than two wins for every loss.

2008

Early in January 2008, the young Russian, now 21, gained direct entry into a WTA Tour main draw for the second time in her career. And this time, unlike the last, she succeeded in winning her first round match, dispatching Katerina Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6–3 6–4. But she lost what began as a close three-setter to Australian Casey Dellacqua in Round Two, 4–6 6–4 1–6.

This performance nevertheless took her to a career-high ranking of World No. 140 on January 14th, 2008.

The following week, Lapushchenkova entered herself for the qualifying draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, but lost an evenly-fought contest in the first round to Margit Ruutel of Estonia, 6–7 6–2 2–6.

She took the next few weeks off from competition, but then entered qualifying for the Tier II event at Paris in early February. For the ninth time in nine of trying, she failed to gain entry to the main draw of a WTA event through the qualifying route, although she did reach the qualifying round with wins over Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic (in straight sets) and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland (in three sets) before being defeated by American Julie Ditty, 5–7 3–6.

WTA Titles

ingles

Sources

*http://www.itftennis.com/womens/players/activity.asp?player=100031761
*http://www.itftennis.com/womens/players/player.asp?player=100031761
*http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/players/playerprofiles/PlayerBio.asp?PlayerID=311239