Sports Cafe: Tsvetana Pironkova

Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova(born 13 September 1987) is a female Bulgarian tennis player.Pironkova was born in 1987 to Kiril Enchev Pironkov, a former canoeing champion and Radosveta Chinkova Nikolova, a former swimming champion.She started playing tennis at the age of 4, when her father Kiril introduced her to the game. At the age of six, she started playing in junior tournaments in Bulgaria.Kiril later became her coach.
In 2001, Pironkova won the Atlantic Cup International Junior Tournament held in Bulgaria,and her career high in juniors was world no. 227 on 25 March 2002.
In August 2002 at the age of 14, Pironkova played her first professional tournament at the $10,000 International Tennis Federation Tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Pironkova won 3 qualifying matches before reaching the final in the main draw, where she lost to Monica Niculescu of Romania, 6–1, 7–6(1).In September 2002, Pironkova played in the $10,000 ITF event in Volos, Greece, where she lost only one set playing through the qualifying and main draw. She defeated Tina Schmassmann of Switzerland 7–6(3), 7–5 to win her first professional ITF event.In the week of 14–21 May 2005, at the age of 17, Pironkova played in her first WTA level tournament, the Tier III event in Istanbul, Turkey. After winning two qualifying matches, Pironkova won three matches in the main draw before she lost in the semi-finals to Venus Williams.In January 2006, Pironkova made headlines by defeating tenth-seed Venus Williams in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open by a score of 2–6, 6–0, 9–7. Pironkova was ranked 94th in the world. She lost to Laura Granville in the second round.On 16 November 2006, Pironkova reached her then career high singles ranking of 62.She caused another upset at the 2008 Rome Masters. As a qualifier, she beat top seed and world no. 3 Ana Ivanović in the second round for the biggest victory of her career so far. She advanced to the quarterfinals, her first ever at a Tier I event, when Victoria Azarenka retired during their third round match with Pironkova leading 6–1, 1–0. In the quarterfinals she was defeated 6–2, 3–6, 6–1 by Anna Chakvetadze.In September, Pironkova reached the final in an ITF event in Sofia, where she lost to Nuria Llagostera Vives in the final 6–2, 6–3.She ended the year at number 46 in the world.

In 2009, Pironkova made the quarter finals in the 2009 Moorilla Hobart International before she lost to Virginie Razzano 6–4, 6–1. En route, she defeated then world no. 15 Patty Schnyder. It was her fifth top 20 win in her career. At the Australian Open she defeated Karolina Šprem in the first round 6–0, 6–4 before she lost to 16th seed Marion Bartoli 7–5, 6–2.Seeded No. 8 at the first Andalucia Tennis Experience, Pironkova lost in the first round to Roberta Vinci 6–7(4), 6–2, 6–4.She lost in the first rounds of the French Open and Wimbledon, both times to Jill Craybas.Tsvetana's first tournament of 2011 was in Moorilla Hobart International where she lost to Peng Shuai of China in the first round. In the Australian Open Pironkova fell the in second round to Romanian Monica Niculescu. In the 2011 French Open Tsvetana was seeded 32nd. She lost to Gisela Dulko, the Argentine, in the second round. Pironkova entered Wimbledon as No. 32 seeded. In the third round Tsvetana defeated world No. 3 and second-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6–2 and 6–3, thus avenging her loss in the semifinals of the last year's Wimbledon. In the fourth round of Wimbledon, she beat former champion Venus Williams 6–2 6–3, which was the same scoreline as their previous meeting in 2010's Wimbledon Championships.In the quarterfinals, she lost to eventual champion Petra Kvitova, 6–3, 6–7, 6–2.In July 2011 Pironkova competed in the XXIV SNAI Open - Internazionali Femminili Di Palermo tournament where she defeated Anna Tatishvili in the first round and Sorana Cîrstea in the second, before losing to Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals.