The year 2001 review - a short overview on one of the best
years , that the Bulgarian tennis has had in the last decades.
With a remarkable performance by Maggie Maleeva, and obvious
progress in the play of Sessil Karatancheva, Tsvetana Pironkova,
Todor Enev and Radoslav Lukaev, so to say ... the next generation
is on its way => More
Teodora and Margaritha Mihnevas are one of the most famous
families in Bulgaria; Teodora for being one of the best young
Bulgarian tennis players (No.5 in the National rankings),
and Margaritha - one of the most famous journalists in the
Bulgarian media. Here is an intervew with the family, given
for the daily newspaper "24 hours" =>More
Katerina Maleeva has always benn under the shadow of her
sisters (at least she used to say that), but here is an article,
which gives a clear view what a player Katya was. The Huston
tournament in 1993 is one of the peaks in her career as a
professional player, and her performace there is really admirable,
there are not many players, that have done such thing. Well,
enjoy =>More
18.01.02 Another magnificent performance by Maggie Maleeva
- she is now in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Yesterday
night, Magdalena defeated the 18th seeded Lisa Raymond in
straight sets 7-5 6-1. With this win, she reaches her top
performance in Australia - the fourth round. However, her
opponent there will be the No.2 seeded Venus Williams of USA.
The last time Maggie played vs Venus was in Nice, where she
defeated her in two sets (a semifinal match, the result 7-6
6-4 for Maggie). Williams experienced some difficulties vs
Hantuchova in the third round, so Maggie has all the chances
to win, if she plays her top tennis. Here are the match statistics.
As you see Magdalena dominated the game, made more winners,
less unforced errors, no double faults and did great on the
net.
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17.01.2001 Maggie Maleeva won her second round match vs Hrdlichkova.
In a very tough match she defeated the 81 ranked Hrdlichkova
in more than an hour and a half. More info about the match
at the statistics or read brief article on her performance.
In the doubles, she did great as well, teamed with Asa Carlson-Setevenso,
they defeated the Aussie pair Grahame/Watson in two easy sets.
Full info about the match on the www.ausopen.org. Tonight
Maggie plays vs L. Raymond, the match is scheduled second
at the Vodafone arena.
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Maggie wins for the first time since 1994
Maggie Maleeva won a match at the Australian open singles
today, for the first time ever since 1994. In the first round
of this years Grand Slam opening she defeated the young Swiss
player M.G Mikaelian in straight sets - 6:3 6:4. Maggie is
now the only Bulgarian as Lubomira Bacheva, D. Topalova, M.
Gusheva and S. Kriventcheva all lost their qualifying matches.
The match of Maggie had spread in an hour and twenty minutes,
she was serving better, playing more defensively (less winners
15 to 21 of Mikaelian, but also less unforced errors 25 to
42). Click the full statistics. Her next opponent will be
K. Hrdlichkova of the Chech Republic. The last time they played
(US Open'01) Maggie defeated her hollow in straight sets 6-1
6-2. And the toughest opponent in this part of the draw, excluding
V. Williams, Marry Pierce had retired. So let's hope Maggie
will do well down under
01.02.2002 Maggie Maleeva is out of the Toray Pan Pacific.
She lost in straight sets to Tamarine Tansugarn of Thailand.
After a great performance at the Australian Open, Maggie
Maleeva is now playing at the Toray Pan Pacific, a Tier I
event, in Tokyo, Japan. Maggie Maleeva is seeded 6th (due
to her new ranking, she is No. 14 in the world, Well done
Maggie). Her first round opponent was Daja Bedanova a very
promising young player, however, not good enough for Magdalena
Maleeva. Maggie defeated her in straight sets 6-4 6-4. In
the next round she will be playing vs Tamarine Tansugarn.
There have been two meetings between Maleeva and Tansugarn,
both in favour of Tansugarn, the last match T. Tansugarn won
at the 2001 Australian Open. But there is always a first time
for everything. Maggie's draw in not very easy, her probable
1/4 opponent will be Martina Hingis, who is doing always well
in Tokyo.
Maggie Maleeva faces D. Hantuchova in the first round of
the Open gaz de France in Paris this week. Maggie had played
vs Hantuchova only once - in the begining of this year in
Sydney. She lost, but the match was quite close. Maggie's
draw is a bit hard, eventually A. Mauresmo in the 1/4 finals,
and Venus Williams in the 1/2 finals.
Maggie lost in the first round of the singles, but is doing
great in the doubles. She is paired with Dokic of Serbia,
they are seeded 4th. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Reeves/Weingaertner
7-6 6-2. Next are Dechy/Tu. Meanwhile, the draw at the "Proximus
Dimond Games" in Antwerpen is out. Maggie Maleeva faces
in the first round M. Sucha. She is in the Justin Henin's
part of the draw.
Wow, a great first round result for Maggie, she beat Sucha
in straight sets 6-1 6-1 and she will take on M. Tu of the
United States in the second round. They play on Court 1, the
match begins at 12:00 CET. She is in the doubles as well,
she plays together with Schnyder and they face Osterloh/Weingaertner
on Court 2.
Maggie goes through to the quarterfinals of the Proximus
Dimond Games, she defeated M. Tu in straight sets 6-4 6-3
and now she will be playing vs the native J. Henin for a place
in the semifinals. The match begins at 19 o'clock CET.
p>Maggie Maleeva is playing this week at the NASDAQ-100
Open in Key Biscane (USA). In the first round, being seeded
16th, she got a bye. She is also in the doubles, paired with
Asa Svensson. Lubomira Bacheva was playing in the qualifications
of the event, however lost in the first round. In USA, in
La Canada ($25 000) are playing another three Bulgarians -
D. Topalova and S. Kriventcheva in the main draw of the singles
and the doubles, and M. Gusheva in the qualifications. Meanwhile,
Orlin Stnoytchev got another first round lost - this time
in Hamilton, New Zealand. Todor Enev is also on the tour,
he is playing in a Future ($15 000) event in France this week.
Maggie went through to the third round of the Key Biskane
event. In the second round she beat, the 1997 Roland Garos
winner Iva Majoli. If you take look at the statistics, you
can see that Maggie was the better player in any facet. She
is still to play her first round doubles match. All other
Bulgarian players lost their first round matches in the other
tournaments of the week
Bacheva advances at the Budapest Open. Lubomira Bacheva did
very well in the first round of the Budapest Open. In the
first round of the singles, she defeated in straight sets
the No.7 seeded Bovina of Russia. The first set went to a
tie-break, Bacheva mobilized herself and won it 7-6 (7-1),
the second went also a tough way, but Bacheva prooved to be
the better player, winning it 6-4. In the second round, Bacheva
awaits Oblizer, a qualifyer of Israel.
Bacheva reaches the first 1/4 of the year. Luba is doing
great so far in Budapest, where in the second round she upset
Oblizer in three sets 3-6 6-4 6-0. Luba qualifyed for the
double's quarterfinal as well.
Luba was upset today in the quarterfinals of the Budapest
Open. She had a three set match vs Casanova, which she lost
6-3 1-6 1-6. However, she ist still in the main event of the
doubles - she had reached the semifinals.
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September 2002
In Sofia's ITF ($25 000) event, Dessislava Topalova (the
1998 Champion) was beaten in three tough sets. "I had
no power in the third set at all, I have had a cold for two
days, and in some moments of the match, I coulnd't breathe"
- said Topalova after the match
Maggie Maleeva scored first round victories both in singles
and doubles. In the first round of the singles, she mauled
J. Steck in straight sets, and in the second round meets another
qualifyer - the Dutchwoman van Exel. In the doubles, she and
her partner Glas overpassed their opponents in three sets,
6-0 3-6 7-6(2).
Kriventcheva is not playing in Tokiyo as reported (misspelling
of the Kusnetzova's name in the official web-site of the Princes
Cup), but in Columbus, Usa ($75 000). In Biella, Italy ($50
000) Lubomira Bacheva posted a great first match win over
Eva Bes, giving just a game to her opponent. A full set of
Bulgarians are presented in Luxemburg, Luxemburg ($25 000)
- Maria Geznenge (seeded 7th), Radoslava Topalova and Antoaneta
Pandgerova. Ivailo Traykov was also victorious, he passed
the first round in Instambul ($75 000).
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If there were a section "Player of the month",
this month's player would have been surely Tzvetana Pironkova.The
15 year old Pironkova did great this week at te Volos, Greece
($10 000). She passed two rounds of the qualifying event,
to enter the main draw. However, her draw was not the best
one - first round match vs the No.1 player Mondani of Italy.
Pironkova, however, played well to beat her in three sets.
This is virtually the only match, when she lost a set. All
matches to follow were won in straight sets, and only in the
final, she had to win a tie-break to win the tournament. Among
all achievments, Pironkova is also one of the youngest players
to win the Bulgarian Indoor Championships (at 12 years and
some months).
Maggie Maleeva started well this week. In Moscow, Russia
($1.220.000) she beat A. Smashnova in straight sets 6-1 6-2.
She is playing today the doubles (with A. Carslon-Svensonn)
vs E. Poutchek/E. Tatarkova. The match is scheduled last on
court 3. Tomorrow the "dangerous Maleeva" (as quoted
from www.sanexwta.com) will face V. Williams for a place in
the quarterfinals.
GREAT DONE MAGGIE!!! Maggie Maleeva played a great match
to upset the No.1 seeded Venus Williams (WTA No.2) in the
second round of the Kremlin Cup in Russia. Maggie was first
to serve, she served very well and took the first game of
the match, without any hardships, the following game, she
had her first breakpoint, however, couldn't convert it. The
third game, Maggie served well again and won it easy. Venus,
however, started to play very well and won the following five
games, with Maggie missing some of the important shots. Venus
took the first set 6-2. Maggie opened the second set as well,
won the first game, Venus won her service game as well. After
that, Maggie was absolutely predominating, forcing Venus to
hit more and more balls out. Maggie won the five games to
follow in less than 25 minutes, and thus the second set 6-1.
The third set was a most tough and close one, it ended with
a tie-break. Venus served the first point, which Maggie won.
However, Venus made two mini-breaks straight after. Magdalena
concentrated and as a result, she was 6-2 up against Venus.
Having 4 matchballs and two serves, she managed to win the
match at 7-3. For full statistics of the match click here
or visit the official site of the tournament.
Maggie did it again !!! She won in straight sets 7-5 6-4
vs Mauresmo!
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Maggie is enjoying one of her best performances this year.
After the impressive second round win over Venus Williams,
she is now in the semifinals, beating the Frenchwoman Nataly
Dechy in straight sets 6-4 6-2. For a place in the final,
Maggie will play another French, the third seeded Amelie Mauresmo.
They had played three times, all were won by Amelie, but the
toughest match was two years ago, here at the "Kremlin
Cup". The surface is one of Maggie's favourite, so let's
hope for a great match.
What a great week for Maggie! She is the new Kremlin Cup
Champion. Maggie did everything right, even things believed
to be unpossible, to win her first Tier I event in many years.
And she did it in the most convincing way - in the first round
mauled A. Smashnova 6-2 6-1, then the big challenge - Venus
Williams 2-6 6-1 7-6(3), Dechy 6-4 6-2, the "unpassable"
Mauresmo 7-5 6-4, and the final vs Davenport 5-7 6-3 7-6(4).
Maggie was broken in the first game of the match, straight
after Davenport easily won her own service game. Maggie concentrated
and started the way, she played in the previous stages of
the tournament. Until 4-5 for Davenport, they both managed
to hold serve. Then Magdalena came to a break point, which
she converted to equal 5-5. However, she couldn't hold her
own serve and was broken straight back. Winning her own serve,
Davenport won also the set. In the second set Maleeva started
very well and managed an early break, which she could hold
to eventually win the second set 6-3. She broke Lindsey in
the third game of the set to lead 2-1. However, Lindsey broke
back and won her service game. After the fifth game the score
was 3-2 for Davenport. From that point on, the match was a
real test for Maggie's mental strength. She was always to
catch up with Lindsey. She did it great and made it to a tie-break.
Lindsey won her first tie-break point with an ace, than Maggie
got her the two point on her serve. After that Maggie was
quite dominating, and except for the double fault she made,
she was the one to win points. At 6-3, she got her three match
points, and eventually conveted the second one to win "Kremlin
Cup"
The match lasted exactly two hours. Maggie was going for
her serves and a result she managed to make 4 aces, but she
also made many doubles faults - 7 (compared to 0 in Mauresmo's
match). Her returns were as fabulous as in the previous matches
and Lindsey was surely thinking "Wow, how did she get
it there". She won seven points returning. Her net play
was really good, won 55% of the net approaches (5 points)
and she was not making unforced errors (two times less than
Lindsey's). What was great in the match was that Magdalena
was playing very aggressive and was going for most of the
points. She was running back and forth the court, but it was
worth it. If not the best point, but one of the most interesting,
was when Lindsey made a drop shot, Maggie was too far away
from the ball. Lindsey turned as thoush she had already won
the point, but Maggie run so swift, that she virtually hitted
the ball and thus won the point. Full statistics.
"To beat two top ten players in one week is just great.
This could be the best week in my career, if I win tomorrow"
- said Maggie yesterday. And she deserves to be happy now,
because she did it. As a reward she will jump up the rankings
an be back in the top 20, also she has now chances of qualifying
for the Porsche Race Championships.Read it all in Bulgarian
Maggie is victorious again. In the first round of the "Masters"
in Los Angelis, she upset the 7th seeded Hantuchova in straight
sets. Maggie did very well the first set, played better with
less unforced errors and thus won it 6-2. However, she started
making too many unforced errors in the beginning of the second
one and virtually was lead 4-1 by Hantuchova. That was the
right moment for Maggie to fix her game, and she managed to
equal 4-4 and even to lead 5-4. However, serving for the match,
she was broken. Then followed the longest game of the match
- Maggie had some break balls, but never managed to convert
one, until she hit a ball on the line and thus succeeded in
breaking. The umpire called it out (and they have shown afterwards
on the TV, that it wasn't out, but on the line). And Maggie
had to save some gameballs, but afterall converted the break.
It was a matter of time for her to win the match. 6-2 7-5
was the final score.
The best point of the match, was when after a long raley,
Maggie did a drop shot, which Hantuchova managed to hit, the
ball hit the net and went in an extremly difficult angle,
exactly on the line. Hantuchova fisted and cheered, but Maggie
did run and hit the ball into the court. Only the amazed (and
not spare disappointed) look on the Hantuchova face remained.Take
a look at the stats of the match
Bacheva won the double's title in a $50 000 event in France,
this is third title Bacheva for the last 40 days
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