31.03.2003 Maggie Maleeva had her greatest success in the
doubles so far. In Miami, paired with Liezel Huber from RSA,
they won the tournament beating Miyagi/Asagoe. They won the
first set easily, but than lost control in the second. Miyagi/Asagoe
took advantage and lead 4-0, however Maggie and Liezel managed
somehow to get it to 3-4, but that was all they could do in
the second set. The Japanese pair won it 6-3. In the third
set, Maleeva and Huber made an early break to lead 3-0, but
were broken back. However, they never lost control of the
match and were always the leading pair. Serving for the match
at 5-4, they had a match point, which they eventually lost,
but finished it all up at 7-5. Maggie becomes thus one of
the few players, who can brag around having won a Tier I event
both in singles and doubles. The Maleeva/Huber team stands
at 10th position for the year ending chase championships in
doubles, hope they will keep playing together, and enjoy seccess
bigger than that shown at Nasdaq 100 Open
29.03.2003 Wow, Maggie enjoys a great doubles tournament
in Miami. In the biggest tournament, appart from the Grand
Slams, she paired with Lizel Huber had reached the finals,
upsetting in the quarterfinals the No.3 seed pair Klisters/Sugiyama,
after that the latest Australian Open Mixed double Champion
Martina Navratilova paired with S. Kusnetzova. Now, they are
to play vs Miyagi/Asagoe. Meanwhile, both Pironkova and Penkova
are in the quarterfinals in Athens
27.03.2003 A huge photo gallery was created with all the
latest pics, I could find or scan lately, check it under PHOTOS,
more in the profiles of each player!
Pironkova seeded 4th in Athens
26.03.2003 Full set of Bulgarians are participating in the
tournament in Athens (§10 000), among them - two seeds.
Seeded under N4 is the "in-form" Tsvetana Pironkova,
who blew away Elena Vianello 6-1 6-1 in the first round, the
seeded Bulgarian Maria Penkova (8th seeded) mauled country
woman Nadejda Vassileva 6-4 6-0. Other Bulgarians playing
are Biliana Pavlova, who meets native Kaplani in the first
round, and Elena Stoyanova, who lost her first round match.
Two are the Bulgarian pairs playing - Pavlova/Penkova won
their first round match, and thus secured themselv a quarterfinal
match vs the N1 seeded pair of Romania. Vassileva/Stoyanova
failed to win a match at the tournament, as they lost their
first round match in the doubles.
26.03.2003The Profile of Orlin Stanoytchev was updated, check
it out here
Maleeva/Huber reach the 1/4 finals
26.03.2003 It seems Maggie and Lizel make a good team. Yesterday
in the second round of the singles they mauled Tu/Jeyasseelan
6-2 6-1 and now are to play vs the winner of the Clijsters/Sugiyama
- Dechy/Loit match. Lizel is a good doubles player, she has
her place among the elite of the doubles. She used to be paired
with Martina Navratilova and is still her warm up partner.
Best of luck to them.
25.03.2003 Maggie Maleeva and Lizel Huber had won their first
round match in the doubles in Miami. They upset Vento-Kabchi/Widjaja
in straight sets. Next they will face Jeyaseelan/Tu
26.03.2003 The site is under huge update, there might be
troubles such as non functioning links!
25.03.2003 Maggie Maleeva lost her third round match vs M.
Shaugnessy in Miami. She lost both sets to 4!
20.03.2003 Orlin Stanoytchev was elected captain of the Bulgarian
Davis Cup team. He had summoned Todor Enev, Radoslav Lukaev
to take part in the competition, which will take part in April
in Sofia. He, himself, is a playing captain, so the team should
rely on his experience.
04.05.2003 Maggie Maleeva and Lizel Huber have just won the
double's tournament at the J & S Cup in Polen. Maleeva
/ Huber lost the first set 3-6, but then started to play much
better. They broke Daniilidou/Shiavone in the ninth game of
the second set, and after that won their own service game,
and thus the second set at 6-4. Maggie and Lizer won the opening
game of the second set to lead 1-0, however the other pair
also won ther service game and even managed to break Maleeva/Huber
to lead 2-1. At certain point, Daniilidou/Shiavone had a point
to lead 3-1, but Maggie and Lizel didn't give up. With a wonderful
game, they won five games in a row to win the match 3-6 6-4
6-2. This is the second major success for Maggie in the doubles.
About a month ago, also paired with Huber, they won Amelia
Island. The vicotory in Warsaw will add 220 points to their
WTA account and they will be No.5 - 6 in the team team rankings.
Great Done !!!
29.04.2003 J&S Cup, Poland Maggie Maleeva lost today
her first round match in Poland. The No.5 seeded Maggie had
general problmes keeping her service, took the first set 7-6,
but then failed to keep up with Parra from Spain. The final
score is 7-6 4-6 1-6. Next Maggie will play in Berlin, Germany.
Wait for live reports.
26.04.2003 ITF, Taranto,Italy ($25 000) No. 2 seeded Bacheva
proceeded to the quarterfinals of the tournament, after a
victory over Dell'Angelo in the second round. The match was
very close, the Italian won the first set, but straight after
Bacheva set herself together and won the second set 6/0 and
the deciding third 6/3.
26.04.2003 Fed Cup Bulgaria couldn't qualify for the futher
stages of the tournament, after we beat Israel with just 2-1.
The play of Pironkova was most impressing, she beat Oblizer
of Israel in the opening match of the meeting in straight
sets. Pironkova, 14 years younger, and more than 100 places
below in the rankings, scored her first vicotry for Bulgaria.
The Fed Cup officials wrote: experience counts for nothing
when you play vs Pironkova. Maggie's play was great too, she
never lost a match in the singles!
21.04.2003 Fed Cup Bulgaria defeated Georgia in Group B of
the I Euro-African Group today, tie was 2-1. Dessislava Topalova
lost the opening match to Kavlashvili in straight sets, 1-6
0-6, a result that is even a bit scary. Then, however, Maggie
Maleeva equaled, mauling Chakhnashvili 6-2 6-3. The Bulgarian
pair(Maleeva/Topalova) gave no chance to the Georgians, we
won 6-2 6-1. In our group are also Israel, with Anna Pistolesi
(a top 30 player, and a very good clay-court one) and Jugoslavia,
however without Jelena Dokic. So we have all the chances for
qualifying for the further stages of the tournament
21.04.2003 This week Bulgaria Fed Cup team will be playing
in Estoril, Portugal. The Bulgarians to play are: Magdalena
Maleeva, Dessislava Topalova and Tzvetana Pironkova (debut),
captain: Julia Berberyan. With such a team Bulgaria has all
the chances to qualify for the play-offs for the World Group.
19.04.2003 The profile of Milen Velev has been updated, six
new pics were added!
06.04.2003 Davis Cup Bulgaria defeated Ukraine in the first
round of the II Euro African Zone. In the most important match,
Ivailo Traykov prevailed over Stepanov in three tough sets.
Well done!!! Next the team faces the team of Serbia and Montenegro.
The previous ties are not in faveour of Bulgara. The last
time the both teams met was back in 1983, when Bulgaria lost
0-5, and the other meeting ended 1-4 for Serbia/Montenegro(1975)
However, the present team of Bulgaria can win!!!.
05.04.2003 Istambul, Turkey Tsvetana Pironkova is doing great
in Istambul. She reached the quarterfinals, as she mauled
her second round opponent 6-0 6-1.Davis Cup After a bad start,
the Bulgarians are now 2-1 ahead of Ukraine. In the first
match yesterday, Ivailo Traykov fell to Tereschuk in five
very tough sets, the match lasted more than four hours, Ivailo
asked for medical help. Radoslav Lukaev, however, braught
back the hope, as he beat Dernovski in four sets. After that
the Bulgarian pair Lukaev/Enev lead Bulgaria 2-1 ahead. The
Maleeva sisters were to be seen supporting the team.
04.04.2003 Istambul, Turkey Tsvetana Pironkova is the only
survivor in the main draw of the singles in Turkey. She defeated
her first round opponent in straight sets 6-4 6-3 (her opponent's
name is Ruutel)
02.04.2003 Istambul, Turkey In Istambul several Bulgarians
are taking part. No.5 seeded is Pironkova, who plays vs Ruutel
of Estonia, Maria Penkova faces Lindstrom of Sweeden, Bilyana
Pavlova and Virginia Trifonova are also in the main draw of
the singles. Two Bulgarian pairs are in the main draw of the
doubles - Penkova/Pavlova and Trifonova/Vassileva!
Maggie's birthday
01.04.2003
Happy birthday to Maggie! Best wishes!
Bulgaria faces Ukraine
01.04.2003 Bulgaria faces this week the Ukrainian Davis Cup
team in the second Euro-African Group. The Bulgarian team
will be represented by Orlin Stanoytchev (captain), Ivailo
Traykov, Todor Enev and Radoslav Lukaev. All matches will
be held in "Sofia Tennis Hall" (tickets: 5lv a day,
10 leva three-days ticket). The draw of the Bulgarians is
not very light, but if all playing well, they won't have problems.
Week 5-19 May, 2003
Maggie Maleeva playd in Berlin, a Tier I event. In the first
round of the singles Maggie had a tough one to play against
- the Chech Denisa Chladkova, a very good clay court player.
The match started well, with Maggie winning the first set
in a tie-break. However, it was a really tough one, Chladkova
was returning everything, running back and forth the court
and as a result, she won the second set 6-1. In the third
set everybody was winning their service games until it came
to 4-5 for Chladkova. Maggie was serving to stay in the match,
however she couldn't do it this time. She lost her service
game and thus the match.
Maggie was also in the doubles, playing with her new partner
Liezel Huber. They came to Berlin as a pair, that has never
lost a match - winning their first tournaments. They started
the tournament very well, won their first match, than in the
second round were playing against the No.8 seeded Martinez/Tulyaganova.
They won the match in straight sets. In the quarterfinals
Maggie and Liezel faced the No. 4 seeded pair Dokic/Petrova.
The match was a very interesting one and despite Dokic and
Petrova were playing well, Magdalena and Huber were much better
and it never came to point, when they were really pressed
by the Serbia-Montenegro / Russian pair. The toughest possible
match and the pair they have never played against was their
semifinal clash. Maleeva and Huber played against the absolute
No.1 Ruano- Pascual / Suarez. The match was indeed very interesting,
and despite the result 6-3 6-1 gives no view of the endless
dueces, Maggie and Huber lost it a tough way. This was their
first loss in 13 matches.
The next tournament Maggie played was the one in Rome, Italy.
The Italian Open (which was won in 1984 by Manuela Maleeva
over Chris Evert) started well for the Bulgarian. She won
her first round singles match (the last games of the match
will be uploaded on the site soon) on the center court. The
match was vs a tough player Silvia Farina Ellia, who however,
doesn't enjoy her best form right now. On the same day, Maggie
and Liezel won their first round doubles match. The second
day of the tournament was marked by the exit of Maggie out
of the singles (she lost to Tina Pisnik), but in the doubles
they did a miracle - upset the No.2 seeded and defending champion
Elena Lihovsteva/ Cara Black. Next they they lost to Navratilova
/ Kusnetzova.
Magdalena Maleeva withdrew from this week's Strassbourg International.
Her next event will be the French Open
Last week's results:
ITF, Casale,Italy
No.2 Pandjerova - Vedy 6-7 6-4 1-6 (I round)
ITF, Bromma,Sweden
Maria Geznenge - Gzink 2-6 1-6 (I round)
ITF, Charlottesville,VA,USA
Krastevich - Shabaz 6-4 6-1 (I round)
Krastevich - Colosio 6-4 3-6 6-3 (II round)
Krastevich - Skavronskaya 4-6 5-7 (1/4 finals)
Week May 19-25, 2003
"Roland Garros" Preview
Two Bulgarians took part in the "Roland Garros"
qualifying event - Lubomira Bacheva and Maria Geznenge. Maria
played first. Her first round opponent was Evelyn Fauth of
Austria. The match was not very long - Maria took just a game
in the second set, the match ended 6-0 6-1 for the Austrian.
Bacheva had a tough first round opponent Fokina of Russia.
Howevere, it seems Luba is playing very well, she won the
match in straight sets - 6-3 6-3. Her second round opponent
was the young Hungarian uprising star Aniko Kapros. The Hungarian
took the first set 6-3, right after Lubomira broke early in
the second set to secure herself a lead. She won the second
set 6-3. In the opening game of the third set, Bacheva was
the one to serve. She easily won this game and made it to
a break point on the Kapros serve. Bacheva couldn't convert
it to a break, though. Kapros won the third set 6-3.
In the main draw, the only Bulgarian in the singles will
be Magdalena Maleeva. She is seeded 15th. Her first round
opponent is aAlicia Molik of Australia. They have met just
once - the tie is one both. Maggie won the first match, Molic
the latest (US Open'01). Both matches were played on hard
outdoors. Eventually, her third round opponent will be Elena
Bovina and a most probably - Kim Clijsters in the fourth round.
This week's results:
Open de Espana Madrid 2012, Madrid,Spain
Svetlana Kriventcheva - Leefevre, Sophie 5-7 1-6 (first qualifying
round)
Baumag Open, Budapest Hungary ($25 000)
N3 Radoslav Lukaev - Adrian Cruciat 7-6 6-2 (first round)
N3 Radoslav Lukaev - Alessio di Mauro 5-7 0-6 (second round)
