Kirilenko ready for Bangalore Open

Maria Kirilenko is ranked 26 on the WTA computer but if her exploits on the tennis court are anything to go by, she is going to be a major attraction at the prestigious Bangalore Open, Tier II � event.

Bangalore, February 24, 2008: Maria Kirilenko is ranked 26 on the WTA computer but if her exploits on the tennis court are anything to go by, she is going to be a major attraction at the prestigious Bangalore Open, Tier II - event. At the Bangalore Open, starting just in a week's time, Maria could find herself as a strong contender who will challenge the Williams sisters - Venus and Serena and other major contenders in the field - Patty Schnyder, Agnes Szavay and Sybille Bammer.

As one who loves clay and hard courts, Maria Kirilenko says "I have been to India before for some WTA tours. I played some exciting tennis in India. My experience there should give me a little edge over my opponents. I am keenly looking towards an exciting tournament."

The Bangalore Open 2008 has total prize money of US $600,000 and the Champion will take home US $95,500 & 300 WTA points. http://www.wtabangalore.in/

Just 21, Maria is a well-known name on the circuit, and being Russian, she is expected to impress the Bangalore tennis fans with her fluent stroke play. The lithe girl had given ample proof of her credentials Down Under last month when she made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open by beating No. 6 seed Anna Chakvetadze in three sets (6-7, 6-1, 6-2). Her next opponent was Daniela Hantuchova, to whom she lost in the fourth round 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, after leading 6-1, 3-1.

Off the court, Maria is a fun loving person, who loves music and football. She has great admiration for Jennifer Capriati, obviously because of her tenacity and former Russian star Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Maria started showing a passion for tennis at the young age of five but it was difficult to get the practice in while she was attending school. Her father enrolled her in a tennis school, and hours of fierce training started to pay off as she won several tournaments.

When she was 12 years old, an Honored Master of sports, Elena Brioukhovets, saw her while training. All the next year Elena watched Maria making progress and then offered to work together with her. A three-year program was made and a special team was selected. In less than three years Maria became the number one in her age group and the number two in the group under eighteen. The well-known tennis-players Yevgeni Kafelnikov, Andrei Olhovskiy and Max Mirnyi, who had created an organization supporting young tennis-players, helped Kirilenko to arrange her training-process and to attend tournaments.

In 2002 Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the Canadian Open and the US Open Junior Tournaments.

Since September 2002 Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She made a lot of progress in WTA events but was setback by injury in 2004 and dropped down the rankings, whilst missing out on valuable experience. At the end of 2005 she had climbed right up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. She has been recognized as one of the up and coming players of 2006 and, despite being off her best form during the summer, she broke into the top 20 for the first time in 2006.

In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the 2007 Australian Open, before being defeated by third-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, immediately after which she competed in the 2007 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she advanced to the second round upsetting seed 15 Shahar Peer of Israel, before being defeated by Ai Sugiyama.

About KSLTA

The KSLTA Tennis Stadium was originally created in 1976 to stage the First Davis Cup in Bangalore. The entire stadium was renovated fully to International Standards during October 2000 with the seating capacity of 7000 spectators for conducting the ATP World Doubles Championship 2000 for the first time in South Asia. In appreciation of the organisation, ATP allotted the Second ATP World Doubles Challenge Cup, which was held in Jan 2002. Since then, KSLTA has successfully hosted 2 WTA championships in the year 2006 & 2007 apart from many other ITF Tournaments.

Cerin Pathrose, Equator Communications

Equator PR