Tatiana Golovin

Tatiana Golovin

File:Tatianagol.jpg
Country (sports)	France
Residence	Miami, Florida, USA
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9­ in)
Turned pro	2002
Plays	Right (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,543,524
Singles
Career record	119-72
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 16 (May 14, 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4r (2004)
French Open	3r (2005)
Wimbledon	4r (2004)
US Open	QF (2006)
Doubles
Career record	16-28
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 118 (November 1, 2004)
Last updated on: April 8, 2007.

Tatiana Golovin, born 25 January 1988, is a French professional tennis player. She is best known for winning the 2004 French Open mixed-doubles event with her countryman Richard Gasquet, and also, reaching the singles quarterfinal at the 2006 US Open, losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova.

She was born in Moscow, but she moved to Paris with her parents, and earned French citizenship. She has two sisters, Olga and Oxana. She also spent six years at Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida, and she speaks fluent English. She is currently coached by Dean Goldfine, former coach of Todd Martin and Andy Roddick.

Career Review

Tour Debut (2002-2003)

Golovin made her ITF Circuit debut at Cagnes-Sur-Mer (France) in 2002. She played in three more ITF events (including one semifinal) later that year, but she failed to qualify for the French Open.

In 2003, Golovin won her first WTA Tour main draw match at Indian Wells against No.146 Gisela Dulko (losing in the second round to Italian Francesca Schiavone). Golovin lost in the first round at Miami, Strasbourg and Roland Garros. She also played in four ITF Circuit events.

2004

2004 was considered as Golovin's breakthrough season, highlighted by finishing runner-up at Birmingham and reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At the Australian Open, Golovin (as No.354, with wild card) upset No.14 seed Anna Smashnova in the second round and No.23 seed Lina Krasnoroutskaya in the third round (on her 16th birthday), before falling to No.25 seed Lisa Raymond in the fourth round. It was just her second Grand Slam tournament and fifth Tour event she entered, and afterwards, on February 2, she rose to No.136 in the WTA ranking.

At Roland Garros, Golovin won the mixed doubles trophy with Richard Gasquet, as a Wild Card team, defeating Cara Black/Wayne Black. They became the youngest champions in 23 years (16 for Golovin, 17 for Gasquet).

At Wimbledon, she reached the fourth round, with wins over Alina Jidkova, Francesca Schiavone, and Emmanuelle Gagliardi, before falling to World No. 10 Serena Williams.

Golovin reached the semifinal at Paris Indoors, losing to Mary Pierce, where she defeated world No.10 Elena Dementieva in the quarters for her first Top 10 win.

In her first Tour grass court main draw at Birmingham, Golovin reached her first Tour singles final, which she lost to Maria Sharapova in 3 sets. The match-up was the third youngest final in Open Era, with a combined age of 33 years and 7 months.

Golovin reached her first Tier I quarterfinal in Montréal at the Canadian Women's Open, losing to Vera Zvonareva. Afterwards, she also reached the quarterfinal in Luxembourg, losing to eventual champion Alicia Molik.

Golovin was a member of the French Fed Cup Team, that defeated Italy in the quarterfinal and Spain in the semifinal, before falling to Russia in the final, in which she defeated No.5 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

She debuted in the Top 100 on February 16 (at No.91), and in the Top 50 on June 14 (at No.50).

2005

2005 saw Golovin's second consecutive Top 30 finish. Golovin's season was highlighted by her second career Tour singles runner-up finish. Aged 17 years and eight months, Golovin reached the final in Tokyo at the Japan Open as No. 3 seed, losing to No. 2 seed Nicole Vaidisova, aged 16 years and five months. Golovin retired with a left achilles tendonitis, trailing 7-6(4) 3-2. This was the eighth-youngest Tour singles final in Open Era, based on the combined age of 34 years and two months.

Golovin was also five-time semifinalist on four different surfaces: on hardcourt at Gold Coast, losing to Schnyder in 3 sets and later that year again on hardcourt at Seoul, losing to Jelena Janković in 3 sets (which was her only semi-final loss of the year to a non-eventual champion); on carpet at Paris Indoors, which was her second straight SF there, losing the third set tie-break against Dinara Safina; clay at Charleston, where she notched her third career Top 10 victory versus No. 8 Venus Williams en route to her first Tier I semifinal, before falling to Justine Henin-Hardenne in 3 sets; and grass at Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova.

Golovin also reached the quarterfinal at Linz losing to Ana Ivanović. She reached a career-best performance at Roland Garros, reaching the third round as No.17 seed, before falling to No.12 seed Elena Bovina, and reaching an equal-best performance at the US Open, losing as No.23 seed in the third round to No.15 seed Nathalie Dechy in three sets. Golovin also made back-to-back fourth round appearances at Tier I hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami, losing to No.5 Elena Dementieva in three sets at both events.

She made her Top 20 debut (at No.18) after her semi-final appearance at Charleston.

2006

At her first tournament of the year in Gold Coast, Golovin reached the quarterfinal, losing to finalist Flavia Pennetta in three sets. She then lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Italian Mara Santangelo.

Golovin reached her third consecutive Paris Indoors semifinal, defeating Nadia Petrova 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 in the quarterfinal, saving match point down 7-6 in tie-break. The victory over world No. 7 Petrova was the fourth top 10 win of her career. She then lost to top seed and eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo 7-6(5) 5-7 2-6 in the semi's, having held 4-2 second-set lead and a match point while serving for the match at 5-4.

Golovin reached her second career Tier I semifinal at Miami, where she defeated world No.8 Elena Dementieva in the fourth round for the fifth career top 10 victory and 100th career singles match win. In the semifinal, Golovin overcame a 5-1 deficit and four match points while down 5-3 in second set versus Maria Sharapova, pushing the match to a third set before she sprained her left ankle and retired at 3-6 7-6(5) 3-4.

She made her return to the WTA Tour at Roland Garros, falling in the first round to Jie Zheng. Golovin went 2-1 in France's 3-2 Fed Cup World Group I Play-off victory over Czech Republic.

Golovin's third semifinal of the season was at Stanford, where she (unseeded) upset Ai Sugiyama and Anna-Lena Groenefeld on the way, losing to No. 2 seed Patty Schnyder.

Golovin then reached the quarterfinal of the US Open (best grand slam performance), defeating Nadia Petrova for the second time in 2006 in the third round and Anna Chakvetadze in the fourth. She then lost to No. 3 seed and eventual champion Maria Sharapova 6-7, 6-7 in over two hours.

After a first round exit in Luxembourg following the US Open, Golovin reached her first final since the Tokyo Open in 2005 at the Porsche Tennis Grande Prix in Stuttgart by defeating Elena Likhovtseva in the first round, Iveta Benesova in the second, Michaella Krajicek in the quarterfinal, and 5th seed Patty Schnyder in the semifinal. Golovin then lost to Nadia Petrova 3-6 6-7 in the final.

At the Zürich Open, Golovin reached the second round, defeating Nicole Vaidisova (6-2, 6-0) in the first, before retiring with a foot injury against Maria Kirilenko while leading 4-2 in the fist set.

2007

Tatiana started off 2007 at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia. She won her first singles match, defeating American Ashley Harkleroad 6-3 4-6 6-2. She pulled out of the mixed doubles match with partner Jerome Haehnel, citing an ankle injury. She then defeated Australian Alicia Molik, but then lost to Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 6-0.

Her first event of the WTA season was the Medibank International held in Sydney. In the first round, she beat Peng Shuai 6-4 7-5 before falling to the top seed Amelie Mauresmo in the second round 6-7(4) 7-5 6-1.

At the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, she came in as a big favourite to cause some upsets. In the first and second rounds she beat Anna Smashnova and Zuzana Ondraskova. However, she fell in the third round to 16th seed Shahar Peer in a three-hour marathon 3-6 7-5 7-5, who eventually made the quarterfinals.

Her next event was the Paris Indoors, where she has reached the semifinals three times before. However, she failed to make it four semifinals in a row losing to Justine Henin, who was playing her first tournament since she came back after her divorce. She lost 6-2 3-6 6-3. She beat Alizé Cornet and Ekaterina Bychkova prior to the meeting with Henin.

At the Proximus Diamond Games held in Antwerp, she beat Katarina Srebotnik, fifth seed Patty Schnyder and Elena Likhovtseva en-route to the semifinals, where she lost to Belgian Kim Clijsters 6-4 6-3, who was playing her last tournament on home territory.

In the Tier I Indian Wells, she came in as the thirteenth seed. In the first round, she beat Aiko Nakamura 6-0 7-5 and followed it up with a 6-2 6-0 thrashing over Samantha Stosur. During her fourth round match-up against Nadia Petrova, the Russian retired, trailing 6-2 1-0, allowing Golovin to set up a quarterfinal match-up with surprise quarterfinalist Sybille Bammer. Golovin was the heavy favourite for this match, however she eventually lost 6-2 6-3.

On April 8, 2007, Golovin won her first WTA title at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fl, defeating Nadia Petrova 6-2 6-1 in the singles final. Along the way, she defeated Venus Williams in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 and Ana Ivanović in three sets.

At Wimbledon, she lost in the second round to 16-year-old, unseeded Tamira Paszek. This was considered to be a major upset. Golovin attracted attention from the media and Wimbledon officials by wearing bright red undergarments — prompting a check of the "predominantly white" rule.

Grand Slam mixed doubles titles (1)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2004	French Open	Richard Gasquet	Cara Black & Wayne Black	6-3, 6-4

WTA Tour Titles (1)

Legend (Singles)

Tier I (0)

Tier II (1)

Tier III (0)

Tier IV & V (0)

Grand Slam Title (0)

WTA Championship (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	April 8, 2007	Amelia Island, USA	Clay	Nadia Petrova	6-2, 6-1

Singles finalists (3)

• 2004: Birmingham (lost to Maria Sharapova) 4-6 6-2 6-1
• 2005: Tokyo (lost to Nicole Vaidišová) 7-6(4) 3-2 ret.
• 2006: Stuttgart (lost to Nadia Petrova) 7-6(4) 6-3

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through to the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, where she lost on June 28, 2007.

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career Win-Loss
Australian Open	A	4R	2R	1R	3R	6-4
French Open	1R	1R	3R	1R	A	2-4
Wimbledon	A	4R	1R	2R	2R	5-4
U.S. Open	A	3R	3R	QF		8-3
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-1	8-4	5-4	5-4	3-2	21-15
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	A		0-0
Tokyo	A	A	A	1R	A	0-1
Indian Wells	2R	2R	4R	3R	QF	8-5
Miami	1R	4R	4R	SF	3R	10-5
Charleston	A	A	SF	A	QF	7-2
Berlin	A	1R	A	A	A	0-1
Rome	A	2R	1R	A	A	1-2
San Diego	A	A	1R	1R		0-2
Montreal/Toronto	A	QF	2R	1R		4-3
Moscow	A	A	A	A		0-0
Zurich	A	1R	1R	2R		1-3
Tournaments Won	0	0	0	0	1	1
Year End Ranking	345	27	24	22		N/A

• A = did not participate in the tournament

Trivia

• During her semi-final match against Maria Sharapova at the NASDAQ-100 tournament in Miami (2006), Golovin sprained her left ankle badly in the third set. Video of the injury has been replayed frequently on the Internet, but most descriptions erroneously imply that Golovin broke her ankle.

Has remained good friends with fellow Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy classmate Maria Sharapova, though the two are not as close as they were when they were younger.

External links

• Website about Tatiana Golovin: news, photos, vidéos...

• Website

• Tatiana Golovin at the Women's Tennis Association