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Olga Puchkova

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Olga Puchkova
Ольга Пучкова
Puchkova at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships
Country (sports) Russia (2002–)
 Belarus (1990s-)
ResidenceMiami Shores, Florida, U.S.
Born (1987-09-27) 27 September 1987 (age 37)
Moscow, Russia
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro2002
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$846,870
Singles
Career record374–320
Career titles7 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 32 (11 June 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open2R (2007, 2008)
French Open2R (2007)
Wimbledon2R (2013)
US Open3R (2012)
Doubles
Career record59–87
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 247 (13 August 2012)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open1R (2007, 2008)
French Open1R (2007)
Wimbledon1R (2007)
US Open1R (2007)

Olga Alekseyevna Puchkova (also Poutchkova; Russian: Ольга Алексеевна Пучкова; Belarusian: Вольга Аляксееўна Пучкова; born 27 September 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. As a junior, she played for Belarus,[1] and was sometimes listed as Belarusian professional.[2]

Career

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Early years

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Olga Puchkova, coached by her father Alex Poutchkov, was No. 1 in the world in the ITF U12 rankings in 1999.[1] She won the U12 category in the Eddie Herr in 1999, where she beat Shahar Pe'er 6–2, 6–2 in the final,[3] and a week later was runner up in the U12 category at the Orange Bowl, where qualifier Tatiana Golovin beat her 6–4, 3–6, 6–4.[4]

Puchkova made her debut on the U18 circuit 13 August 2000 at the USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships where she was defeated in the first round.[5] Just a week later, at the USTA Junior International Hard Court Championships she secured her first win in a U18 doubles match playing alongside Brazilian Caroline Neves.[6] Alongside American Nicole Pitts, she won her first U18 tournament (out of two in doubles) in Ecuador, January 2001.[7] She won her only U18 title in singles at the US Junior International Hard Court Championships in 2003, beating Jessi Robinson 6–2, 6–2 in the final.[8]

ITF Circuit

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Puchkova started her ITF Women's Circuit career in March 2002 when she played in four tournaments in Australia, reaching the quarterfinals at Warrnambool and Benalla.[9] In 2003, she reached the final at Miami in January and the semifinal at Houston in June, and won her first professional tournament at Baltimore in July 2003 when she beat Jewel Peterson 6–2, 6–4 in the final.[10] She won her second professional title 11 July 2004 in College Park, Maryland.[11][12] She defeated top-seeded Maureen Drake in the second round and Rossana de los Ríos in the final.[13] In Pelham, Alabama, she reached another final, but was defeated by Slovak Zuzana Zemenová in three sets.[14] She reached her fifth ITF final in August 2005, beating Stéphanie Dubois en route. In the final, Ashley Harkleroad was too strong as she beat Puchkova to claim the Washington, D.C. title.[15]

2006: Breakthrough

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In 2006, she made her WTA Tour main-draw debut in Hobart, Australia as a qualifier; however she lost in the first round to Mara Santangelo.[16] Afterwards she tried to qualify for the 2006 Australian Open, but failed. She returned to the ITF Circuit and reached another final in Hammond, Louisiana at the end of March. She comfortably won the final, beating Andrea Hlaváčková for her third ITF title.[17]

Her first WTA Tour main-draw win in Birmingham followed in June, beating fellow qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova. She then lost her second-round match against fourth seed fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva.[16] Back in the ITF Circuit, she cruised to the final in Felixstowe's grass tournament, where she turned out to be way too strong for Australian Trudi Musgrave who was beaten in straight sets.[18] As the second seed in the Bronx, New York, she won yet another ITF title. Top seed Melinda Czink was already beaten in the first round by Dutch Elise Tamaëla. Puchkova herself won all her matches and faced Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek in the final, which was easily won by Puchkova.[19]

After failing to qualify for the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon earlier in 2006, she qualified for the US Open, beating Virginie Pichet, Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro and Ryōko Fuda.[20] She then faced Marion Bartoli in the first round and was not able to excel against the 26th seed (6–4, 6–0).[21]

Puchkova reached her first tour final in Kolkata, India, in September 2006, losing to Martina Hingis but beating seventh seed Nicole Pratt en route.[22] A week previously she had reached her first Tour singles quarterfinal at the Tier III Bali, Indonesia notching up her first top 20 victory along the way when beating Ana Ivanovic.[23]

At the end of the season, Puchkova reached her second career final in Quebec City, Canada. She lost to Marion Bartoli 0–6, 0–6, becoming the first woman since 1993 to lose by that scoreline in a tour final, although she was injured during the final.[24]

2007–2009

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Puchkova made her top 100 debut in 2006, and peaked at a high of world No. 32 on 17 June 2007.[16] However, her results soon began to tail off, and she didn't reach another quarterfinal until her last tournament of the 2007 season in Quebec City. Prior to that, she failed to win back-to-back matches on the season, although after the Bell Challenge she managed to reach the final of an ITF event in Pittsburgh, losing to Ashley Harkleroad in three sets. By the end of the season, Puchkova's ranking had fallen to 92.

At the 2008 Australian Open, she won her first-round match, but lost 1–6, 5–7 to world No. 1, Justine Henin, in the second round. Her year would improve slightly as she finished runner-up in the Charlottesville ITF event, falling to Alexis King ranked 640 in the world. She had to attempt to qualify for the French Open before falling to eventual quarterfinalist Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain in the qualifying playoff round. She then fell at the same stage in Wimbledon qualifying to Eva Hrdinová. She failed to qualify for another main draw of a tour-level tournament in 2008, but did receive direct entry into the Bell Challenge, before losing in the second round to Melanie Oudin. Her last event ended in a first-round loss in San Diego, and her ranking dipped to 159. She went 15–28 on the season.

She fell in the final round of qualifying yet again in the 2009 Australian Open, and didn't enter into a WTA tournament until she was given the opportunity to qualify for the Bell Challenge. She did manage to qualify, but lost to Amra Sadiković in the opening main-draw round. 19–22 by the end of the season, Puchkova's woes continued and she was ranked 226 in her last tournament of the year in Toronto.

2012–2013

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After a couple of years struggling with injuries and personal problems, Puchkova managed to finish 2012 in top 100 with a semifinal in Baku and reaching third round at the 2012 US Open. In 2013, she experienced some tough draws and had four first-round losses. But she turned tables around at the 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup, where she reached the final, beating Venus Williams en route. She lost to Monica Niculescu, in a three-setter.

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# P# DNQ A Z# PO G S B NMS NTI P NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Tournament 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 W–L
Australian Open Q1 2R 2R Q3 A A Q2 1R A 5–6
French Open Q2 2R Q3 Q1 A A Q2 1R A 5–6
Wimbledon Q3 1R Q3 Q1 A A Q1 2R A 5–6
US Open 1R 1R Q1 A A A 3R 1R A 8–5
Win–loss 0–1 2–4 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 2–1 1–4 0–0 6–11

WTA Tour finals

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Singles: 3 (runner-ups)

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Legend
International (0–3)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Sep 2006 Sunfeast Open, India Tier III Hard (i) Switzerland Martina Hingis 0–6, 4–6
Loss 0–2 Nov 2006 Bell Challenge, Canada Tier III Hard (i) France Marion Bartoli 0–6, 0–6
Loss 0–3 Mar 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup International Hard Romania Monica Niculescu 2–6, 6–4, 4–6

ITF Circuit finals

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Legend
$100,000 tournaments
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10/15,000 tournaments

Singles: 13 (7 titles, 6 runner-ups)

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Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Jan 2003 ITF Miami, United States 10,000 Hard Latvia Anžela Žguna 4–6, 2–6
Win 1–1 Jul 2003 ITF Baltimore, U.S. 10,000 Hard United States Jewel Peterson 6–2, 6–4
Win 2–1 Jul 2004 ITF College Park, U.S. 25,000 Hard Paraguay Rossana de los Ríos 7–5, 4–6, 6–2
Loss 2–2 Sep 2004 ITF Pelham, U.S. 25,000 Clay Slovakia Zuzana Zemenová 6–4, 4–6, 0–6
Loss 2–3 Aug 2005 ITF Washington, U.S. 75,000 Hard United States Ashley Harkleroad 2–6, 1–6
Win 3–3 Mar 2006 ITF Hammond, U.S. 25,000 Hard Czech Republic Andrea Hlaváčková 6–3, 6–4
Win 4–3 Jul 2006 ITF Felixstowe, UK 25,000 Grass Australia Trudi Musgrave 6–2, 6–1
Win 5–3 Aug 2006 Bronx Open, U.S. 50,000 Hard Belarus Tatiana Poutchek 6–3, 6–1
Loss 5–4 Nov 2007 ITF Pittsburgh, U.S. 75,000 Hard (i) United States Ashley Harkleroad 6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Loss 5–5 Apr 2008 ITF Charlottesville, U.S. 50,000 Clay United States Alexis King 3–6, 3–6
Win 6–5 Apr 2011 ITF Minsk, Belarus 25,000 Hard (i) Ukraine Nadiia Kichenok 6–2, 7–5
Loss 6–6 Sep 2011 ITF Redding, U.S. 25,000 Hard United States Julia Boserup 4–6, 6–2, 3–6
Win 7–6 Apr 2012 ITF Namangan, Uzbekistan 25,000 Hard Croatia Donna Vekić 3–6, 6–3, 6–2

Doubles: 3 (runner-ups)

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Result Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss Oct 2002 ITF Minsk, Belarus 10,000 Carpet (i) Belarus Tatsiana Uvarova Russia Daria Chemarda
Russia Vera Dushevina 		1–6, 4–6
Loss Mar 2017 ITF Nanjing, China 15,000 Hard Russia Angelina Gabueva China Sun Xuliu
China Sun Ziyue 		3–6, 1–6
Loss Mar 2017 ITF Heraklion, Greece 15,000 Hard Russia Angelina Gabueva Canada Charlotte Robillard-Millette
Canada Carol Zhao 		6–7(2), 6–4, [5–10]

References

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  1. ^ a b Olga Poutchkova profile Archived 5 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  2. ^ 2006 Wimbledon player record Archived 29 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine For instance, Wimbledon listed her as a Belarusian in 2006 when she played in the qualifying.
  3. ^ Eddie Herr 1999 Archived 2 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  4. ^ Orange Bowl 1999 Archived 8 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  5. ^ USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships 2000, International Tennis Federation
  6. ^ USTA Junior International Hard Court Championships 2000, International Tennis Federation
  7. ^ Nicolas Macchiavello Almeida Cup 2001, International Tennis Federation
  8. ^ US Junior International Hard Court Championships 2003, International Tennis Federation.
  9. ^ Olga Poutchkova 2002 results Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  10. ^ Olga Poutchkova 2003 results Archived 19 May 2004 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  11. ^ $25,000 College Park, MD 2004, International Tennis Federation
  12. ^ Olga Puchkova 2004 results Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  13. ^ $25,000 College Park, MD 2004 Results, International Tennis Federation
  14. ^ $25,000 Pelham, AL 2004, International Tennis Federation
  15. ^ $75,000 Washington, DC 2005, International Tennis Federation
  16. ^ a b c Olga Poutchkova (Rus) 2006 in detail
  17. ^ $25,000 Hammond, LA 2006, International Tennis Federation
  18. ^ $25,000 Felixstowe 2006, ITF
  19. ^ $50,000 Bronx, New York 2006, International Tennis Federation
  20. ^ U.S. Open 2006 qualification, International Tennis Federation
  21. ^ U.S. Open 2006 main, International Tennis Federation
  22. ^ Kolkata 2006, International Tennis Federation
  23. ^ Bali 2006, International Tennis Federation
  24. ^ Challengebell Open results Archived 3 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Challengebell.com
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