Alona Bondarenko

Alona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko Dyachok (Альона Володимирівна Бондаренко; born 13 August 1984) is a Ukrainian former tennis player.

Her sisters Valeria and Kateryna Bondarenko are also tennis players.

Bondarenko started competing in the pro tour in 1999 at the age of 14.

Then she competed in ITF Women's Circuit, where she reached two second rounds in Tallinn, Estonia, and Kharkiv, Ukraine.

She began the year 2000 reaching her first ITF final in Kalamata, Greece but ended up losing to Ekaterina Kozhokina 5–7, 5–7, even though not losing a set before the finals.

She was only able to attain good success in two events, a semifinal in Kędzierzyn-Koźle and a quarterfinal in Sopot entering as a qualifier.

The rest of the year she was failing to qualify in other events.

In 2001, she failed to qualify in her first three events in Dubai, Caserta and Tallinn.

However, she was able two reached two semifinals, in Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Tbilisi.

She also managed to reach the quarterfinals in Batumi.

2002 was an inconsistent year, as she managed to reach the semifinals in Buchan before losing to Syna Schmidle in three sets and then followed it up by falling in the qualifying draw in Dubai.

The following week, she reached the second round of Dinan after getting pass the qualifying draw and followed it up by once again failing to qualify.

At her next event in Fontanafredda, she qualified for the main draw again, and won her first ITF title (final against Mara Santangelo).

However, in her next six tournaments she was managing only to reach one second round.

After her third final in Batumi, she made first-round exits in Joué-lès-Tours and Saint Raphael, both in France.

She ended the year with a semifinal appearance in Poitiers, losing to Seda Noorlander, 2–6, 1–6.

In 2003, Bondarenko tried to qualify for main draws on the tour, but failed in Hobart, Melbourne, and Hyderabad.

She then made it through her first WTA Tour main draw as a direct entry at the Copa Colsanitas, but ended up losing to Flavia Pennetta, 3–6, 1–6.

She then went back to the ITF Circuit, after failing to qualify in the Abierto Mexicano, only making it through one semifinal (in Taranto) out of seven events.

She also failed to qualify for the French Open and Wimbledon.

In the middle of the two Grand Slam tournaments, she made the quarterfinals of the ITF events in Galatina and Fontanafredda.

She also failed to qualify for the US Open.

But after the US Open, she won her second ITF title in Zhukovskiy.

At the beginning of 2004, Bondarenko qualified for the first time and even claimed her first victory there, when she defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives in three sets before being double-bageled by eventual champion Fabiola Zuluaga in the next round.

After that she then went back to the ITF Circuit where she won her third title in Bari, prevailing over younger sister Kateryna in the final, 2–6, 6–2, 6–4.

After that, she failed to qualify in any of the WTA events she entered while falling early in the ITF events she entered.

She then reached the final of Orbetello, losing to Catalina Castaño in three sets.

She ended the year with a runner-up performance in Deauville, losing to Květa Peschke 0–6, 3–6, and quarterfinal appearances in the ITF events of Poitiers and Bergamo.

In 2005, Alona made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, where she suffered a first-round loss to sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva, 3–6, 3–6.

Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Thailand Open where she lost to eventual runner-up, Anna-Lena Grönefeld, in straight sets.

The following week at Hyderabad, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza in three tight sets, 4–6, 7–5, 3–6.

However, due to this result she made her first appearance in the top 100 of the WTA rankings.

She then qualified for her first Tier-I event in the Indian Wells Open, and reached the second round before falling to top doubles player Lisa Raymond 6–4, 3–6, 3–6.

She also qualified for the Miami Open but lost in the opening round to Alina Jidkova.

She received a direct entry to the Estoril Open, reaching the second round before losing to third seed Gisela Dulko.

In the Italian Open in Rome, she fell in the qualifying round.

She then received direct entry in the İstanbul Cup, French Open, Birmingham Classic, all losing in the first round and failed to qualify in the Eastbourne International.

Her career-high singles ranking is No. 19, achieved on 14 April 2008.

Alona defeated former world No. 1, Jelena Janković, in the third round of the 2010 Australian Open, and won the 2008 Australian Open women's doubles title with her sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er in the finals.

She also formerly paired with her older sister Valeria in doubles.