Tsvetana Pironkova

Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova (Цветана Кирилова Пиронкова ; born 13 September 1987) is a Bulgarian former tennis player.

Considered to be one of the best grass court players of her generation, she has been noted for her "cerebral" skills on the surface, reaching the semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships.

Pironkova also found success playing on the quick hardcourts throughout her career, winning a title in Sydney and reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open.

Pironkova started playing tennis at the age of four on being introduced to the sport by her father.

Pironkova was born 1987 to athlete parents; her father Kiril Enchev Pironkov is a former canoeing champion, and her mother Radosveta Chinkova Nikolova is a former swimmer.

She has one brother, Encho, and one sister, Elisaveta.

Pironkova is the granddaughter of a prominent Bulgarian contemporary artist, Encho Pironkov.

She started playing tennis at the age of four, when her father introduced her to the game.

When she decided to play professionally, he became her coach.

She was ranked 94th in the world.

However, in the next round, she lost to Laura Granville.

Pironkova won the 2001 Atlantic Cup International Junior Tournament held in Bulgaria, and her career-high in juniors was world No. 227 in March 2002.

After playing at a junior level and winning the Atlantic Cup, she made her senior international debut in 2002 at ITF tournaments.

Early in her career, she won six singles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Pironkova played her first professional match 2002 at a tournament in Bucharest at the age of 14.

She won three matches in the qualifying draw, before reaching the final in the main draw, where she lost to Monica Niculescu.

In September 2002, Pironkova played in Volos, Greece, where she lost only one set playing through the qualifying and main draw.

She defeated Tina Schmassmann of Switzerland to win her first ITF event.

In 2003, Pironkova won three singles titles, one in Orestiada and two in Istanbul.

At the age of 17, she played her first WTA Tour tournament, the Tier-III event in Istanbul.

After winning two qualifying matches, she won three matches in the main draw, before losing in the semifinals to Venus Williams.

She made her WTA Tour debut at the İstanbul Cup in 2005, and achieved moderate success early in her career.

Pironkova garnered widespread media attention by defeating Venus again in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open.

In the first round of 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Pironkova came from a set down to defeat then-top-20 player Anna-Lena Grönefeld.

However, in the second round, she lost to Agnieszka Radwańska in straight sets.

On 16 November 2006, Pironkova reached a career-high singles ranking of 62.

In 2007, Pironkova lost in the first rounds of the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.

That changed in 2010, when she entered Wimbledon with a 1–4 career record at the event, and went on reach the semifinals of the tournament, becoming first Bulgarian tennis player in history to reach the semifinal stage of a Grand Slam in singles.

She garnered wide recognition for her performance, and after her semifinal finish reached her highest singles ranking at No. 31 in September 2010.

Pironkova followed it up with a quarterfinal run at the event the following year.

Pironkova won her first title on WTA Tour at the 2014 Sydney International, defeating three top-10 ranked players in a row.

She defeated then world No. 2, Agnieszka Radwańska, in the fourth round of the 2016 French Open, reaching her first quarterfinal at a Grand Slam tournament other than Wimbledon.

Pironkova married her long-time boyfriend Mihail Mirchev, a former Bulgarian football player, in July 2016.

Following an injury in 2017, Pironkova announced a sabbatical from the sport - which was later extended to accommodate her maternity leave.

Ahead of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, she launched her own women's clothing and lifestyle brand, Pironetic.

In April 2018, she gave birth to a baby boy named Alexander.

The couple had their second child, another boy, in July 2022.

Playing at her first professional tournament in over three years, she made a successful return at the 2020 US Open; she made it all the way to the quarterfinals, her first at a Grand Slam championship since 2016.

Her performances in 2020 earned her the Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year Award and a nomination for the WTA Comeback Player of the Year.

Pironkova has a total of twelve wins over top-10 ranked players and, at a point of time, held one of the longest streak of consecutive Grand Slam appearances at 47.