Zarina Diyas

Zarina Diyas (born 18 October 1993) is an inactive professional tennis player from Kazakhstan.

She has been ranked as high as No. 31 in the world by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

Zarina Diyas (Зари́на Ди́ас) was born on 18 October 1993 in Almaty.

Her mother is Aida Aulbekova, and she has a sister named Alissa.

During her childhood, Diyas spent many years in the Czech Republic.

She moved there with her mother and sister when she was five years old.

Her mother introduced her to tennis at age six.

She began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit, in January 2007 at the age of 13.

In July of the same year, she won a low-level Grade-4 title at the Safina Cup in singles event, defeating Petra Krejsová in the final.

That tournament also was her doubles debut, where she lost in the second round alongside Yuliana Umanets.

She then continued to have good performances, reaching one semi-final and one final by the end of the year.

The next year, she started with a strong result, winning the Grade 1 tournament Czech International Junior Indoor Championships, at her first participation of the year.

Diyas began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2007 at the age of 14.

Her first attempt to play in a main draw of a professional tournament was at a $100k event in Bratislava, where she lost in the first round of qualifying.

In March 2008, she won her first doubles title at Grade 2 level Luxembourg Indoor Junior Open, partnering with Ksenia Lykina.

In June 2008, she made her debut at the French Open, recording her first match-win at a Grand Slam tournament over Irina-Camelia Begu, before she was defeated by Lykina in the second round.

She also made her doubles major debut there, losing in the first round.

Diyas then reached only the second round at Wimbledon.

On her debut at the 2008 US Open and the 2009 Australian Open, she was eliminated in the first round.

In April 2008, she received a wildcard for playing in qualification at the Prague Open but failed to qualify after a first-round loss to Klaudia Jans-Ignacik.

She then made her main-draw debut at the $25k event in Astana where she also won her first title.

In June 2009, she played the French Open, her last junior tournament in both singles and doubles, where she reached the third round in singles, and lost in the first round in doubles.

At her first two appearances in 2009, she reached a quarterfinal before she won another ITF title at the $25k event in Stuttgart.

She then made her WTA singles debut at the Prague Open as a wildcard player, where she also marked her first win and first quarterfinal.

She defeated qualifier Kristina Mladenovic and sixth seed Petra Kvitová but later was eliminated by third-seeded Iveta Benešová.

The year of 2009 was important for Diyas, as it was the year when she made her first appearances at a major tournament in qualifying at the US Open.

There she missed her chance to get to the main draw, losing to Chang Kai-chen in the first round of qualification.

Around 2010, she played as a member of a tennis club in Prague.

She had a chance to acquire Czech citizenship but decided against it to keep on playing for Kazakhstan.

She lived in the Czech Republic until she was 12 years old, before moving to Guangzhou, China for much of her tennis training.

She later started studying psychology at university, remotely.

Diyas reached a career-high ranking of No. 17 as a junior.

In 2010, she continued to rise up the rankings, debuting in the top 200 in July.

Following mixed results for the first half of the year, she reached the final at the $25k event in Rome, losing to Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.

Diyas became a member of the Kazakhstan Fed Cup team in 2011 and is tied for her country's most singles wins with Yaroslava Shvedova, but with a much better winning percentage.

Diyas mostly played on the ITF Circuit until 2014, her breakthrough season.

During that year, she started outside the top 150, before progressing into the top 40 by September.

This helped her enter tournaments on the WTA Tour more consistently, though she still plays ITF tournaments.

She is one of the most successful female tennis players representing Kazakhstan, along with Elena Rybakina and Yulia Putintseva.

In her career, Diyas won one WTA Tour singles title, at the 2017 Japan Women's Open, as well as nine singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.