Nadia Petrova

In the quarterfinals, she won again in three sets over 21st seed Vera Zvonareva 6–1, 4–6, 6–3 to reach her first ever Grand Slam semifinal.

Petrova faced world No. 2, Kim Clijsters, and despite having a set point in the first set, Petrova was beaten in straight sets 7–5, 6–1.

However, her ranking increased to world No. 30.

Her father Viktor was a hammer thrower, while her mother Nadezhda Ilyina won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics in the 400 meter relay.

Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova (Надежда Викторовна Петрова ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player.

As a junior, Petrova won the 1998 French Open, beating Jelena Dokić in the final.

In May 1998, she played her first WTA tournament at the J&S Cup as a wildcard entrant.

She also received a wildcard for her home event in Moscow, the Kremlin Cup, where she picked up her first top-20 win over Iva Majoli.

The same year, she finished runner-up at the Orange Bowl to Elena Dementieva and she also finished runner-up at the junior event of the 1999 US Open to Lina Krasnoroutskaya.

By the end of 1999, Petrova had reached the top 100.

In 2000, she reached the third round of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of the Miami Open, beating Julie Halard-Decugis for her first top-ten win before losing to Lindsay Davenport.

She finished the season at No. 50.

She reached the fourth round of both French Open and the US Open in 2001 and her ranking hit a high of No. 38 during the season.

Petrova also broke through in doubles in 2001, winning her first two WTA titles in Rosmalen and Linz (the latter of which alongside Dokic, by then a top-10 player).

Here, Petrova stunned seventh seed and 2001 French Open champion Jennifer Capriati, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3.

However, her 2002 season was marred by injuries causing her singles ranking to drop out of the top 100.

During this time, Petrova mainly focused on doubles, reaching the semifinals of the US Open with Nicole Pratt, two Tier I finals in Moscow and Zurich with Dokic, and reaching the top 20.

Petrova's career highlights in singles include reaching a total of nine Grand Slam quarterfinals across all four major tournaments (including two Grand Slam semifinals at the French Open in 2003 and 2005), and qualifying for the WTA Tour Championships on three separate occasions.

From June 2003 to September 2013, Petrova was continuously ranked inside the top 30 (a period of 538 weeks), was inside the top 20 for over 500 of them, and spent over 150 weeks ranked inside the top 10.

Over a 10 year period from 2003 to 2012, she finished the year ranked inside the top 30 on every single occasion, and inside the top 20 in all of them except 2011.

At the 2003 Australian Open, Petrova defeated Gréta Arn 6–2, 6–1 and then upset 21st seed Ai Sugiyama 6–4, 6–4 in the second round.

She then lost to world No. 15, Patty Schnyder, 2–6, 6–4, 3–6 in the third round.

Petrova was ranked world No. 76 going into the French Open.

In the first round, she beat the three-time champion and world No. 12, Monica Seles 6–4, 6–0, on what was to be Seles' last professional match.

She then defeated Silvija Talaja 6–1, 6–1 and Marissa Irvin 6–1, 6–1 to reach the fourth round.

Equally successful in doubles, Petrova's career highlights included winning the year-ending WTA Championships twice, with Meghann Shaughnessy in 2004, and with compatriot Maria Kirilenko in 2012.

She also won a total of nine Tier I/Premier Mandatory titles (including three in Miami in 2004, 2012 and 2013), was a seven-time Grand Slam doubles semifinalist, a twenty-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, and finished with a year-end top-ten ranking four times.

A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing so in doubles on 21 March 2005, then in singles on 15 May 2006).

Petrova won a total of 37 titles on the WTA Tour in her career, 13 in singles and 24 in doubles, as well as over $12.4 million in prize money, making her one of the most successful Russian tennis players of all time.

Her largest singles titles came at two Tier-I tournaments, Charleston and Berlin in 2006 (during a span in which she won three consecutive tournaments and a career-best 15 matches in a row), one Premier 5 title in Tokyo in 2012, and winning the year-end Tournament of Champions in 2012.

She also reached two Grand Slam finals in doubles, doing so at the 2010 US Open with Liezel Huber and the 2012 French Open with Kirilenko.

With Kirilenko, she also won the bronze medal in the doubles competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Her father is still an athletics coach, and her mother was an athletics coach until her death in 2013.

As a child, Nadia did a lot of travelling around the world with her parents.

She eventually settled in Egypt, where she trained with Mohammed Saif and her parents.

Petrova is an all-court aggressive player who is capable of hitting winners off both wings, but particularly off her back-hand and which she hits flat and with slice.

Nadia's weaknesses are her movement and exhibiting mental fragility during key points in highly contested matches.

and a nearly three-year absence from the tour (she played her last professional match in April 2014).

Petrova was born in Moscow.

Petrova announced her retirement from professional tennis on 11 January 2017 at the age of 34, due to a multitude of injuries.