Anastasia Myskina: Difference between revisions

Anastasia Andreyevna Myskina (Анастасия Мыскина; in Russian) (ah-nass-tah-SEE-ya MYSS-kee-nah) (born July 8, 1981, Moscow, Russia) is a professional tennis player from Russia.

Tennis career

Myskina turned professional in 1998, the year in which she broke into the WTA top 500. The very next year, she entered the top 100 and went on to end 2002 in the top 20 and 2003 in the top 10.

Myskina has won 10 WTA tour singles titles in her career. In 2004 she won the French Open, her first grand slam. She routed fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-2 in the final to become the first Russian woman to win a grand slam singles event. She led the Russian team to its first Fed Cup title in a dramatic final against France in the same year.

Myskina, who has won over 4 million in career prize money, reached a career high ranking of No. 2 on September 13, 2004. She finished the 2004 season at #3 and was named the 2004 ITF world champion.

In August 2004, she filed an 8 million USD lawsuit against the men's magazine GQ for allowing her topless photographs to appear in a Russian magazine Medved without her consent. But in July 2005, a judge ruled that she could not prevent the photographer from distributing the photos because she had signed a release. Myskina had claimed that she did not understand the photo release form and that she was not fluent in English at the time.

On June 19, 2005 U.S District Judge Michael Mukasey ruled that Anastasia Myskina can't stop the distribution of her topless photos taken in 2002. A then 20 year old Myskina said she allowed the photographer to take personal photos which were never to be released.

By losing her opening match at the French Open 2005 against Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (4-6, 6-4, 0-6), she became the first woman in the history of the event to lose as a defending champion in the first round.

It soon transpired that the reason for Myskina's relatively poor 2005 results was her mother was suffering from cancer in Moscow while Myskina was travelling on the WTA Tour.

En route to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, which included stunning victories over Jankovic in three tough sets, as well as her compatriot and friend Elena Dementieva, Myskina lost to Amélie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, halting an unexpectedly successful run, indicating she was now once again on the rise.

Following her quarterfinal rebound at Wimbledon after a devastating first half of the season, Myskina beat the reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in three sets, 5-7 6-4 6-2. The win gave Russia the first point in the Fed Cup semifinal match against the USA. Myskina followed with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over World #60 Jill Craybas to give Russia its first victory over the USA in Fed Cup that proppeled the reigning champions, Russia, to the final against France.

Myskina reaches her first Tour final in 2005 at the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm, losing to World #62 Katarina Srebotnik 7-5 6-2 due to numerous forehand errors and sloppy serving. Myskina improves her 2005 Singles Win-Loss record to 19-13.Myskina lost in the third round at the US Open to Elena Likhovtseva 6-0 3-6 6-7 after having five matchponts and winning 103 total points to Likhovtseva 93.

Looking to rebound from a disappointing US Open, Myskina goes into the 2005 Fed Cup finals against France as the #2 of the Russian team (behind Elena Dementieva). She loses both of her singles matches in the finals, including a match vs. Mary Pierce, in which she leads 6-4, 4-1. Fortunately for Myskina and Russia, Elena Dementieva was the hero of the finals this year, winning 3 out of 3 rubbers in the final against France, giving Russia the title. Myskina recovered nicely, sweeping Kolkata by winning doubles and singles. The wins gave Myskina her first titles of the year.

Myskina reaches the quarterfinals in Filderstadt, losing to Lindsay Davenport for the second straight year. Pairing with Daniela Hantuchová she won her second doubles title of the year.

Beginning her 2006 campaign in Melbourne for the Australian Open, Myskina put a shaky second round victory over Jamea Jackson behind her to make the 4th round as the 12th seed. After early losses in the doubles and mixed doubles, Myskina was eliminated by 7th seed Patty Schnyder, putting in an error-strewn performance. Her next stop is Tokyo.

In Tokyo, Myskina made the semifinals before going down in three tough sets to good friend Dementieva. In the quarterfinals she had exacted revenge on Likhovtseva for her US Open loss. The result is a promising sign for Myskina, who is competing to bring her ranking back into the top 10.

Competing in Dubai as the 6th seed, Myskina defeated Jie Zheng in the opening round in three sets before being upset by Martina Hingis. Her current plans are Doha and Indian Wells.

Enjoying a bye into the second round, Myskina was upset by Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama in three sets at Doha. Sugiyama was looking for her first singles victory of 2006 and saved two match points in order to get it. Myskina has won Doha on two occasions.

Myskina made a solid showing at Indian Wells, making it to the fourth round and defeating 27th seed Marta Domachowska. Countrywoman Dinara Safina upset Myskina in straight sets to make the quarterfinals. Miami is the next event on Myskina's schedule.

As the 10th seed, Myskina travelled to the quarterfinals in Miami where she faced countrywoman Maria Sharapova and lost in straight sets. It was the second straight time Myskina has lost to her younger rival, though she still leads their head-to-head 3-2 (four of their meetings came in their dual break-out year 2004, with Myskina winning the first three). As of now, Anastasia has no plans to play upcoming tournaments, though Amelia Island is around the corner.

Myskina next competed at Warsaw where she was stunned by a wild card in the first round, her worst loss in terms of ranking in roughly 7 years. Despite this setback she managed to win the doubles title with countrywoman Elena Likhovtseva. It was her fifth doubles success to date.

At Rome she travelled to the third round where she was defeated by Svetlana Kuznetsova.

As top seed in Istanbul, Myskina reached the final with wins over Michaëlla Krajicek and Catalina Castano (among others) where she was upset by Shahar Peer. However, the final appearance boosted her confidence, and she reached the fourth round of the French Open, an improvement of three rounds on 2005.

Myskina made her 2006 grass debut at Eastbourne to great success, reaching another final with a victory over Kuznetsova, her first Top 10 victory of 2006. In the final, she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne in a thrilling and hotly-contested battle 6-4 1-6 6-7(5), after saving a total of four match points in the third set. She then reached her second successive Wimbledon quarterfinal without dropping a set; she is set to meet Amelie Mauresmo.

Personal life

In October 2002, Myskina had a series of photo's taken for GQ magazine by the photographer Mark Seligerfor a spread in the October 2002 edition of GQ, in which one approved photo of her fully clothed was published. The set included some topless shots, including some of her astride a horse [1]

After she won the French Open in 2004, the topless pictures were published in the July/August 2004 issue of the Russian magazine Medved (Bear). Myskina filed an $8 million federal lawsuit against GQ magazine, claiming it allowed topless photographs of her to appear in the Russian magazine without her permission, and that at the time her English was limited. However, a judge ruled that she had signed a release clause with the photographer, and dismissed the case [2]

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (1)

Runner-ups (0)

Titles (14)

Singles (10)

Singles finalist (8)

• 2002: Birmingham (lost to Jelena Dokic)
• 2002: Eastbourne (lost to Chanda Rubin)
• 2002: Leipzig (lost to Serena Williams)
• 2003: Philadelphia (lost to Amélie Mauresmo)
• 2004: San Diego (lost to Lindsay Davenport)
• 2005: Stockholm (lost to Katarina Srebotnik)
• 2006: Istanbul (lost to Shahar Peer)
• 2006: Eastbourne (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne)

Performance timeline

Doubles (5)

Trivia

• Has twice received the WTA Diamond Aces Award, which is awarded for commitment to promoting the tour.
• Boris Yeltsin personally congratulated her on her first Tier I victory at Moscow, and watched her become Russia's first female Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros in 2004.
• In the Partners For Success program her mentor was Bulgarian tennis player Katerina Maleeva, a former top 10 player noted for her on-court tenacity. Myskina is often credited with on-court competitive drive by commentators of the sport, particularly Fred Stolle.
• Likes sushi, white sausages and gnocchi.

External links

• Anastasia Myskina at the Women's Tennis Association
• Unofficial Anastasia Myskina Website