Alisa Kleybanova

In August 2003, aged 14 years and one month, Kleybanova entered qualifying for her first $10k event at Mollerusa, Spain, and came through all three qualifying rounds into the main draw without dropping a set, then proceeded to progress through to the final and win the title on her first attempt, having ceded just one set in the whole tournament in her second-round match.

She played six tournaments on the tour and ranked No. 364 by the end of 2004.

In March, the Russian teenager was favoured with a wildcard into the main draw at Indian Wells for the second year running, but this time she lost in the first round to world No. 95 Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.

Her ranking having plunged to 520th following her failure to defend her points picked up at Indian Wells a year earlier, she was wildcarded into the qualifying draw instead of the main draw for the Tier-I event at Miami that immediately followed, and at first defeated world No. 91 Séverine Beltrame (nowadays known as Séverine Brémond), but then lost in the second round of qualifying to German Julia Schruff.

By the time she next competed in July, she had lost nearly all her ranking points and plummeted to world No. 730. This was sufficient to gain her entry to the qualifying draw for a $25k tournament held at Felixstowe, Great Britain; and she successfully came through qualifying, but lost in the second round of the main draw to world No. 228 Jarmila Gajdošová of Slovakia.

In August, ranked 618th, she entered qualifying for two successive $25k events in China – the first at Wuxi, where she qualified but lost in the second round of the main draw to world No. 325 Miho Saeki of Japan; and the second at Nanjing, where in the first round of qualifying she had to withdraw with the score level at one set all against a little-known Chinese player.

Travelling to Moscow at the end of the month, ranked 530th, she entered qualifying for a further $25k event there, and enjoyed not only by far her most successful performance of the year to date but also the best of her career, as she came through three rounds of qualifying and then won the entire tournament. Her vanquished opponents included Galyna Kosyk of the Ukraine, whom she defeated in the second round of qualifying, Italians Giulia Gabba, Sara Errani and Karin Knapp, all of whom she defeated in straight sets, Margalita Chakhnashvili of Georgia, whom she beat in the semifinals, and fellow-Russian Vasilisa Bardina, whom she ousted in the final 6–2, 6–2.

Wildcarded into the qualifying draw for the annual Tier I fixture at Moscow in early October, her ranking having leapt back up to world No. 384, Kleybanova double-bagelled American former top 40 star Alexandra Stevenson in the first round of qualifying, but then lost a close three-set match to Bulgarian world No. 41 Sesil Karatantcheva in the second.

As a direct entrant to a $25k event at Makinohara, Japan the following week, she battled past Japanese world No. 192 Seiko Okamoto in the first round and world No. 349 Ayumi Morita in the semifinals, but otherwise did not drop a set in claiming her second career $25k title.

This result elevated her world ranking to a personal-best world No. 294 by the time of her entry into her next $25k draw at Sutama, Japan early in November. On this occasion, she won the whole tournament without losing a single set, defeating world No. 199 Shiho Hisamatsu in the final to take her third $25,000 title and fourth career ITF tournament victory.

In December, now world-ranked 243rd, she tried her hand at qualifying for a $50k tournament at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, but was defeated in three sets in the qualifying round by a lower-ranked player from Taipei. However, she entered the main draw as a lucky loser, and knocked out world No. 110 Saori Obata in the first round, before losing to world No. 225 Tiffany Dabek of the USA in round two.

The year ended for her with a win-loss record of 28–8 and a world ranking of 244th.

The Russian 16-year-old began 2006 by attempting to qualify for the Tier IV Pattaya Open, but lost in the first round of the qualifying draw to American world No. 125 Bethanie Mattek.

Then in April, having skipped Indian Wells, she was awarded a wildcard into the main draw at Miami, but was defeated in the first round by French world No. 47 Virginie Razzano.

In May, she retreated again to the ITF $25,000 level in Italy, playing back-to-back tournaments at Caserta and Campobasso. She reached the final in the first of these, recording four straight sets wins including victories over Sanja Ančić of Croatia in the quarterfinals and world No. 241 Alizé Cornet of France in the semifinals. But at the last hurdle she lost to world No. 270 Mandy Minella of Luxembourg. Then the following week at Campobasso, she gained her revenge over Minella by defeating her in the final to pick up the fourth $25k title of her career, having earlier again put out Ančić in the semifinals.

On the strength of these two tournaments, she entered the top 200 for the first time in her career.

In late July, world-ranked 198th, she attempted to qualify for the Tier IV event at Budapest, and for the first time in her career succeeded in qualifying for a WTA main draw, after defeating world No. 117 María José Martínez Sánchez in the qualifying round. But world No. 107 Laura Pous Tió defeated her in the first-round proper.

A month later, ranked 193rd, she attempted again to qualify for a $50k event at Bronx, but was defeated in straight sets by a slightly lower-ranked opponent, Natalie Grandin, in the first round of the qualifying draw.

She followed up this disappointment by attempting to qualify for a Grand Slam main draw for the first time at the US Open at the end of August, and progressed to the qualifying round with wins over world No. 115 Tamarine Tanasugarn and world No. 224 Shiho Hisamatsu, then lost to world No. 130 Sandra Kloesel in straight sets.

Returning to Moscow in early October, she tried again to qualify for the annual WTA Tier I event there, but this time lost in the second round of qualifying to her compatriot world No. 84 Vasilisa Bardina.

She next played in early November, where, as a direct entrant into the first round of a $75k tournament at Pittsburgh, she had reached 4–6, 7–6, 1–1 against American world No. 44 Shenay Perry before her opponent retired. But in the second round, she lost in straight sets to Canadian world No. 130 Stéphanie Dubois.

Her ranking having slipped to world No. 262 by the middle of the month following her failure to defend her $25k tournament victories a year previously, she nonetheless gained direct entry into a $50k event at Lawrenceville, Georgia, and easily surpassed her previous career-best record at this level of tournament by reaching the semifinals with back-to-back straight sets victories over Americans world No. 129 Ahsha Rolle and world No. 104 Bethanie Mattek and Argentine world No. 115 Clarisa Fernández. But it was to be an American star of the future, Julie Ditty, then ranked only 297th, who would oust her 6–1, 6–2 in the semifinals.

At the end of November, ranked 238th, Kleybanova entered another $50k draw at San Diego, and beat Ireland's Kelly Liggan in the first round before losing to upcoming compatriot Ekaterina Afinogenova in the second.

She did not play in December, and ended the year ranked world No. 262. Her win-loss record for the year was 20–10.

Starting the 2007 season relatively late at a $25k event at Minsk in early March, world-ranked 239th, Kleybanova could only reach the quarterfinals before losing in three sets to British world No. 222 Amanda Keen, having had to struggle through two three-sets victories over lower-ranked players Lina Stančiūtė of Lithuania and fellow-Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach even that far.

At Moscow at the end of March, she entered another $25k tournament, and this time reached the semifinals without dropping a set after her quarterfinal opponent world No. 232 Nika Ožegović of Croatia retired at 1–4 down to the Russian teenager. But in the semifinals she was defeated by another young Russian, world No. 199 Evgeniya Rodina.

In Moscow again two months later, she reached her second successive $25k semifinal, this time losing to a compatriot, world No. 224 Ekaterina Makarova.

By the middle of July, Kleybanova's WTA world-ranking had slipped to 273rd. Deciding nonetheless to continue at the $25k level into the early summer, she reached a quarterfinal at Rome in mid-July before losing in straight sets to lower-ranked Austrian Patricia Mayr.

But the following week, still in Italy at Monteroni d'Arbia, she won her fifth career $25,000 title and first of the year, after defeating world No. 195 Darya Kustova of Belarus in the semifinals, and Estonian world No. 223 Margit Rüütel in the final.

A week later, she decided to step up to the $75k level for the first time that year, and gained direct entry to an event of that calibre at Rimini, Italy. Having battled past both her first two opponents by the identical scoreline of, including Ukrainian world No. 174 Mariya Koryttseva in round one, to reach her career-first $75k main-draw quarterfinal, she then found herself engaged in a very close battle with Swiss world No. 133 and former top-100 player Emmanuelle Gagliardi, which the Russian eventually lost in three sets.

Back in Moscow again in late August, buoyed by her recent successes to world No. 208, she reached another $25k semifinal, defeating Kristina Antoniychuk of the Ukraine in the quarterfinals before losing to fellow-Russian upstart Anastasia Pivovarova.

In the next two weeks, she entered two further $50,000 tournaments. In the first, at Moscow, she lost a close three-set match in the first round to compatriot Anastasia Poltoratskaya, whom she had easily beaten in the first round of the $25k tournament the previous week. Then at Mestre, Italy, she reached her career-first $50,000 final with back-to-back defeats of world No. 202 Jenifer Widjaja of Brazil, world No. 191 Ivana Lisjak of Croatia, and Czech players world No. 144 Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová and world No. 119 Renata Voráčová. But she was denied the title by world No. 150 Rossana de los Ríos of Paraguay, who took the final in three sets.

This performance lifted Kleybanova to a ranking of 195th, just below her personal best set in the summer of 2006, in time for entering her first $100,000 draw at Bordeaux, France the very week after. Here, she scored successive three-sets defeats over French world No. 86 Pauline Parmentier and Spanish former top-100 star, now world No. 141, Laura Pous Tió. But she lost in the quarterfinals to world No. 68 Alizé Cornet.

Playing her fifth straight tournament in five weeks at Lecce, Italy in the middle of September, world-ranked a career-best 184th, the young Russian captured the sixth $25k title of her career. Having lost the first set of her first round tie against Czech player Andrea Hlaváčková in round one, she then reeled off ten straight sets for the loss of only 17 more games to claim the tournament, beating formerly top-50-ranked Spaniard Marta Marrero in the final 6–1, 6–0.

Arriving back in Moscow for the annual Tier I event held there in October, world-ranked 163rd, she was defeated in the first round of the qualifying draw by Ukrainian world No. 130 Tatiana Perebiynis.

A week later, she found herself back at Lawrenceville, Georgia for a $50k event, and knocked out American world No. 92 Ashley Harkleroad in the first round, but was defeated in the second by a much lower-ranked American wild card Alexa Glatch.

In the last full week of October at Augusta, she virtually breezed through a $25k draw for the loss of just 17 games, eight of them taken from her by just one of her five opponents, Argentine Clarisa Fernández, in the quarterfinals. Notable among her squarely vanquished opponents was American world No. 244 Madison Brengle, whom she beat 6–0, 6–2 in round two. It was the seventh $25,000 title Kleybanova had won in her short career, and the third of that year.

Elevated to a new career-best world ranking of 153rd in time for her direct entry into a $75k draw at Pittsburgh in early November, the Russian scored victories over world No. 180 Sunitha Rao and world No. 112 Aleksandra Wozniak to reach the quarterfinals, but then lost a topsy-turvy three-setter to her 92nd-ranked compatriot Olga Poutchkova.

A week later at La Quinta, California, she reached the quarterfinals of a $50k event, beating world No. 151 Abigail Spears in round two before losing to another American player, world No. 176 Raquel Kops-Jones in the quarterfinals.

Kleybanova did not play in December, but ended the year world-ranked down just a few places from her recently set career best at 156th, and with a strong 41–13 win-loss record to her credit. Although she had scored many of her main draw match wins at the $25k level which she had already conquered several times back in 2005, she had also broken new ground at higher levels of competition in the second half of the year.

Kleybanova began the 2008 season early by entering qualifying for the WTA Tier III tournament at Gold Coast, Australia in late December 2007. She qualified for the main draw of a WTA event for just the second time in her career so far, some seventeen months after reaching the Tier IV main draw at Budapest in July 2006. Her vanquished opponents were world No. 97 Tatiana Perebiynis, whom she defeated in the first round of qualifying, world No. 121 Yuan Meng of China, whom she beat in the second, and former top-50 Chinese star Zheng Jie, whom she ousted 6–2, 4–6, 6–1 in the qualifying round. But in the first round of the main draw she faced Swiss world No. 16 Patty Schnyder, and lost to her 1–6, 3–6.

In mid-January, she followed this up by entering qualifying for the Australian Open, and came through relatively comfortably to the first Grand Slam main draw of her still-young career with straight-sets wins over Canadian world No. 166 Marie-Ève Pelletier, Czech world No. 116 Iveta Benešová, and French world No. 136 Olivia Sanchez. In the first round of the main draw, she defeated Chinese world No. 45 Peng Shuai 7–5, 4–6, 9–7. But in round two she had to face world No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, and lost to her in straight sets.

Nonetheless, in reaching the second round of a Grand Slam as a qualifier, Kleybanova had earned 91 ranking points, sufficient to raise her ranking to a new personal best of 112th.

The next tournament for which she entered herself was another high-level WTA event, the Tier II fixture at Paris in early February. She won the first two rounds of qualifying, defeating her compatriot world No. 127 Galina Voskoboeva in the first and a Belgian outsider in the second, but then lost to Czech world No. 70 Klára Zakopalová in the qualifying round. She emerged from this experience ranked just six places higher at world No. 106.

The following week, undeterred, she attempted to qualify for another Tier II tournament at Antwerp, Belgium, and this time succeeded, after defeating world No. 206 Ekaterina Dzehalevich 6–3, 7–6 in the second round of the qualifying draw, and Swedish world No. 67 Sofia Arvidsson 4–6, 7–5, 6–3 in the qualifying round. In the first round of the main draw, she stunned world No. 18 Ágnes Szávay of Hungary 6–2, 6–3; and in the second she edged out world No. 38 Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine in an extremely close match, 7–5, 3–6, 7–5, to reach her career-first WTA-level quarterfinal, where she met world No. 1 Justine Henin for the first time. Although the Russian teenager lost 4–6, 3–6, she was assured of taking home enough ranking points from this event to reach the top 100 for the first time in her career; and in practice she landed at world No. 82.

In late February she entered the qualifying draw for the Tier II event at Dubai and defeated world No. 60 Timea Bacsinszky in the first round before losing a very close three-set battle in the second round of qualifying to rising world No. 123 Monica Niculescu despite winning more games than her opponent in the overall match.

In early March, her ranking having slipped just a couple of places to No. 84, she entered qualifying for the Tier I tournament at Indian Wells, having failed by only one place to attain direct entry, but unexpectedly fell at the first hurdle in three sets to Japanese world No. 186 Rika Fujiwara.

Towards the end of the month, she persevered in attempting to gain entry to events of Tier I calibre at Miami, and this time succeeded, scoring back-to-back comfortable straight-sets victories over Hungarian world No. 127 Gréta Arn and resurgent former top-50 star Mashona Washington of the USA, for the collective loss of just nine games in two matches. In the main draw, she defeated world No. 44 Olga Govortsova then unexpectedly one-sidedly thrashed world No. 15 Nicole Vaidišová to reach the third round, where she lost to on-form world No. 20 Vera Zvonareva 1–6, 4–6. The sixty-five ranking points accrued from this performance lifted her world ranking to a new career high of No. 70.

At Wimbledon in June, Kleybanova played in three events: Ladies' Singles, Ladies' Doubles (with Dominika Cibulková), and Mixed Doubles (with Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand). In ladies' singles, she made it to the fourth round, her best career Grand Slam tournament result, losing to the reigning Wimbledon champion and seventh seed Venus Williams. On the way, she defeated unseeded Tzipora Obziler of Israel in the first round, beat tenth seed Daniela Hantuchová of Slovakia in the second round, and overcame unseeded Ai Sugiyama in the third round. She retired in the first round of ladies' doubles and lost in the first round of mixed doubles.

Kleybanova vs. Sharapova at the 2009 Rogers Cup in Toronto

Kleybanova defeated Sofia Arvidsson in the first round of the Australian Open. She then defeated Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro in the second round, and the No. 5 seed Ana Ivanovic to advance to the fourth round. Kleybanova was later defeated by the Australian wildcard Jelena Dokić.

Kleybanova lost in the second round of Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships to Ana Ivanovic, whom she had previously beaten at the Australian Open.

She scored her biggest career win at the Madrid Masters where she defeated world No. 3 Venus Williams in the second round. She lost to world No. 11 Caroline Wozniacki in the third round 2–6, 2–6.

Kleybanova was seeded 27th at the Wimbledon Championships. She lost to qualifier Regina Kulikova in the second round.

In the 2009 US Open Series, Kleybanova went into the LA Women's Tennis Championships being unseeded in the singles. She won her first round match against Alla Kudryatseva 6–1, 6–3, but then lost in the second round to Anna Chakvetadze 3–6, 6–3, 1–6.

The following week in the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open, Kleybanova went into the tournament being unseeded again. She won her first-round match in straight sets against Aravane Rezaï, but then lost to seventh seed Vera Zvonareva 4–6, 6–1, 5–7.

In the Rogers Cup, Alisa upset fifth seed Jelena Janković in the quarterfinal 6–7, 7–6, 6–2 and lost to Maria Sharapova in 2–6, 6–4, 4–6 in semifinal.

In the US Open, Alisa reached the semifinals of the women's doubles with Ekaterina Makarova where they were knocked out by the Williams sisters in three sets.

At the Hansol Korea Open, Kleybanova defeated Katarina Srebotnik in the first round 6–2, 6–3. In the second round she fell to eventual champion Kimiko Date-Krumm 6–4, 6–7, 3–6. Unseeded at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, Kleybanova defeated Ayumi Morita in the first round 6–1, 6–4 and then defeated sixth seed Vera Zvonareva 3–6, 6–4, 6–2. In the third round she was defeated by Maria Sharapova 2–6, 6–2, 6–2. At the China Open, Kleybanova made it to the second round by defeating Yanina Wickmayer 5–7, 6–3, 6–3 but was defeated by Marion Bartoli 6–2, 6–3.

Kleybanova entered her final tournament of the season in Moscow and made the semifinals, defeating Magdaléna Rybáriková 6–1, 6–2, Evgeniya Rodina 6–1, 6–2 and second seed Jelena Janković 6–4, 6–3. In the semifinals she was defeated by Olga Govortsova 6–2, 6–1. Kleybanova ended the year with a win-loss record of 32–24.

Kleybanova at the 2010 US Open

Kleybanova started off the year falling in three sets to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Brisbane International in the first round where Alisa was the fifth seed. She then fell to world No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round of the Medibank International, falling 5–7 in the third set.

Kleybanova was seeded 27th at the Australian Open. She lost a hard fought three setter to Justine Henin in the third round, despite having been near match point numerous times.

At the 2010 Fed Cup, Kleybanova represented Russia along with Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kleybanova fell in three sets to Jelena Janković in her first match, but blew past Ana Ivanovic in her second match. Kleybanova and Kuznetsova then defeated Ivanovic and Janković in doubles to help Russia advance.

At the Open GDF Suez in Paris, Kleybanova fell to world No. 12 Flavia Pennetta. At the Malaysian Open, Kleybanova won her first WTA singles title, defeating world No. 7 Elena Dementieva in the final in straight sets.

Kleybanova's good form continued into the BNP Paribas Open where she was seeded 23rd. She, like all seeds, received a bye into the second round where she then defeated qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova. In the third round she overcame another tight three-setter, defeating former world No. 1, 2009 US Open Champion and No. 14 seed Kim Clijsters 6–4, 1–6, 7–6. In the fourth round, she came back from a set down and had to work hard to defeat an in-form Carla Suárez Navarro (who took out the top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round). Kleybanova played Jelena Janković in the quarterfinal. This time, Jelena celebrated, winning 6–4, 6–4.

Kleybanova's 2011 tour started-off on a bad note as she lost to wild card Sally Peers in the first round at Brisbane International but fared better at doubles, winning with compatriot Pavlyuchenkova for her fourth WTA doubles title.

She went off on a better note at the Medibank International Sydney by upsetting No. 5 seed Francesca Schiavone and prevailing over María José Martínez Sánchez. After defeating Dominika Cibulková, she would lose to No. 3 seed Kim Clijsters 6–4, 3–6, 6–7.

At the BNP Paribas Open, Kleybanova went on to reach the fourth round where she lost to world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki.

She had to withdraw from the French Open due to illness and was thus replaced by Anastasia Pivovarova. However, she remained seeded, because she withdrew late from the tournament.

On 14 July, it was revealed that Alisa had been diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma. This provided an explanation to her withdrawals from tournaments in Roland Garros and Wimbledon. She underwent treatment in Italy, her last tournament of 2011 being played in Rome.

On 29 February, Alisa announced via an official statement on the WTA Tour website that she has successfully completed her treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma[1] and has started training in Florida. She launched her comeback at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami as a wildcard into the main draw.

Kleybanova at the 2013 US Open

Kleybanova made her official comeback in 2013, stating that she had not been ready in Miami the previous year. The week of 13 May, she played a $10K tournament in Landisville, Pennsylvania. She took the singles title with a two-set victory over Natalie Pluskota, after winning three matches to qualify and four others in the main draw, to total eight. As she missed the deadline to participate in the Wimbledon Championships under a protected ranking, she applied for a wild card, but was turned down. On the week 17 June, she played another $10k in Buffalo, New York, reaching the semifinals with the loss of one set. Here she smashed the fourth seed 6–0, 6–4 to extend her unbeaten streak to twelve matches and set up a contest with Alexandra Mueller in the final. However, she lost the contest in straight sets.

On 1 July, Kleybanova competed at an $50k in Sacramento. After going through three rounds of qualifying, she defeated Brooke Austin and Mary Weatherholt, both in straight sets, before losing to Ivana Lisjak, 6–0, 2–6, 6–7. She then played for the Springfield Lasers in World Team Tennis, playing mostly doubles.

Alisa made her comeback to the WTA Tour at the Rogers Cup held in Toronto, Canada, under a protected ranking. She lost to Eugenie Bouchard in the first round. She then played at the Western & Southern Open, another Premier tournament, where she drew qualifier Sofia Arvidsson in the first round. Alisa came through in a thrilling match lasting almost three hours, winning 4–6, 6–4, 7–6. Against Angelique Kerber in round two, she lost the match despite having match points in the final set.

Alisa played her first Grand Slam tournament since recovering from cancer at the US Open. In the first round, she scored her biggest victory of the year against Monica Puig 6–4, 3–6, 7–5 in a marathon match, but ultimately lost in the second round to former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, and the performance lifted her ranking to No. 248.

In October, Alisa competed at her home tournament, the WTA Premier Kremlin Cup in Moscow, under a main-draw wild-card entry. She defeated Varvara Lepchenko in the first round on 14 October in three sets.

At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Kleybanova recorded her first top-ten victory in over three years when she upset former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in straight sets in the second round. With this victory, Kleybanova returned to the WTA's top 100 for the first time since 2011.[2]

Kleybanova made her comeback at an $10k tournament in Antalya. She won the title by beating the top seed Lina Gjorcheska in the final in straight sets.