Yulia Putintseva

Putintseva turned pro in 2009 at the age of 14.[5] Her first tournament was WTA Luxembourg Open, where she played in qualification as wild card player. She came into the final stage of qualification, after the two wins, but failed to reach main-draw.[6] After that, her next tournament was $10K event in Amiens in March 2010.[7] There she reached her first semifinal. In October 2010, she made her debut at the WTA Tour at the Luxembourg Open, but lost to Angelique Kerber in the first round.[6] In May 2011, she won her first ITF title at the $25K event in Moscow. Soon after that, she won another $25K event, but this time in Samsun, and then $50K Kazan, after she defeat Caroline Garcia.[6][7]

Putintseva at the 2014 US Open

Putintseva switch to represent Kazakhstan instead of Russia in 2012.[8] During the season of 2012, Putintseva made a improvement. In the early begging of a season, she won $25K event in Launceston, followed with semifinal of $25K event in Almaty.[7] She then recorded her first win on the WTA Tour, defeating Karen Barritza in the first round, but then lost to former world one Jelena Janković.[6] In May, she won $100K Cagnes-sur-Mer, defeating Patricia Mayr-Achleitner in the final.[7] She then made her debut in the Grand Slam qualifications at the French Open, but failed to reach main-draw. In August, she had her first chance to reach main-draw of some Premier 5 tournament, but lost in the second round of qualification of the Cincinnati Open.[6] By the end of year, she reached two ITF finals, at the $50K Open Nantes Atlantique and $75K Al Habtoor Challenge, respectivelly.[7]

In 2013, Putintseva continued to progress. At the Australian Open, she made her Grand Slam main-draw debut, and there she also recorded her first Grand Slam win, defeating Christina McHale. In the second round she lost to Carla Suárez Navarro. At the Qatar Open, she played her first tournament as top 100 player and also made her Premier 5 main-draw debut, but lost to Mona Barthel in the first round. Unlike Indian Wells Open, where she failed to qualify, she succeed at the Miami Open, but lost to qualifier Donna Vekić in the first round. Unlike in previous seasons, in 2014 Putintseva did not produced such good performances. During the season, she reached only two quarterfinals on the WTA Tour, at the Swedish Open and Japan Women's Open, as well as one WTA 125K quarterfinal. Things get better in 2015, when she reached her first WTA semifinal at the Swedish Open and recorded her first top 10 win at the Nuremberg Cup, defeating world No. 10 Andrea Petkovic in the first round.[6] During the year, she also reached two $100K finals, the Grand Est Open 88 and the Nanjing Open.[6][7]

Putintseva at the 2016 French Open

Putintseva turned back on the track in 2016. At the Australian Open, she reached her first Grand Slam third round, after the two wins in the main-draw, including win over former number one Caroline Wozniacki.[6][9] Right after that, she reached semifinal of the Taiwan Open, where she lost to Venus Williams. At the Indian Wells, after she defeated Peng Shuai and Kristina Mladenovic, Putintseva lost to Serena Williams in the third round.[6][10] In April, she reached her first Premier-level quarterfinal at the Charleston Open, where she also defeated Venus Williams.[11] She followed this with quarterfinal of Morocco Open.[6] At the French Open, she got more recognition, since she reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. In the quarterfinal match, she lost to Serena Williams.[12] This helped her breakthrough the top 50 for the first time. Later, she reached another semifinal, at the Citi Open, but lost to Yanina Wickmayer. At the Pan Pacific Open, she made her second career top 10 win, defeating Madison Keys in the first round.[6]

In the early begging of the 2017 season, Putintseva reached her first WTA singles final at the St. Petersburg Trophy. On the path to the final, she made two top 10 wins over world No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 5 Dominika Cibulková,[13] before she lost to Kristina Mladenovic.[14] She then defeat world No. 15 and former top 10 player Timea Bacsinszky at the Qatar Open, but then lost to Monica Puig.[6] At the French Open, she did not repeat previous year result, losing to Garbiñe Muguruza in the third round.[15] During the year, she also reached quarterfinals at the Nurember Cup and Japan Women's Open.[6]

Putintseva at the 2018 US Open

In the first few months, Putintseva did not made any significant results. She reached only second round of Hobart International, Australian Open, Indian Wells Open, Istanbul Cup and one quarterfinal at the Taiwan Open.[6] She then defeated top 10 player Sloane Stephens in the first round of Nurember Cup,[16] but lost in the next round.[6] Putintseva then made big return, reaching another quarterfinal of the French Open. However, this time she also failed to reach semifinal, losing to Madison Keys.[17] After the second round loss at Wimbledon and quarterfinal of Citi Open, she started with modest results again.[6] However, it did not stop her to reach her second career WTA final, this time at the Guangzhou Open, but she finished as runner-up again.[18]

During the season of 2019, Putintseva varied with results. In January, she reached quarterfinal of the Premier-level Sydney International and recorded top 10 win over Sloane Stephens in the second round,[19] before she lost to another top player Kiki Bertens.[20] Following with this, she reached only second round of the Australian Open and Indian Wells Open, and first round of the St. Petersburg Trophy and Dubai Championships. She then reached her first Premier Mandatory round of 16 at the Miami Open.[21] There she defeated Kirsten Flipkens, Belinda Bencic and Anastasija Sevastova,[22] before she lost to Karolína Plíšková.[23] At the Madrid Open, she reached third round, but lost there to Ashleigh Barty.[21] In May, she won her first WTA singles title at the Nuremberg Cup, after she defeated Tamara Zidanšek in the final.[24] Then, after the first round loss at the French Open, she reached quarterfinal of the Premier-level Birmingham Classic,[25] where she defeated world No. 1 Naomi Osaka.[26] At Wimbledon, she made big upset in the first round, making another defeat over world No. 1 Osaka.[27] However, she lost in the second round to Viktorija Golubic.[21] She then start with modest results again, losing in the early rounds at the Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open and Bronx Open.[21][28] Things then got better, with third round of US Open, where she also defeated world No. 13 Aryna Sabalenka.[29] At the Japan Women's Open, she reached quarterfinal, but this time Osaka made her revange, defeating Putintseva in the straight-sets.[30] Later, she reached another WTA quarterfinal in the year, at the Tianjin Open, where she lost to Ons Jabeur.[31]

Putintseva continued with varied results in 2020. During the first half of year, she reached third round of Australian Open and Qatar Open as her only significant results.[32][33] Then, WTA Tour was suspended for the six months due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Tennis returned in August, and Putintseva first played at the Lexington Open, where she defeated Ajla Tomljanović,[21] but then lost to later runner-up Jil Teichmann.[34] She followed this with only second round of Cincinnati Open, where she lost to Maria Sakkari.[35] She then reached her first US Open quarterfinal, where she also defeated world No. 15 Petra Martić,[36] before she lost to Jennifer Brady.[37] Right after that, she reached her first Premier 5 quarterfinal at the Italian Open,[38] but then lost to later champion Simona Halep after the retirement during the match.[39] She finished year with early loss at the French Open, losing to qualifier Nadia Podoroska in the second round.[40]