Olga Puchkova

Olga Alekseyevna Puchkova (also Poutchkova; Russian: Ольга Алексеевна Пучкова; Belarusian: Вольга Аляксееўна Пучкова; born 27 September 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. As a junior, she played for Belarus,[1] and was sometimes listed as Belarusian as a professional.[2]

Olga Puchkova
Ольга Пучкова
Olga Puchkova at the US Open 2013
Country (sports) Russia (2002–)
 Belarus (1990s-)
ResidenceMiami Shores, Florida, USA
Born (1987-09-27) 27 September 1987
Moscow, Russia
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro2002
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize moneyUS$ 833,994
Singles
Career record320–282
Career titles0 WTA, 7 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 32 (11 June 2007)
Current rankingNo. 504 (25 January 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open2R (2007, 2008)
French Open2R (2007)
Wimbledon2R (2013)
US Open3R (2012)
Doubles
Career record36–66
Career titles0 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 247 (13 August 2012)
Current rankingNo. 690 (25 January 2016)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open1R (2007, 2008)
French Open1R (2007)
Wimbledon1R (2007)
US Open1R (2007)
Last updated on: 25 January 2016.

Career

Early years

Olga Puchkova, coached by her father Alex Poutchkov, was No 1 in the World in the ITF U12 rankings in 1999.[1] She won the U12 category in the Eddie Herr in 1999, where she beat Shahar Pe'er 6–2, 6–2 in the final,[3] and a week later was runner up in the U12 category at the Orange Bowl, where qualifier Tatiana Golovin beat her 6–4, 3–6, 6–4.[4]

Puchkova made her debut on the U18 circuit 13 August 2000 at the USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships where she was defeated in the first round.[5] Just a week later, at the USTA Junior International Hard Court Championships she secured her first win in a U18 doubles match playing alongside Brazilian Caroline Neves.[6] Alongside American Nicole Pitts she won her first U18 Junior tournament (out of 2 in doubles) in Ecuador, January 2001.[7] She won her only U18 Junior title in singles at the US Junior International Hard Court Championships in 2003, beating Jessi Robinson 6–2, 6–2 in the final.[8]

ITF Circuit

Puchkova started her ITF professional career in March 2002 when she played in four tournaments in Australia, reaching the quarterfinals at Warrnambool and Benalla.[9] In 2003, she reached the final at Miami in January and the semifinal at Houston in June, and won her first professional tournament at Baltimore in July 2003 when she beat Jewel Peterson 6–2, 6–4 in the final.[10] She won her second professional title 11 July 2004 in College Park, Maryland.[11][12] She defeated first seeded Maureen Drake in the second round and Rossana de los Ríos in the final: 7–5, 4–6, 6–2.[13] In Pelham, Alabama she reached another final, but was defeated 4–6, 6–4, 6–0 by Slovak Zuzana Zemenová.[14] She reached her fifth ITF final in August 2005, beating Stéphanie Dubois en route. In the final, Ashley Harkleroad was too strong as she beat Puchkova 6–2, 6–1 to claim the Washington, D.C. title.[15]

2006: Breakthrough year

In 2006, she made her WTA Tour main draw debut in Hobart, Australia as a qualifier; however she lost in the first round to Mara Santangelo.[16] Afterwards she tried to qualify for the 2006 Australian Open, but failed. She returned to the ITF tour and reached another final in Hammond, Louisiana at the end of March. She comfortably won the final, beating Andrea Hlaváčková 6–3, 6–4 to win her third ITF Title.[17]

Her first WTA Tour main draw win in Birmingham followed in June, beating fellow qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova. She then lost her second round match against 4th seed fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva.[16] Back in the IFF Tour she cruised to the final in Felixstowe's grass tournament, where she turned out to be way too strong for Australian Trudi Musgrave who was beaten by 6–2, 6–1.[18] As being second seed in Bronx, New York she won yet another ITF title. First seed Melinda Czink was already beaten in the first round by Dutch Elise Tamaëla. Puchkova herself won all her matches and faced Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek final, which was easily won by Puchkova 6–3, 6–1.[19]

After failing to qualify for the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon earlier in 2006, she qualified for the 2006 US Open, beating Virginie Pichet, Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro and Ryōko Fuda.[20] She then faced Marion Bartoli in the first round and was not able to excel against the 26th seed (6–4, 6–0).[21]

Puchkova reached her first WTA Tour final in Kolkata, India, in September 2006, losing to Martina Hingis (6–0, 6–4), but beating seventh seed Nicole Pratt en route.[22] A week previously she had reached her first Tour singles quarter-final at the Tier III Bali, Indonesia notching up her first top 20 victory along the way when beating Ana Ivanovic.[23]

At the end of the season, Puchkova reached her second WTA Tour final in Quebec City, Canada. She lost to Marion Bartoli 6–0, 6–0, becoming the first woman since 1993 to lose by that scoreline in a Tour final, although she was injured during the final.[24]

2007 to present

Puchkova made her Top 100 debut in 2006, and peaked at a high of World No. 32 on 17 June 2007.[16] However, her results soon began to tail off, and she didn't reach another quarterfinal until her last tournament of the 2007 season in Bell Challenge. Prior to that she failed to win back-to-back matches on the season, although after the Bell Challenge she managed to reach the final of an ITF event in Pittsburgh, losing to Ashley Harkleroad in three sets. By the end of the season, Puchkova's ranking had fallen to 92, and her record

At the 2008 Australian Open, she won her first round match, but lost 6–1, 7–5 to World No. 1 Justine Henin in the second round. Her year would improve slightly as she finished runner-up in the Charlottesville ITF event falling to Alexis King ranked 640 in the world. She had to attempt to qualify for the 2008 French Open before falling to eventual quarterfinalist Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain in the qualifying playoff round. She then fell at the same stage in Wimbledon qualifying to Eva Hrdinová. She failed to qualify for another main draw of a tour-level tournament in 2008, but did receive direct entry into the Bell Challenge before losing in the second round to Melanie Oudin 6–1, 7–6(3). Her last event ended in a first round loss in San Diego, and her ranking dipped to 159. She went 15–28 on the season.

She fell in the final round of qualifying yet again in the 2009 Australian Open, and didn't enter into a WTA tournament until she was given the opportunity to qualify for the Bell Challenge. She did manage to qualify, but lost to Amra Sadiković in the opening main draw round. 19–22 by the end of the season, Puchkova's woes continued and she was ranked 226 in her last tournament of the year in Toronto.

2013

After a couple of years struggling with injuries and personal problems, Puchkova managed to finish 2012 in top 100 with a semifinal in Baku and reaching 3rd at 2012 US Open. In 2013, she experienced some tough draws and had 4 1st round losses. But she turned tables around at the 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup, where she reached the final, beating Venus Williams en route. She lost to Monica Niculescu 6–2, 4–6, 6–4.

WTA career finals

Singles: 3 (0–3)
Legend: Before 2009Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0/0)
WTA Championships (0/0)
Tier I (0/0) Premier Mandatory (0/0)
Tier II (0/0) Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (0/2) Premier (0/0)
Tier IV & V (0/0) International (0/1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 24 September 2006 Sunfeast Open, Kolkata, India Hard (i) Martina Hingis 6–0, 6–4
Runner-up 2. 4 November 2006 Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada Hard (i) Marion Bartoli 6–0, 6–0
Runner-up 3. 2 March 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup, Florianópolis, Brazil Hard Monica Niculescu 6–2, 4–6, 6–4

ITF Career finals

Singles: 13 (7–6)
$100,000 tournaments
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 21 January 2003 Miami, USA Hard Anzela Zguna 4–6, 2–6
Winner 1. 14 July 2003 Baltimore, USA Hard Jewel Peterson 6–2, 6–4
Winner 2. 5 July 2004 College Park, USA Hard Rossana de los Ríos 7–5, 4–6, 6–2
Runner-up 2. 27 September 2004 Pelham, USA Clay Zuzana Zemenová 6–4, 4–6, 0–6
Runner-up 3. 1 August 2005 Washington, D.C., USA Hard Ashley Harkleroad 2–6, 1–6
Winner 3. 28 March 2006 Hammond, USA Hard Andrea Hlaváčková 6–3, 6–4
Winner 4. 11 July 2006 Felixstowe, Great Britain Grass Trudi Musgrave 6–2, 6–1
Winner 5. 15 August 2006 Bronx, USA Hard Tatiana Poutchek 6–3, 6–1
Runner-up 4. 6 November 2007 Pittsburgh, USA Hard (i) Ashley Harkleroad 6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Runner-up 5. 28 April 2008 Charlottesville, USA Clay Alexis King 3–6, 3–6
Winner 6. 25 April 2011 Minsk, Belarus Hard (i) Nadiia Kichenok 6–2, 7–5
Runner-up 6. 13 September 2011 Redding, USA Hard Julia Boserup 4–6, 6–2, 3–6
Winner 7. 16 April 2012 Namangan, Uzbekistan Hard Donna Vekić 3–6, 6–3, 6–2

Doubles 3 (0–3)
$100,000 tournaments
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 28 October 2002 Minsk, Belarus Carpet (i) Tatsiana Uvarova Daria Chemarda
Vera Dushevina		 1–6, 4–6
Runner-up 2. 5 March 2017 Nanjing, China Hard Angelina Gabueva Sun Xuliu
Sun Ziyue		 3–6, 1–6
Runner-up 3. 27 March 2017 Heraklion, Greece Hard Angelina Gabueva Charlotte Robillard-Millette
Carol Zhao		 6–7(2–7), 6–4, [5–10]

Singles performance timeline
Tournament200620072008200920102011201220132014W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open Q1 2R 2R Q3 A A Q2 1R 5–6
French Open Q2 2R Q3 Q1 A A Q2 1R 5–6
Wimbledon Q3 1R Q3 Q1 A A Q1 2R 5–6
US Open 1R 1R Q1 A A A 3R 1R 8–5
Win–Loss 0–1 2–4 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 2–1 1–4 6–11

References
  1. Olga Poutchkova profile Archived 5 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  2. 2006 Wimbledon player record Archived 29 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, For instance, Wimbledon listed her as Belarusian in 2006 when she played in the qualifiers
  3. Eddie Herr 1999 Archived 2 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  4. Orange Bowl 1999 Archived 8 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Juniortennis.com
  5. USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships 2000, International Tennis Federation
  6. USTA Junior International Hard Court Championships 2000, International Tennis Federation
  7. Nicolas Macchiavello Almeida Cup 2001, International Tennis Federation
  8. US Junior International Hard Court Championships 2003, International Tennis Federation
  9. Olga Poutchkova 2002 results Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  10. Olga Poutchkova 2003 results Archived 19 May 2004 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  11. $25,000 College Park, MD 2004, International Tennis Federation
  12. Olga Puchkova 2004 results Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, www.photo-tennisdatabase.com
  13. $25,000 College Park, MD 2004 Results, International Tennis Federation
  14. $25,000 Pelham, AL 2004, International Tennis Federation
  15. $75,000 Washington, DC 2005, International Tennis Federation
  16. Olga Poutchkova (Rus) 2006 in detail
  17. $25,000 Hammond, LA 2006, International Tennis Federation
  18. $25,000 Felixstowe 2006, International Tennis Federation
  19. $50,000 Bronx, New York 2006, International Tennis Federation
  20. U.S. Open 2006 qualification, International Tennis Federation
  21. U.S. Open 2006 main, International Tennis Federation
  22. Kolkata 2006, International Tennis Federation
  23. Bali 2006, International Tennis Federation
  24. Challengebell Open results Archived 3 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Challengebell.com
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