Magdalena Maleeva


Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4.

Biography

Born in Sofia, Maleeva was the youngest of the three children of Yuliya Berberyan and Georgi Maleev. Yuliya, who came from a prominent Armenian family which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, was one of the best Bulgarian tennis players in the 1960s. After she retired from professional tennis in the 1970s, Berberyan started on a coaching career. She trained all of her three daughters, Magdalena, Katerina and Manuela, each of whom eventually became WTA top six players.
In 1988, Maleeva became the youngest ever national tennis champion of Bulgaria, at the age of 13 years and four months. She turned professional in 1989, reaching the final of her first professional tournament at Bari. In her Grand Slam debut at the French Open in 1990, she passed the qualifications and reached the third round. In 1992, Maleeva snatched her first WTA Tour event victory in San Marino. The following year she reached the fourth round at the Australian, the French and the US Open, as well as the third round of Wimbledon. That same year, she was the opponent of Monica Seles at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany when a deranged fan stabbed Seles in the back on the court. Her best performance at a Grand Slam championship came when she got to the quarterfinals of the 1992 US Open, defeating Kateřina Kroupová-Šišková, Martina Navratilova, Kimberly Po and Chanda Rubin before losing to her older sister Manuela. In 1995 Maleeva won a total of three tournaments, in Moscow, Chicago, Oakland, which allowed her to reach a career-high No. 4 in the WTA rankings in January 1996.
In June 1998, Maleeva underwent shoulder surgery, which forced her off the tour for the next eleven months. She started competing again in May 1999 and reached top 20 again in 2001. In 2002, she won the prestigious Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating three top-10 players on her way. In 2004, she married her long-standing boyfriend, Lubomir Nokov.
Maleeva won a career total of ten WTA titles in singles and five in doubles. She was the recipient of the WTA award "Most Improved Player 1993" and was nominated for the WTA award "Most Impressive Newcomer 1990". She participated at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, and Athens.

Life after tennis

In October 2005, Maleeva retired from professional tennis after 16 seasons, and became the last of the Maleeva sisters to retire. She now lives in Sofia, Bulgaria. On 27 June 2007, she gave birth to her first child, a girl named Youlia, and on 13 December 2008 she gave birth to a second child – Marko and on 20 August 2012 to their third child – Nina. Magdalena has been very active with the environmental organization , which works to create public awareness about urgent environmental problems. She also has created , a brand for organic foods, has a couple of organic food stores in Sofia under the brand '', and is a partner at the .
In October 2010, Maleeva won the Bulgarian national outdoor championship, becoming the youngest and the oldest player to have won it, within 22 years.
In 2011, she made a brief tennis comeback, playing and winning three doubles matches for Bulgaria at the Fed Cup.
In March 2011, Maleeva was voted eighth in the "100 most influential women in Bulgaria" by Pari newspaper.

WTA career finals

Singles: 21 (10–11)

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Runner-up1.28 April 1991Bol, YugoslaviaClay Sandra Cecchini4–6, 6–3, 5–7
Winner1.27 July 1992San MarinoClay Federica Bonsignori7–6, 6–4
Runner-up2.10 January 1993Brisbane, AustraliaHard Conchita Martínez3–6, 4–6
Winner2.25 September 1994Moscow, RussiaCarpet Sandra Cecchini7–5, 6–1
Winner3.9 October 1994Zurich, SwitzerlandCarpet Natasha Zvereva7–5, 3–6, 6–4
Winner4.12 February 1995Chicago, United StatesCarpet Lisa Raymond7–5, 7–6
Runner-up3.2 April 1995Hilton Head, United StatesClay Conchita Martínez1–6, 1–6
Runner-up4.21 May 1995Berlin, GermanyClay Arantxa Sánchez Vicario4–6, 1–6
Winner5.24 September 1995Moscow, RussiaCarpet Elena Makarova6–4, 6–2
Runner-up5.1 October 1995Leipzig, GermanyCarpet Anke Huberw/o
Winner6.5 November 1995Oakland, Unite StatesCarpet Ai Sugiyama6–3, 6–4
Runner-up6.26 May 1996Madrid, SpainClay Jana Novotná6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Winner7.21 November 1999Pattaya City, ThailandHard Anne Kremer4–6, 6–1, 6–2
Runner-up7.1 October 2000Luxembourg City, LuxembourgCarpet Jennifer Capriati6–4, 1–6, 4–6
Runner-up8.18 February 2001Nice, FranceCarpet Amélie Mauresmo2–6, 0–6
Winner8.22 April 2001Budapest, HungaryClay Anne Kremer3–6, 6–2, 6–4
Runner-up9.30 September 2001Leipzig, GermanyCarpet Kim Clijsters1–6, 1–6
Winner9.6 October 2002Moscow, RussiaCarpet Lindsay Davenport5–7, 6–3, 7–6
Runner-up10.27 October 2002Luxembourg City, LuxembourgHard Kim Clijsters1–6, 2–6
Winner10.15 June 2003Birmingham, United KingdomGrass Shinobu Asagoe6–1, 6–4
Runner-up11.8 February 2004Tokyo, JapanCarpet Lindsay Davenport4–6, 1–6

Doubles: 10 (5–5)

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Winner1.28 April 1991Bol, YugoslaviaClay Laura Golarsa Sandra Cecchini
Laura Garrone		w/o
Runner-up1.14 February 1993Osaka, JapanCarpet Manuela Maleeva Jana Novotná
Larisa Neiland		1–6, 3–6
Runner-up2.25 April 1993Barcelona, SpainClay Manuela Maleeva Conchita Martínez
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario		6–4, 1–6, 0–6
Winner2.17 February 2002Antwerp, BelgiumCarpet Patty Schnyder Nathalie Dechy
Meilen Tu		6–3, 6–7, 6–3
Runner-up3.23 June 2002's-Hertogenbosch, NetherlandsGrass Bianka Lamade Catherine Barclay
Martina Müller		4–6, 5–7
Winner3.30 March 2003Miami, United StatesHard Liezel Huber Shinobu Asagoe
Nana Miyagi		6–4, 3–6, 7–5
Winner4.4 May 2003Warsaw, PolandClay Liezel Huber Eleni Daniilidou
Francesca Schiavone		3–6, 6–4, 6–2
Runner-up4.10 January 2004Gold Coast, AustraliaHard Liezel Huber Svetlana Kuznetsova
Elena Likhovtseva		3–6, 4–6
Runner-up5.8 February 2004Tokyo, JapanCarpet Elena Likhovtseva Cara Black
Rennae Stubbs		0–6, 1–6
Winner5.8 January 2005Gold Coast, AustraliaHard Elena Likhovtseva Maria Elena Camerin
Silvia Farina Elia		6–3, 5–7, 6–1

ITF Circuit finals: 3 (2–1)

Singles: 2 (1–1)

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Runner-up1.9 April 1989Bari, ItalyClay Eva Maria Schuerhof6–2, 1–6, 6–7
Winner1.5 December 1999Cergy-Pontoise, FranceHard Seda Noorlander6–1, 6–4

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Winner1.25 March 1990Moulins, FranceCarpet Andrea Strnadová Valerie Ledroff
Pascale Paradis		3–6, 6–1, 6–1

Fed Cup

Magdalena Maleeva debuted for the Bulgaria Fed Cup team in 1991. Since then she has an 18–8 singles record and a 9–9 doubles record.

Singles (18–8)

Doubles (9–9)

As of 11 November 2010, Maleeva's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked world No. 10 or higher is as follows:
Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.