Tatiana Golovin


Tatiana Golovin is a Russian-born French professional tennis player. She won the 2004 French Open mixed-doubles event, partnering with Richard Gasquet, and reached the singles quarterfinals at the 2006 US Open, losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 12. In 2008, she was diagnosed with lower back inflammation and was forced to stop playing competitive tennis indefinitely.

Training

Born in Moscow, Golovin spent six years at Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida. In her career, she was coached by former world No. 1 Mats Wilander as well as Brad Gilbert and Dean Goldfine.

Career

2002–03: tour debut

Golovin made her ITF Circuit debut at Cagnes-sur-Mer in 2002. She played in three more ITF events later that year. In 2003, Golovin won her first WTA Tour main-draw match at Indian Wells against No. 146 Gisela Dulko.

2004–05

At the Australian Open, Golovin upset No. 14 seed Anna Smashnova in the second round and No. 23 seed Lina Krasnoroutskaya in the third round, then lost to No. 25 seed Lisa Raymond in the fourth round. It was her second Grand Slam tournament.
At Roland Garros, Golovin won the mixed doubles trophy with Richard Gasquet, as a wildcard team, defeating Cara Black/Wayne Black. At Wimbledon, she reached the fourth round, with wins over Alina Jidkova, Francesca Schiavone, and Emmanuelle Gagliardi, then lost to world No. 10 Serena Williams.
Golovin reached the semifinals at the Paris Indoors, losing to Mary Pierce, after having beaten world No. 10 Elena Dementieva for her first top 10 win. In her first grass-court main draw at Birmingham, Golovin reached her first WTA Tour singles final, which she lost to Maria Sharapova in three sets. Golovin reached her first Tier I quarterfinal in Montreal at the Rogers Cup, losing to Vera Zvonareva. Afterward, she reached the quarterfinals in Luxembourg, losing to eventual champion Alicia Molik.
Golovin was a member of the France Fed Cup team, that defeated Italy in the quarterfinal and Spain in the semifinals, then lost to Russia in the final, in which she defeated No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova. During the year, she debuted in the top 100 on February 16, and in the top 50 on June 14.
Golovin reached the final in Tokyo at the Japan Open as No. 3 seed, losing to No. 2 seed Nicole Vaidišová. She was also five-time semifinalist on four different surfaces: on hardcourt at Gold Coast, losing to Schnyder in three sets and later that year again on hardcourt at Seoul, losing to Jelena Janković in three sets; on carpet at Paris Indoors, which was her second straight semifinal there, losing the third set tie-break against Dinara Safina; clay at Charleston, where she secured her third career top-10 victory versus No. 8 Venus Williams en route to her first Tier I semifinal, falling to Justine Henin-Hardenne in two sets; and grass at Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova. She made her top 20 debut after her semifinal appearance at Charleston.

2006–07

At her first tournament of the year in Gold Coast, Golovin reached the quarterfinals, losing to finalist Flavia Pennetta in three sets. Golovin reached her third consecutive Paris Indoors semifinal, defeating Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals. The victory over world No. 7 Petrova was the fourth top 10 win of her career. She then lost to top seed and eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo.
Golovin reached her second career Tier I semifinal at Miami, where she defeated world No. 8 Elena Dementieva in the fourth round for her fifth career top 10 victory and 100th career singles match win. In the semifinal, Golovin overcame a 5–1 deficit and four match points while down 5–3 in second set versus Maria Sharapova, pushing the match to a third set before she sprained her left ankle and retired at 3–6, 7–6, 3–4.
Golovin's third semifinal of the season was at Stanford, where, as an unseeded player, she upset Ai Sugiyama and Anna-Lena Grönefeld on the way to losing to No. 2 seed Patty Schnyder. Golovin then reached the quarterfinals of the US Open by defeating Nadia Petrova for the second time in 2006 in the third round and Anna Chakvetadze in the fourth. She then lost to No. 3 seed and eventual champion Maria Sharapova.
Golovin reached her first final since the Japan Open Tennis Championships in 2005 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart by defeating Elena Likhovtseva in the first round, Iveta Benešová in the second, Michaëlla Krajicek in the quarterfinals, and eighth seed Patty Schnyder in the semifinals. However, she lost in the final to Nadia Petrova.
At the Australian Open Golovin fell in the third round to 16th seed Shahar Pe'er in a three-hour match. At the Proximus Diamond Games held in Antwerp, she beat Katarina Srebotnik, fifth seed Patty Schnyder and Elena Likhovtseva en route to the semifinals, where she lost to Belgian Kim Clijsters.
On April 8, 2007, Golovin won her first WTA title at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, defeating Nadia Petrova.
Later in the year, Golovin won her second career title in Portorož, defeating Katarina Srebotnik in the final. She then competed in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and reached the final, losing to Justine Henin. Two weeks later, Golovin lost to Henin in the final at the Zurich Open.

2008: retirement

Golovin entered the Australian Open as the No. 13 seed, her highest seeding in a grand slam. She lost in the second round to Aravane Rezaï, another French player.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she had partnered with Pauline Parmentier, but the team had to withdraw due to Golovin's back injury. After missing a total of four successive months due to medical concerns with her back, she eventually pulled out of the US Open. She was diagnosed with lower back inflammation and was forced to stop playing competitive tennis indefinitely.
She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Daniela Hantuchová and Maria Kirilenko in a pictoral titled "Volley of the Dolls".
During this time Golovin forged a career in broadcasting, working for French television.

2019–20: return to professional tennis

On September 13, 2019, Golovin announced on BeIn Sports that she had been working hard to come back to the WTA Tour next season. But that things had been progressing so well, she was considering moving her return date up to mid-October.

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles: 1 (1–0)

WTA career finals

Singles: 7 (2–5)

OutcomeW–LDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Runner-up0–113 June 2004DFS Classic, BirminghamGrass Maria Sharapova6–4, 2–6, 1–6
Runner-up0–29 October 2005AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships, TokyoHard Nicole Vaidišová6–74, 2–3 ret.
Runner-up0–38 October 2006Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, StuttgartHard Nadia Petrova3–6, 6–74
Winner1–38 April 2007Bausch & Lomb Championships, Amelia IslandClay Nadia Petrova6–2, 6–1
Winner2–322 September 2007Banka Koper Slovenia Open, PortorožHard Katarina Srebotnik2–6, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up2–47 October 2007Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, StuttgartHard Justine Henin6–2, 2–6, 1–6
Runner-up2–521 October 2007Zurich Open, SwitzerlandHard Justine Henin4–6, 4–6

Singles performance timeline

Golovin was born in Moscow but moved to Paris with her parents when she was eight months old, and attained French citizenship. She speaks fluent French, English and Russian. She has two sisters, Olga and Oxana.
Tatiana Golovin is today a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.
She also works for French television, as a tennis commentator.
On March 22, 2015, she announced that she was expecting a child with her partner, French rugby player Hugo Bonneval. Daughter Anastasia was born July 10, 2015. Golovin and Bonneval added a son to the family in Nov. 2017.