Olga Puchkova

Olga Puchkova
Ольга Пучкова

Olga at the US Open 2013
Country (sports)	Russia (2002–) Belarus (1990s-)
Residence	Miami Shores, Florida, USA
Born	(1987-09-27) 27 September 1987 Moscow, USSR
Height
Turned pro	2002
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 813,901
Singles
Career record	283–229
Career titles	0 WTA, 7 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 32 (11 June 2007)
Current ranking	No. 74 (8 July 2013)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (2007, 2008)
French Open	2R (2007)
Wimbledon	2R (2013)
US Open	3R (2012)
Doubles
Career record	28–49
Career titles	0 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 247 (13 August 2012)
Current ranking	No. 333 (24 June 2013)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2007, 2008)
French Open	1R (2007)
Wimbledon	1R (2007)
US Open	1R (2007)
Last updated on: 24 June 2013.

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

Career

Early years

Olga Poutchkova, coached by her father Alex Poutchkov, was No 1 in the World in the ITF U12 rankings in 1999. Olga won the U12 category in the Eddie Herr in 1999, where she beat Shahar Pe'er 6–2, 6–2 in the final, 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.

Olga 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. 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. Alongside American Nicole Pitts she won her first U18 Junior tournament (out of 2 in doubles) in Ecuador, January 2001. 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.

ITF Circuit

Poutchkova started her ITF professional career in March 2002, when she played in four tournaments in Australia, reaching the quarterfinals at Warnambool and Benalla. 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. She won her second professional title 11 July 2004 in College Park, Maryland. She defeated first seeded Maureen Drake in the second round and Rossana de los Ríos in the final: 7–5, 4–6, 6–2. In Pelham, Alabama she reached another final, but was defeated 4–6, 6–4 6–0 by Slovak Zuzana Zemenová. 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 Poutchkova 6–2, 6–1 to claim the Washington, D.C. title.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. Poutchkova herself won all her matches and faced Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek final, which was easily won by Poutchkova 6–3, 6–1.

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 Ryoko Fuda. She then faced Marion Bartoli in the first round and was not able to excel against the 26th seed (6–4, 6–0).

Poutchkova 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. 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.

At the end of the season, Olga 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.

2007 to present

Puchkova made her Top 100 debut in 2006, and peaked at a high of World No. 32 on 17 June 2007. 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 Sadikovic 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,Olga managed to finish 2012 in top 100 with a semifinal in Baku and reaching 3rd at 2012 US Open. In 2013, Olga experienced some tough draws and had 4 1st round losses. But she turned tables around at the 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup, where she reached 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 2009	Legend: 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	6–4, 6–2
Winner	1.	14 July 2003	Baltimore, USA	Hard	Jewel Peterson	6–2, 6–4
Winner	2.	5 July 2004	College Park, USA	Hard	Rosana de los Rios	7–5, 4–6, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	27 September 2004	Pelham, USA	Clay	Zuzana Zemenová	4–6, 6–4, 6–0
Runner-up	3.	1 August 2005	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Ashley Harkleroad	6–2, 6–1
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	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	5.	28 April 2008	Charlottesville, USA	Clay	Alexis King	6–3, 6–3
Winner	6.	25 April 2011	Minsk, Belarus	Hard (i)	Nadiya Kichenok	6–2, 7–5
Runner-up	6.	13 September 2011	Redding, USA	Hard	Julia Boserup	6–4, 2–6, 6–3
Winner	7.	16 April 2012	Namangan, Uzbekistan	Hard	Donna Vekić	3–6, 6–3, 6–2

Doubles 1 (0–1)

$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	6–1, 6–4

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	W–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

External links

• Official website
• Olga Puchkova at the Women's Tennis Association
• JuniorTennis.com profile