Famous Athletes Biography: Olga Poutchkova

Monday, 2 April 2012

Olga Poutchkova

Olga Poutchkova Biography

Olga Poutchkova a.k.a. Puchkova (born September 27, 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.

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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 Peer 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 August 13 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.

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Poutchkova started her ITF professional career in March 2002, when she played in four tournaments in Australia, reaching ther 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 July 11 2004 in College Park, Maryland. She defeated first seeded Maureen Drake in the second round and Rossana de los Rios 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 Zemenova. She reached her fifth ITF final in August 2005, beating Stephanie Dubois en route. In the final, Ashley Harkleroad was too strong as she beat Poutchkova 6-2, 6-1 to claim the Washington DC title.

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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 Hlavackova 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 Viktoria 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 successfully qualified for the 2006 US Open, beating Virginie Pichet, Stephanie 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 Ivanović.

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.

During 2006, she made her Top 100 debut and is currently at a high of No. 32 (June. 17, 2007).

Olga Poutchkova