Anastasia Myskina, Tennis Player, - Biography,
Russian tennis player.
Height 1.74 Metres
Weight 59 kg
Born Moscow, Soviet Union July 08, now the Republic of the Russian Federation, 1981
Tennis
career Right; Two-handed backhand
Grand Slam Bests Australian Open QF (2003,
2004) French Open Winner (2004) Wimbledon QF (2005, 2006) U.S. Open QF (2003)
Myskina
turned professional in 1998, the year in which she broke into the WTA top 500.
1999
- In only her second Tour main draw in Palermo, won her first WTA title. Made
her debut in Grand Slam play at the US Open, & in Fed Cup (playing doubles).
2000
- Scored first career Top 20 victory over No.17 Barbara Schett en route to Sopot
semifinal. Debuted at Roland Garros & Wimbledon, played Sydney Olympics. Reached
first Tier I quarterfinal in Zurich (lost to world No.1 Martina Hingis).
2001
- The first half of the season was plagued by injury that forced Myskina to miss
the Australian Open. As a result she fell out of the Top 100 World Rankings. Solid
indoors performance; made it to the quarterfinals in Leipzig (became the first
Russian to beat Anna Kournikova) & to the semifinals in Moscow (first career
Tier I SF).
2002 - A breakthrough season. Scored her first Top 10 win over
defending champion Jelena Dokic in Rome (entered Top 20 afterwards); reached back-to-back
grass-court finals in Birmingham & Eastbourne (rose to No.15 in the rankings);
won first Tier II title in Bahia; another runner-up finish in Leipzig confirmed
her spot in WTA Tour Championships; finished the season within Top 15 for the
first time.
2003 - Reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in Melbourne Park.
After claiming the title in Doha (defeated Elena Likhovtseva in the first all-Russian
final in WTA history) she cracked the Top 10. Established her place among the
game elite with a win in Sarasota. Mediocre results during the summer season were
followed by a quarterfinal appearance at the US Open, back-to-back titles in Leipzig
(defeating No.1 Kim Clijsters & No.2 Justine Henin-Hardenne) & Moscow
(first Tier I title; became the first Russian woman to win Kremlin Cup), &
finals in Philadelphia. Qualified for the Tour Championships. Earned more than
$1 million in prize money & finished the year in the Top 10 for the first
time in her career.
2004 - Best season to date, highlighted by a Grand Slam
win at the French Open (saved match-points in the fourth round against Svetlana
Kuznetsova, then beat past World Number 1s Venus Williams & Jennifer Capriati
as well as compatriot Elena Dementieva in an historic all-Russian Grand Slam final).
Became first female Russian to win a Grand Slam singles title. Earlier in the
year she defended her Doha crown (afterwards breaking into the Top 5 - first female
Russian to achieve that feat). Followed her win in Paris she rose to No.3 in the
rankings. Reached final in San Diego (snapped Maria Sharapova's 14-match winning
streak that included Wimbledon & beat Vera Zvonareva 17-15 in a third set
tie-break, saving 9 match-points, winning the longest final set tie-break in WTA
Tour history). Lost Athens Olympics semifinal to Henin-Hardenne having led 5-1
in the final set. Rose to a career-high No.2 in the rankings. Recovered from the
tough loss to win Kremlin Cup for the second straight year (beat No.2 Lindsay
Davenport for the first time in 5 meetings en route). Finished on the top of her
group at the Tour Championships (scored her second win over a world No.1 by again
beating Davenport) but lost in the semis to the eventual champion Sharapova. Led
Russia to its first Fed Cup title winning 8 out of 9 matches played (won all 3
matches in the final). Finished the season as world No.3 (career-best year-end
rank for a female Russian), won over $2 millions in prize money, scored ten Top
10 wins during the season.
2005 - Poor first half of the year due to personal
issues revolving around her mother's health. Surrendered Doha & Roland Garros
titles in the very first round (became the first Roland Garros champion to lose
in the opening round their defending year). Bringing an 8-10 win-loss record to
the beginning of the grass-court season, Myskina managed to turn it around at
Wimbledon by reaching her career-first quarterfinal at the event with three comeback
wins (including wins over Jelena Jankovic from a 1-5 final set deficit, &
over Dementieva being 1-6 0-3 down & facing matchpoints in the second set
tiebreak). Fell out of the Top 10 in August. Won 10th career title in Kolkata
beating lower-ranked opponents. Beat newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Venus Willaims
in Fed Cup semifinals but lost both of her matches in the final. Finished inside
Top 15 for the fourth straight time.
2006 - Another disappointing season for
the former French Open champion. Having had several chances to return to the Top
10, Myskina failed to convert any of them. In Warsaw suffered her worst defeat
in terms of the rankings on WTA Tour level falling to a qualifier ranked No.309.
Showed splashes of her old form during the grass season, having reached in spectacular
fashion the final in Eastbourne (losing to Henin-Hardenne in a close final concluded
in a third set tiebreak) & quarterfinals at Wimbledon (lost to eventual champion
Amelie Mauresmo in three sets). Solid performance at first two Grand Slams (4th
round at both Australian & French Opens). After Wimbledon her game has completely
fallen apart; along with second straight runner-up finish at Tier IV in Stockholm
she didn't manage to win a single match in North America going 0-3 during the
US Open Series. The downfall reached its nadir with a first round loss at the
US Open, having entered the event under an injury cloud carried over from New
Haven. Anastasia sat out for a majority of the indoor season with a foot &
toe injury, pulling out of Stuttgart & her home tournament in Moscow. She
returned to play in Zurich, where she lost to unknown Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky
6-3 6-3.
Playing style
Myskina is one of the better baseline players in
the game today, as shown with her French Open title in 2004. Despite this she
prefers faster court surfaces, although having all the hallmarks of a genuine
clay court champion (fast feet, stamina, all court play, deft touch & court
smarts). Her game is characterized by a combination of consistent rallying &
aggressive baseline points. Known as one of the smartest players on the tour,
Myskina often out-thinks her opponents, toying with them, thus forcing them into
error. Her backhand is her best shot, as her forehand tends to break down during
matches. She is adept at using the 'angles' of the court to exploit slower opponents,
& is able to mix the pace of her groundstrokes during a point. The major weaknesses
in her game are her second serve, her forehand, & occasional inconsistency.
Her
German coach, Jens Gerlach, is also a former boyfriend. Myskina's supposed current
boyfriend is HC Dynamo Moscow hockey player Alexandr Stepanovand she has also
been linked to Austrian tennis pro Jürgen MelzerOn 10 October 2006 Melzer
commented: "We´re happy as a couple, but everything else is none of
your business, it´s our private life!"
In October 2002, Myskina
had a series of photo's taken for GQ magazine by the photographer Mark Seligerfor
a spread in the October 2002 edition of GQ, in which one approved photo of her
fully clothed was published. The set included some topless shots, including some
of her astride a horse. After she won the French Open in 2004, the topless pictures
were published in the July/August 2004 issue of the Russian magazine Medved (Bear).
In August 2004, she filed an $8 million USD lawsuit against the men's magazine
GQ for allowing her topless photographs to appear in a Russian magazine Medved
without her consent. On June 19, 2005 U.S District Judge Michael Mukasey ruled
that Anastasia Myskina could not stop the distribution of the topless photos,
because she had signed a release. Myskina had claimed that she did not understand
the photo release form & that she was not fluent in English at the time
Grand
Slam singles finals
Won (1)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in
Final
2004 French Open Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-2
Singles
Career record: 252-141
Career titles: 10
Highest ranking: No. 2 (September
13, 2004)
Doubles
Career record: 72-71
Career titles:
5
Highest ranking: No. 15 (February 21, 2005)
This site was written in January 2007
Some pictures of Anastasia Myskina, not spelt Anastasia Miskina
A Picture of Anastasia Myskina on a page about Villas in Zante
Index of celebrity women, lots of models
My list of heights of very many famous supermodels
My biographies, & statisticts on many very tall women site, legs & more lenghs, & some historicly, from alphabeticly Amazon Amanda, & Amazon Astrid's legs to Zhou Rurrui's & loads of famous tall models
A Biography of Maria Sharapova
A Biography of 5 ft 11 and 3/4 inches tall Alicia Molik
A Biography of 6 foot 2 and a half inches tall Elena Bovina
A
Biography of 5 ft 8 1/4 in Anna Kournikova
A Biography of 5 foot 10 Serena Williams
A Biography of 5 foot 10 Monica Seles A Biography of 5 ft 10 Mary Pierce
A Biography of 5' 11 1/4" Daniela Hantuchová
A Biography of 5' 7 3/4" Flavia Pennetta
A Biography of 5 foot 7 and a half Jennifer Capriati
A
Biography of 5 foot 9 Jana Novotná A
Biography of 5 foot 7 Elena Baltacha A
Biography of 5 foot 9 Steffi Graf
A
Biography of 5 foot 9 Gabriela Sabatini
A
Biography of 6 foot tall Ana Ivanovic A
Biography of 5 ft. 11 1/2 inches tall Dinara Safina
A
Biography of Indian Tennis Player Sania Mirza A
Biography of 5 foot 7 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario A
Biography of 5 foot 6 Patty Schnyder
A
Biography of 6 foot tall Jo Durie A
Biography of 6 foot 2 Helena Sukova A
Biography of 6 foot tall Pam Shriver
A
Biography of Petra Mandula, who is 5 foot 10 and a quarter
A Biography of Anna-Lena
Groenefeld, who is 5 foot 11
A Biography of 6 foot 3 Gabrielle Reece
A Biography of Nicole Vaidisova
A Biography of Lindsay Davenport
Most of the major Amazons on Earth are on this site, maybe the best amount of links about tall women ever with everyone such as from letter A Amazon Astrid, to Lauren Jackson, & 100s, of Amazons, to Letter Z Zhou Rurrui , I prefer people, to see womenn3, as it is a smaller site, http://www.lonympics.co.uk/womenn.htm
A Multiple Choice Quiz on very famous beautiful women
An Index with links to almost all our sites. from history to sport
A site on the tallest women, my index page, on our tall women sites, a index page of the major tall women sites is at the bottom
