Alyona Bondarenko - Rising Ukrainian Tennis Player

Her career high singles ranking is No. 19, achieved on April 14, 2008.

She won the 2008 Australian Open women's doubles tournament with sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Peer in the finals.

Tennis career

In 2005, Alyona Bondarenko made her grand slam debut at the Australian Open, where she suffered a first round loss to sixth seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6–3 6–3. Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA tour quarterfinal at Pattaya City, Thailand, where she lost to eventual runner-up, Anna-Lena Grönefeld of Germany, in straight sets.

The following week at Hyderabad, she reached her first tour final as the tournament's ninth seeded player, falling to hometown favourite Sania Mirza, in three tight sets. Following her loss, she made her first appearance in the women's top 100 rankings. The rest of 2005 saw many more successes for the Ukrainian. She made numerous appearances in top WTA tour events, including making the third-round of Wimbledon, defeating Tatiana Golovin of France on the way. She also made the quarter-finals of a Tier III event in Bali. In that tournament she beat Alicia Molik for the best win of her career thus far at that point, with Molik being ranked No. 14.

2006 has seen Bondarenko's rise up into the top 100 and closing in on the top 50. Alyona Bondarenko has reached three quarter-final appearances at Hobart, Bangalore and Prague respectively, and a semifinal at Rabat. She has also won an ITF title at Orange in California. Her success in doubles is also growing with her first WTA tour doubles title at Istanbul partnering Anastasiya Yakimova.

Bondarenko won her first WTA tour singles title on October 1, 2006 at the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg City in a surprising title run at the Tier II event, defeating Mary Pierce 6–3, 6–3 in the first round, Katarina Srebotnik 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 in the second, Nathalie Dechy 5–7, 6–4, 6–0 in the quarterfinals, Kveta Peschke 6–3, 5–7, 7–5 in the semifinals, where she trailed 5–2 and saved one match point in the first set and No. 5 seed Francesca Schiavone in the finals 6–3, 6–2. The win meant that she was the second lowest-ranked player ever to win a Tier II title, being ranked a lowly no. 62. The record is held by Kim Jones-Schaefer who was ranked no. 64.

On May 7, 2007 Alyona Bondarenko finished runner-up to Justine Henin at the Tier II J&S Cup held in Warsaw, Poland losing 6–1, 6–3. In the semi-finals, she got the first top ten win of her career over then number five Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets 6–2, 7–6(4). The performance saw her rise into the top 30 for the first time, at No. 29.

She followed it by making the semifinals of the Istanbul Cup, losing to Elena Dementieva, the eventual winner, and five other quarterfinals through the year: Birmingham, 's-Hertogenbosch, New Haven, Zurich and Linz.

Alyona Bondarenko hit her career high shortly after Wimbledon, where she made the third round before losing to Patty Schnyder 6–4, 3–6, 8–6 after holding a 4–1 lead in the final set.

On the October 17, 2007 Bondarenko beat Amelie Mauresmo 2–6, 6–4, 6–1 at the 2007 Zürich Open to reach her first ever Tier I quarter-final, but lost to Nicole Vaidisova there. On October 22, she passed $1 million in career prize money, the first player representing Ukraine to pass that prize money milestone.

On the 25th of January 2008, Alona won the Australian Open women's doubles title, partnering with her younger sister Kateryna. They defeated the pairing Shahar Peer and Victoria Azarenka 2–6, 6–2, 6–4. They became only the second pairing of sisters to win the title, the first being the Williams sisters.

Alyona Bondarenko is coached by her mother Natalia Bondarenko. Her K-Swiss advertisement under the slogan "Keep it pure." lying on the tennis court with her blonde across her arms and a bare midriff tennis outfit has become very popular on fan sites. It is such the talk that on an ESPN replay of her April 11, 2008 match with Maria Sharapova the announcers showed the picture and commented on her ad campaign. She is currently, along with Anna Kournikova a spokesperson for K-Swiss.

Career finals (19)

Singles titles (6)

Grand Slam (0)