Anastasia Myskina (born July 8, 1981, Moscow, Russia) is a professional tennis player from Russia. Tennis career 1999-2001 Myskina turned professional in 1998, the year in which she broke into the WTA top 500. In only her second tour main draw appearance in Palermo, Myskina won her first WTA title. She made her debut in Grand Slam play at the US Open and the Fed Cup (playing doubles). In 2000, Myskina scored first career Top 20 victory over No.17 Barbara Schett en route to a Sopot semifinal. She debuted at Roland Garros (which she would later win) and Wimbledon. She played in the Sydney Olympics and reached first Tier I quarterfinal in Zurich, where she lost to world No.1 Martina Hingis. Anastasia Myskina was plagued by injury that forced her to miss the Australian Open. As a result, she fell out of the Top 100 Rankings. She then had a solid indoors performance, making it to the quarterfinals in Leipzig (became the first Russian to beat Anna Kournikova) and to the semifinals in Moscow, her first career Tier I SF). 2002 2002 was a breakthrough season for Anastasia Myskina. Scored her first Top 10 win over defending champion Jelena Jankovic in Rome, and entered the Top 20 afterwards. Myskina reached back-to-back grass court finals in Birmingham and Eastbourne, and rose to No.15 in the rankings. She won first Tier II title in Bahia, and making another runner-up finish in Leipzig confirmed her spot in WTA Tour Championships. She finished the 2002 season within Top 15 for the first time in her career. 2003 Anastasia Myskina reached the Australian Open quarterfinals (her first Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance of six). After claiming the title in Doha and defeating friend 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, Myskina also had mediocre results during the summer season were followed by a quarterfinal appearance at the U.S. Open, back-to-back titles in Leipzig (defeating No.1 Kim Clijsters and No.2 Justine Henin) and Moscow, which was her first Tier I title. She became the first Russian woman to win the Kremlin Cup), and she made the finals in Philadelphia. Anastasia Myskina qualified for the Tour Championships. She earned more than $US1 million in prize money, and finished the year in the Top 10 for the first time in her career.
2004 was Mykina's best season to date. Anastasia Myskina defended her Doha crown, afterwards becoming the first Russian woman to break into the Top 5. Following her Doha defense, Myskina's 2004 season became highlighted by a Grand Slam win at the French Open, where she saved match points in the fourth round against Svetlana Kuznetsova, then defeated former World Number 1 players Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati, en route to a 61, 62 victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva in the first all-Russian Grand Slam final, and thus making her the first female Russian to win a Grand Slam singles title. Prior to her French Open victory, she never made it past the 2nd round at Roland Garros. Following her win in Paris, she rose to No.3 in the rankings. She reached the final in San Diego, snapping Maria Sharapova's 14-match winning streak that included Wimbledon and 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. She lost in the 2004 Athens Olympics semifinal to Justine Henin, having led 51 in the final set. Rose to a career-high No.2 in the rankings. Anastasia Myskina recovered from the tough loss to win the Kremlin Cup for the second straight year, and beat No.2 Lindsay Davenport for the first time in 5 meetings en route to doing so. She finished on the top of her group at the WTA Tour Championships, and scored her second win over a world No.1 by again beating Davenport, but lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion Sharapova. Myskina led Russia to its first Fed Cup title, winning 8 out of 9 matches played, including winning all of her 3 matches in the final. Finished the season as World No.3, a career-best year-end rank for a female Russian, and won over $2 millions in prize money, having scored ten Top 10 wins during the 2004 season. 2005 brought Myskina mixed fortunes. She spent the first half of 2005 poorly, due to personal issues regarding her mother's health. Myskina surrendered her Doha and Roland Garros titles in the very first round, and became the first Roland Garros champion to lose in the opening round. Bringing an 8-10 win-loss record to the beginning of the grass court season, Anastasia Myskina managed to turn it around at Wimbledon by reaching her career-first quarterfinal at the event with three comeback wins over Jelena Jankovic (from a 15 final set deficit), and over Dementieva (being 16, 03 down and facing match points in the second set tiebreak). She fell out of the Top 10 in August. She then won a tenth career title in Kolkata beating lower-ranked opponents. She did, however, beat the 2005 Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in Fed Cup semifinals, but then lost both of her matches in the final. Myskina finished inside Top 15 for the fourth straight time.
2006 was another disappointing season for Myskina. Having had several chances to return to the Top 10, she failed to convert any of them. In Warsaw, she suffered her worst defeat in terms of the rankings on WTA Tour level, falling to a wild card, Agnieszka Radwanska, ranked No. 309. She showed splashes of her old form during the grass season, having reached the Eastbourne final beautifully, losing to Justine Henin in a close final concluded in a third set tiebreak. She made the Wimbledon quarterfinals, but lost to eventual champion Amelie Mauresmo in three sets. Anastasia Myskina had solid performance at the first two Grand Slams, making the 4th round on each occasion. After Wimbledon, her game completely fall apart. Along with second straight runner-up finish at the Tier IV event in Stockholm, she didn't manage to win a single match in North America, going 03 during the US Open Series. The downfall reached its nadir with a first round loss at the U.S. 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 and toe injury, pulling out of Stuttgart and her home tournament in Moscow. She returned to play in Zurich, but lost to unknown Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky, 63, 63. 2007 Anastasia Myskina only played two singles matches, having been injured. She lost both of those matches; including to Meghann Shaughnessy at the French Open, only winning a game. As of July 25, 2007, Myskina fell to the same ranking as the wildcard she lost to, Agnieszka Radwanska, of Number 309. She also is unranked for doubles. Myskina is taking time off due to a career-threatening injury. 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 and court smarts). Her game is characterized by a combination of consistent rallying and aggressive baseline points. Known as one of the smartest players on the tour, Anastasia 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, and is able to mix the pace of her groundstrokes during a point. The major weaknesses in her game are her second serve, her forehand, and occasional inconsistency. Personal life Her German coach, Jens Gerlach, is also a former boyfriend. Myskina's supposed current boyfriend is HC Dynamo Moscow hockey player Alexandr Stepanov, and she has also been linked to Austrian tennis pro Jόrgen Melzer. On 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 photos 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. After she won the French Open in 2004, some photographs from the shoot, in which she appeared topless, 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, later United States Attorney General, ruled that Anastasia Myskina could not stop the distribution of the topless photos, because she had signed a release. Anastasia Myskina had claimed that she did not understand the photo release form and that she was not fluent in English at the time. Anastasia Myskina announced that she was pregnant with her first child, due in May 2008. She has previously dated Russian hockey player Konstantin Korneev, but refuses to state the name of the father. On April 28, 2008 Myskina gave birth to her first child, a boy named Zhenya. Trivia
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