Dominika Cibulkova (born May 6, 1989 in Pietany, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a Slovak professional tennis player. She has achieved a career high ranking of No. 29, which she reached on April 14, 2008. She is also a former World No. 3 at the junior level, achieving that ranking in May 2005. Career Cibulkova began playing tennis between the ages of 7 and 9 and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. She can speak both Slovakian and English. She lists clay and hard as her favourite surfaces, and has thus far proved to be most proficient on a hard surface. She has named Kim Clijsters as the player she admires most. She became a professional tennis player in 2005, after having played one ITF event in Prague at the end of 2004. 2005-2006 Dominika Cibulkova competed predominantly on the ITF circuit at this time, and managed to win two tournaments: the Amarante, Portugal event in 2005, and the Bratislava event in 2006, where she was cheered on by the home crowd.
At the 2007 French Open she qualified and made her Grand Slam main draw debut, reaching the third round. In the second round she upset the No. 32 seed Martina Muller 63, 62 after beating Tiantian Sun 64, 64. She eventually lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova. She has also reached the third round in Amelia Island, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues but losing to her countrywoman Daniela Hantuchova and the quarterfinals of the ECM Prague Open, beating Gisela Dulko before falling to Victoria Azarenka. Cibulkova's best finish of the year came in September, when Dominika Cibulkova exited at the semi-final stage at the Guangzhou International Women's Open in China. She lost to eventual champion Virginie Razzano 36, 61, 61. 2008 Cibulkova's first tournament of the year was the Tier III Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts in Gold Coast, Australia, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 61, 36, 63. The following week, Cibulkova won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the Tier II Medibank International in Sydney, where she lost in the first round to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 36, 61, 76(6). At the Australian Open, Cibulkova lost in the first round to Flavia Pennetta of Italy 64, 57, 64.
Playing for Slovakia in the first round of Fed Cup against the Czech Republic in Brno, Cibulkova split her two singles matches as her country lost the tie 32. In Paris at the Tier II Open Gaz de France, Dominika Cibulkova lost in the second round to World No. 9 Marion Bartoli 75, 61. The following week at the Tier II Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, Cibulkova again lost in the second round, this time to Li Na 64, 63. At the Qatar Total Open, Cibulkova reached her first ever Tier I quarterfinal, defeating former World No. 1 Venus Williams in the third round 63, 63 before losing to sixteenth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals 64, 67(1), 64. At the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Cibulkova lost in the third round to World No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova 61, 46, 63. The following fortnight at the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Cibulkova lost in the third round to World No. 11 Elena Dementieva 60, 67(1), 64. In April, Dominika Cibulkova reached the final of a WTA Tour event for the first time. At the Tier II clay court Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida, Cibulkova lost in the final to the reigning Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova. At the Tier I clay court Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, Cibulkova lost in the first round to fifteenth-seeded Alyona Bondarenko 64, 16, 76(9). Cibulkovα was seeded 30th in singles at Wimbledon but lost in the first round to unseeded wildcard Zheng Jie of China 64, 63. In doubles, Cibulkovα partnered with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia and lost in the first round to Sorana Cirstea and Monica Niculescu of Romania 61, retired. Fed Cup Dominika Cibulkova has played in the Fed Cup for the Slovak Republic four years in a row from 2005 to 2008, holding a 59 win-loss record in both singles and doubles matches.
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