Tatiana Golovin, a French professional tennis star and whose been walking on the same lines as that of her predecessors like Anna Kournikova in terms of both beauty and talent is the latest sensation of the international tennis federation. Famous for her 2004 French Open mixed-doubles win with fellow French partner Richard Gasquet at the mere age of 16; this firelady has astounded the world with her zeal for perfection and impeccable prowess.
Tatiana Golovin was born on 25 January 1988 in Moscow, Russia, but her parents relocated to Paris when she wasn’t even one year old. She has two sisters, Olga and Oxana. Upon seeing her love for tennis, her parents sent her to Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida where she remained for six years. This 19 year old sports wonder kid has already registered a Grand Slam in her name and is currently coached by Mats Wilander, who was a former no. 1 player in his time.
Tennis Career
Golovin made her ITF debut at Cagnes-Sur-Mer in France in 2002 and went on to play three more ITF events. She however failed to qualify for the French Open that year.
2003 enabled her to try her luck at WTA tour matches whereupon she managed a first round win at Indian Wells against No.146 Gisela Dulko. Barring this win; she failed to clear any first rounds that took place at Miami, Strasbourg and Roland Garros.
But the year that can be considered as the milestone in her professional career was2004 wherein she won the mixed doubles trophy with Richard Gasquet against Cara Black/Wayne Black at Roland Garros. In fact their wild card entry team became the youngest ones to win such tournament with Tatiana being 16 and Richard being 17.
She also ended up entering fourth rounds at both Australian Open and Wimbledon. She managed to reach the semi finals at Paris indoors but eventually lost to Mary Pierce.
The young firebrand also reached her first Tier I quarterfinal in Montréal at the Canadian Women's Open which she lost to Alicia Molik. Her French Fed Cup in 2004 went on to enter the finals after giving much competition to others, but surrendered to Russia at the final draw. Her ranking was no. 50 in that year.
2005 along with it also brought Golovin’s second career Tour singles runner-up finish at Japan Open in Tokyo losing to Nicole Vaidišová. This was the eighth-youngest Tour singles final in Open Era, based on the combined age of 34 years and two months.
Golovin was also five-time semifinalist on four different surfaces: on hardcourt at Gold Coast, losing to Schnyder ,again on hardcourt at Seoul losing to Jelena Janković ,on carpet at Paris Indoors, losing the third set tie-break against Dinara Safina; clay at Charleston, giving in to Justine Henin-Hardenne in 2 sets; and grass at Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova. Her next two series were marked as her career best with her reaching the third round both at Roland Garros and U.S.Open before bending knees in front of Elena Bovina and Nathalie Dechy respectively. She made her Top 20 debut (at No.18) after her semi-final appearance at Charleston.
In 2006, she lost the quarterfinals to Flavia Pennetta in three sets in Gold Coast and first round of the Australian Open to Italian Mara Santangelo in the beginning of the year only. Her victory over world No. 7 Petrova was the fourth top 10 win of her career in Paris Indoors semifinal. Golovin reached her second career Tier I semifinal at Miami, where she defeated world No.8 Elena Dementieva in the fourth round for the fifth career top 10 victory and 100th career singles match win . She later fell in the first round of WTA Tour at Roland Garros to Jie Zheng. Her best Grand Slam performance came in the form of her reaching the quarterfinals of the U.S.Open before losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova 6-7, 6-7 in over two hours. Following the US Open, Golovin reached her first final since the Japan Open Tennis Championships in 2005 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart where she lost the finals to Nadia Petrova 3-6 6-7.
Her year 2007 started on a good note with her winning her first singles match at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia against Ashley Harkleroad 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. She pulled out of the mixed doubles match with partner Jerome Haehnel, citing an ankle injury and later got defeated by Nadia Petrova.
At the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, she came in as a big favorite to cause some upsets with wins over Anna Smashnova and Zuzana Ondraskova in the first and second rounds respectively. However, she fell in the third round to 16th seed Shahar Peer.
Her next set of tournaments restricted her entry till semi finals only with her reaching the Paris Indoors semifinals four times now and the Proximus Diamond Games semifinal match where she lost to Belgian Kim Clijsters 6-4 6-3. upon reaching the semi finals and losing it eventually, Golovin went to win her first WTA title at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fl, defeating Nadia Petrova 6-2 6-1 in the singles final.
At Wimbledon, she lost in the second round to 16-year-old, unseeded Tamira Paszek. This was considered to be a major upset. To top that, her red undergarments attracted the media attention giving in way for a major controversy.
While she was forced to exit from the Acura Classic in California in the third round only, she managed to make it yet another semi final match, this time for Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada. She entered the 2007 U.S. Open Women's Singles event as the #17 seed, but was upset in the first round by American wildcard Ahsha Rolle. But the lady was ready to roll again with winning her second career title in Portoroz, defeating home favorite Katarina Srebotnik 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. She then competed in Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, a tournament that had 8 of the world's top 10 players entering and impressively reached the final, defeating number two seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-4 in the semis. Despite taking the first set off Justine Henin, she lost the final 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
