Tsvetana Pironkova (Цветана Кирилова Пиронкова) (born 13 September 1987) is a female Bulgarian tennis player. She was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and resides there. Pironkova is right-handed and plays with a two-handed backhand.
Pironkova started playing tennis at the age of 4 when her father, Kiril Pironkov, introduced her to the game. At the age of six, she started playing in junior tournaments in Bulgaria.
In August 2002 at the age of 14, Pironkova played her first professional tournament at the $10,000 International Tennis Federation Tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Pironkova won 3 qualifying matches before reaching the final in the main draw, where she lost to Monica Niculescu of Romania, 6-1 7-6(1).
In September 2002, Pironkova played in the $10,000 ITF event in Volos, Greece, where she lost only one set playing through the qualifying and main draw. She defeated Tina Schmassmann of Switzerland 7-6(3) 7-5 to win her first professional ITF event.
On the week of May 14 - May 21, 2005, at the age of 17, Pironkova played in her first WTA level tournament. This was the Tier III event in Istanbul, Turkey. After winning two qualifying matches, Pironkova won three matches in the main draw before she lost in the semi-finals to Venus Williams.
In 2006, Pironkova made headlines by defeating tenth-seed Venus Williams in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open by a score of 2-6, 6-0, 9-7. Pironkova was ranked 94th in the world blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/4615834.stm.
On November 16, 2006, Pironkova reached her career high singles ranking of 62.
In 2007, Pironkova lost in the first rounds of the _Australian Open, French Open, and at Wimbledon, she played in the qualifications of the US Open, She qualified by beating Zuzana Ondraskova, Marta Domachowska, and Stephanie Dubois. In the Main draw she was drawn to play Olga Poutchkova from Russia, Pironkova won that match 6-3 6-4 to set up a clash with world number 1, Justine Henin in the second round. Pironkova lost to Henin in straight sets 6-4 6-0.
After the US Open in September 2007, Pironkova played in one of the biggest challenger events of the year in Bordeaux. Pironkova beat Mathilde Johansson, Tatjana Malek and Alize Cornet all in staight sets to win the biggest title of her career. The win put her singles ranking back into the top 80 for the 1st time in several months.
Pironkova made a solid start to 2008, winning 2 qualifying matches at the Tier II event in Sydney before bowing out in 3 tight sets to Dominika Cibulkova. At the Australian Open, the 20 year old thrashed Olga Govortsova in the 1st round 6-1 6-1. In round 2 she played second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. Despite leading 5-2 and having set points in the 1st set, the Bulgarian eventally lost 7-6(0) 6-2.
At the Tier II Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp in February, Pironkova qualified for the loss of only 10 games in 3 matches, won her first round match for the loss of just two more, and then took a 7-6 3-1 second-round lead over Belgian World No.1 Justine Henin before losing the match in three sets.
