.jpg) Maleeva at the2011 Fed Cup | |
| Native name | Магдалена Малеева |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |  Bulgaria |
| Residence | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Born | (1975-04-01)1 April 1975 (age 50) Sofia,Bulgaria |
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Turned pro | 1989 |
| Retired | 2005 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Prize money | US$ 4,398,582 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 439–290 |
| Career titles | 10 |
| Highest ranking | No. 4 (29 January 1996) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | 4R (1991,1993,1994,2002) |
| French Open | 4R (1993,1996,2003,2004) |
| Wimbledon | 4R (2001,2002,2004,2005) |
| US Open | QF (1992) |
| Other tournaments | |
| Tour Finals | QF (2002) |
| Olympic Games | 3R (1992,1996) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 121–133 |
| Career titles | 5 |
| Highest ranking | No. 13 (2 February 2004) |
| Grand Slam doubles results | |
| Australian Open | 3R (1992,2001,2004) |
| French Open | 3R (1993) |
| Wimbledon | 3R (1993,2003) |
| US Open | QF (2003) |
| Other doubles tournaments | |
| Olympic Games | 1R (1992,1996) |
| Team competitions | |
| Fed Cup | 27–17 (singles 18–8; doubles 9-9) |
Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva (Bulgarian:Магдалена Георгиева Малеева,pronounced[mɐɡdɐˈlɛnɐmɐˈlɛɛvɐ]; born 1 April 1975) is aBulgarian former professional tennis player. Her bestWTA singles ranking was world No. 4. She played on theWTA Tour competing in singles anddoubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles.
Born inSofia, Maleeva is the youngest of the three children ofYuliya Berberyan and Georgi Maleev. Yuliya, who came from a prominentArmenian family which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in theOttoman Empire, was one of the best Bulgarian tennis players in the 1960s.[1] After she retired from professional tennis in the 1970s, Berberyan started on a coaching career. She trained all of her three daughters, Magdalena,Katerina andManuela, each of whom eventually became WTA top six players.
In 1988, Maleeva became the youngest ever national tennis champion of Bulgaria, at the age of 13 years and four months. She turned professional in 1989, reaching the final of her first professional tournament (ITF) atBari. In herGrand Slam debut at the French Open in 1990, she passed the qualifications and reached the third round. In 1990, Maleeva won three junior Grand Slam tournaments at the Australian, French and US Open.
In 1992, Maleeva snatched her firstWTA Tour event victory in San Marino and scored her best Grand Slam tournament result with a quarterfinal run at the US Open, upsettingMartina Navratilova on the way. The following year, she reached the fourth round at theAustralian, theFrench and theUS Open, as well as the third round of theWimbledon Championships. That same year, she was the opponent ofMonica Seles at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany when a deranged fan stabbed Seles in the back on the court.
Her best performance at a Grand Slam championship came when she got to the quarterfinals of the1992 US Open, defeatingKateřina Kroupová-Šišková,Martina Navratilova,Kimberly Po andChanda Rubin before losing to her older sister Manuela. In 1995, Maleeva won a total of three tournaments, in Moscow, Chicago, Oakland, which saw her hit a career-high ranking of No. 4 in January 1996.
In June 1998, Maleeva underwent shoulder surgery, which forced her off the tour for the next eleven months. She started competing again in May 1999 and re-entered top 20 in 2001. In 2002, she won the prestigiousKremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating three top-10 players on her way (Venus Williams,Amélie Mauresmo, andLindsay Davenport). In 2004, she married her long-standing boyfriend, Lubomir Nokov.
Maleeva won a career total of ten WTA titles in singles and five indoubles. She was the recipient of the "WTA Most Improved Player 1993" award and was nominated for the "WTA Most Impressive Newcomer 1990". She participated at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, and Athens.
In October 2005, Maleeva retired from professional tennis after 16 seasons (years), and became the last of the Maleeva sisters to retire. She now lives in Sofia. On 27 June 2007, she gave birth to her first child, a girl named Youlia, and on 13 December 2008, she gave birth to a second child, Marko, and on 20 August 2012 to their third child, Nina.
Maleeva has been very active with the environmental organization 'Gorichka.bg', which works to create public awareness about urgent environmental problems. She also has created 'Harmonica', a brand for organic foods, as well as a couple of organic food stores in Sofia under the brand 'BiomagArchived 12 April 2010 at theWayback Machine'. She is also a partner at theMaleeva Tennis Club.
In October 2010, Maleeva won the Bulgarian national outdoor championship, becoming the youngest and the oldest player to have won it, within 22 years. In 2011, she made a brief tennis comeback, playing and winning three doubles matches for Bulgaria at theFed Cup.[2][3]
In March 2011, Maleeva was voted eighth in the "100 most influential women in Bulgaria" by Pari newspaper. She has also appeared at Wimbledon's ladies' invitation doubles event on several occasions, achieving her best result in2015, where she partneredRennae Stubbs; the pair defeated Navratilova andSelima Sfar in the final to win the title.
In February 2024, she was nominated as the captain of theBulgarian BJK Cup team.[4][5]
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| Tournament | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | SR | W-L | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | A | Q2 | 4R | 1R | 4R | 4R | 1R | A | A | 1R | A | 1R | 1R | 4R | 3R | 2R | 3R | 0 / 12 | 17–12 | 59% |
| French Open | Q1 | 3R | 1R | 3R | 4R | 1R | 2R | 4R | 1R | A | 1R | 3R | 1R | 1R | 4R | 4R | 2R | 0 / 15 | 20–15 | 66% |
| Wimbledon | A | 2R | 1R | 1R | 3R | 2R | A | 2R | 3R | A | A | 2R | 4R | 4R | 2R | 4R | 4R | 0 / 13 | 21–13 | 62% |
| US Open | Q1 | 1R | 2R | QF | 4R | 4R | 2R | 1R | 3R | A | A | 2R | 2R | 3R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 0 / 14 | 20–14 | 59% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 3–3 | 4–4 | 6–4 | 11–4 | 7–4 | 2–3 | 4–3 | 4–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 4–4 | 4–4 | 8–4 | 6–4 | 8–4 | 7–4 | 0 / 54 | 78–54 | 59% |
| Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | ... | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | SR | W-L | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | A | 1R | 3R | 2R | A | 1R | A | 3R | 2R | 1R | 3R | A | 0 / 8 | 8–8 | 50% | |
| French Open | A | 1R | 1R | 3R | 1R | A | A | 2R | A | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 7 | 3–7 | 30% | |
| Wimbledon | A | 1R | 1R | 3R | 1R | A | A | 1R | A | 3R | A | A | 0 / 6 | 4–6 | 40% | |
| US Open | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | A | 1R | 1R | A | QF | A | 2R | 0 / 9 | 5–9 | 36% | |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–4 | 2–4 | 5–4 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 3–4 | 1–1 | 5–4 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0 / 30 | 20–30 | 40% |
