Yaroslava Vyacheslavovna Shvedova (; born 12 September 1987) is a Kazakhstani former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Before 2008, she represented her country of birth, Russia. She won one singles title and 13 doubles titles on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

, plus one singles and one doubles title on

WTA 125 tournaments WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesITF Circuit. On 29 October 2012, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 25. On 22 February 2016, she peaked at No. 3 in the doubles rankings. Shvedova made three

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

singles quarterfinals: at the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, the

2012 French Open The 2012 French Open (also known as Roland Garros, after the famous French aviator) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 116th edition of the French Open, and took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 27 May until 11 ...

and the

2016 Wimbledon Championships The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on ...

. She won two Grand Slam women's doubles titles, the 2010 Wimbledon Championships and the 2010 US Open, partnering American player

Vania King Vania King (born February 3, 1989) is an American former tennis player. A former top-ten doubles player, King won both the Wimbledon and US Open women's doubles titles in 2010 with partner Yaroslava Shvedova, with whom she also reached the f ...

in both. Shvedova is also one of only seven players to record a

golden set In tennis, a golden set is a set which is won without losing a single point. This means scoring the 24 minimum points required to win the set 6–0, without conceding any points. In professional tennis, this has occurred twice in the main draw o ...

in the

Open era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...

. She achieved this feat 2012 at Wimbledon in her match against

Sara Errani Sara Errani (; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. She is a former top five player in singles and former world No. 1 in doubles. With 9 singles titles and 27 doubles titles (including 5 Grand Slam doubles championship ...

, the only time a golden set was recorded in a Grand Slam championship.

Career

2006–2008: Grand Slam debut, maiden WTA title, top 100

In February 2007, she unexpectedly reached the final of the

Bangalore Open The Bengaluru Open is a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour. It is held annually in Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is ...

, beating home-crowd favourite and No. 2 seed

Sania Mirza Sania Mirza (; born 15 November 1986) is an Indian professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she has won six major titles – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles in ...

in the quarterfinals. In the final, she defeated top-seeded defending champion

Mara Santangelo Mara Santangelo (born 28 June 1981) is a retired tennis player from Italy and Grand Slam champion in double. Tennis career Santangelo reached the fourth round at the 2004 Australian Open, defeating 16th-seeded Magüi Serna, Barbara Schett, a ...

in straight sets, to win her first

title. This win caused her to be in the top 100 for the first time, at 78. At the 2007 Miami Open, she came through qualifying and impressively recorded her first-ever top 20 win over future number one,

Ana Ivanovic Ana Schweinsteiger ( sr, Ана Швајнштајгер / ''Ana Švajnštajger''; born 6 November 1987), professionally known by her birth name Ana Ivanovic (Ана Ивановић / ''Ana Ivanović'', ), is a Serbian former world No. 1 tenn ...

, in the second round, beating her in two sets. However,

Tathiana Garbin Tathiana Garbin (; born 30 June 1977) is an Italian retired tennis player. She was best known for her surprise defeat of the defending champion and the reigning world No. 1, Justine Henin, in the second round of the 2004 French Open. The winne ...

beat her in the third round. In August 2008, she won an ITF Circuit title in Monterrey, Mexico, defeating

Magdaléna Rybáriková Magdaléna Rybáriková (; born 4 October 1988) is a retired Slovak tennis player. In her career, she won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. Rybáriková reached the semifinals of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and bro ...

in the final in two sets. Just over a week later, she won through the qualifying rounds for US Open, but lost to

Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player. She won 20 career singles WTA Tour titles, two doubles titles, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 on 9 July 2012. Her achievem ...

in the first round.

2009: French Open and US Open third rounds

In 2009, Shvedova qualified for the main draw at Roland Garros, defeating Americans

Shenay Perry Shenay Perry (born July 6, 1984) is a retired tennis player from the U.S. She is the current coach of professional tennis player Kristie Ahn Kristie Hyerim Ahn (born June 15, 1992) is an American former professional tennis player. She has won ...

in the first qualifying round and

Angela Haynes Angela Haynes (born September 27, 1984) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Her top WTA singles ranking is world No. 95 which she attained in August 2005. Her brother Dontia Haynes, a former San Diego State University ...

in the second. She then beat

Elena Baltacha Elena Sergeevna Baltacha ( uk, Олена Сергіївна Балтача; 14 August 1983 – 4 May 2014) was a Ukrainian-born British professional tennis player. Being a four-time winner of the AEGON Awards, she was also a long-ter ...

in the final qualifying round to enter the main draw. She beat

Kaia Kanepi Kaia Kanepi (; born 10 June 1985) is an Estonian professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 15 on 20 August 2012 and has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour. Described as a 'resident Grand Slam upset spec ...

and advanced to the third round after defeating

Arantxa Rus Arantxa Rus (; born 13 December 1990) is a Dutch tennis player. In 2008, she won the girl's singles title at the 2008 Australian Open – Girls' singles, Australian Open, defeating Jessica Moore (tennis), Jessica Moore from Australia in the final ...

, also a qualifier. There she lost in a close three-sets match to former world No. 1,

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ( , ; rus, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова, p=mɐˈrʲijə ʂɐˈrapəvə, a=Maria_sharapova.ogg; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 ...

, returning from a long-lasting shoulder injury and then ranked 102. At

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, she faced

Monica Niculescu Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as high as 28 in singles and 11 in doubles. Niculescu has won several titles: three singles and ten double ...

in the first round and defeated her with the loss of just one game, but lost to American teenager

Melanie Oudin Melanie Jennings Oudin (born September 23, 1991) is an American former professional tennis player. The former world junior No. 2 was a member of the American Fed Cup team from 2009 to 2011 and the winner of the 2011 US Open mixed-doubles title ...

in the second. At the US Open, Shvedova pulled off the biggest win of her career by beating then No. 5

Jelena Janković Jelena Janković ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Јанковић, ; born 28 February 1985) is a Serbian former tennis player. A former world No. 1, Janković reached the top ranking before her career-best major performance, a runner-up finish at the ...

in three sets, in a match where she saved two match points.

2010: Two major doubles titles & one singles quarterfinal

Shvedova experienced a good run at the Miami Open. She gained direct entry into the main draw and won a tight first-round match against wildcard

Ajla Tomljanović Ajla Tomljanović ( ; ; born 7 May 1993) is an Australian professional tennis player. She has won four singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 October 2022, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33. On 5 Janu ...

. She then defeated 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki in the second round after she retired whilst trailing 3–6, 1–0. In the third round, Shvedova advanced against unseeded

Andrea Petkovic Andrea Petkovic (, ; born 9 September 1987) is a German former professional tennis player. Born in Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia, to Serbian father Zoran and Bosniak mother Amira, she moved to Germany at six months old and turned professional in 2006 a ...

by winning another close match. She fell to sixth seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the fourth round, in straight sets. At the

Barcelona Open There are two sporting events named the Barcelona Open: * Barcelona Open (golf) * Barcelona Open (tennis) {{Short pages monitor