Isabella Shinikova ( bg, Изабелла Шиникова) (born 25 October 1991) is a Bulgarian

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. On 20 February 2017, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 133. On 20 May 2019, she peaked at No. 159 in the WTA doubles rankings. She also plays for the

Bulgaria Fed Cup team The Bulgaria women's national tennis team represents Bulgaria in Billie Jean King Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Bulgarian Tennis Federation. In 2022, Bulgaria competed in the Europe/Africa Zone Group I event in Antalya, where t ...

, with a current win–loss record of 15–20.

Junior career

Shinikova started playing tennis at the age seven. She played on the

ITF Junior Circuit The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...

in 2006 and won two singles titles and one doubles title.

Professional career

2009–15: Professional debut, success on the ITF Circuit

In 2009, Shinikova made her pro debut at a $25k event. Since then, she has been playing on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

, and in 2015, she topped the annual leaderboard winning eight titles through the year.

2016–17: WTA Tour & major qualifications, top 150 debut

In April 2016, Shinikova made her main-draw debut at a

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 ...

tournament at the Katowice Open, losing to

Alizé Cornet Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. Cornet has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circu ...

in the first round. Then, she failed to qualify for the main draws of Stuttgart Open, Rosmalen Open and Birmingham Classic. In July 2016, Shinikova qualified for the main draw at the Bucharest Open, losing to

Simona Halep Simona Halep (; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019, for a total of 64 weeks, which ranks eleventh in the history of the Women's Tennis Assoc ...

, in the second round. She made her major debut in 2016 in the qualifying draws of the

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 * ...

and at the US Open, where seeded 31st, she lost to

Laura Robson Laura Robson (born 21 January 1994) is a British former professional tennis player. She debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2007, and a year later won the Junior Wimbledon championships at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached th ...

in the second round. In 2017, she made also her debut in the qualifying draw at the other two Grand Slam events. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 133 on 20 February 2017, following the Australian Open.

2019–22: Progress at Grand Slam tournaments

She reached second round at the

2019 Wimbledon Championships The 2019 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 1 July 2019 and finished on Sunday 14 J ...

, the third round of qualifying at the 2019 US Open, her best showing at a major thus far, and the second round of qualifying at the 2020 Australian Open.

2023: United Cup debut

On 23 November 2022, she was confirmed as a participant at the 2023 United Cup as part of the Bulgarian team. She won her doubles match partnering Alexander Lazarov and the tie against Belgium represented by former doubles No. 1

Elise Mertens Elise Mertens (; born 17 November 1995) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles. Mertens is a three-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering ...

and her partner

David Goffin David Goffin (; born 7 December 1990) is a Belgian professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7. He is currently the Belgian No. 1, and the first Belgian man to be ranked in the top 10. Goffin has won six ATP titles ...

.https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3003317/mertens-battles-past-topalova-gives-belgium-2-1-lead-over-bulgaria

Grand Slam performance timeline

Singles

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 42 (22 titles, 20 runner–ups)

Doubles: 58 (31 titles, 27 runner–ups)

Year-end rankings

National participation

Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup

Shinikova debuted for the

in 2012. Since then, she has a 8–12 singles record and a 7–8 doubles record (15–20 overall).

Singles (8–12)

Doubles (7–8)

United Cup

Singles (0–2)

Doubles (1–0)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shinikova, Isabella 1991 births Living people Bulgarian female tennis players Sportspeople from Sofia 21st-century Bulgarian women