Background and career
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко, IPA: [mɐˈrʲijə kʲɪrʲɪˈlʲenkə] ; born 25 January 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A junior Grand Slam champion at the 2002 US Open at the age of 15, she went on to become a top-ten player in both singles and doubles. Kirilenko won six WTA Tour singles titles and 12 doubles titles. She was a three-time major singles quarterfinalist (reaching that stage at the 2010 Australian Open, the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2013 French Open), a semifinalist at the 2012 London Olympics (where she lost to Victoria Azarenka in the bronze medal match), and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 10, on 10 June 2013. In women's doubles, she became ranked as high as No. 5 in the world on 24 October 2011, and reached two major finals, at the 2011 Australian Open with Azarenka and the 2012 French Open with compatriot Nadia Petrova. Along with Petrova, Kirilenko won the 2012 WTA Tour Championships in doubles and was a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics.
In 2002, Kirilenko won the junior tournaments at the Canadian Open and US Open.
In 2002, Kirilenko started participating in WTA events. She began moving up the rankings in 2004, but was set back by an injury. At the 2004 French Open, Kirilenko took the first set off Serena Williams before losing in three sets. She was the runner-up to Nicole Pratt at the Hyderabad Open. At the end of 2005, she climbed back up the rankings and won her first title in Beijing. On 12 June 2006, she broke into the world's top 20 for the first time. At the US Open, Kirilenko was seeded 20th and reached the third round, before losing to Aravane Rezaï. Kirilenko made her debut for Russia at the Fed Cup tournament in April 2006. In the World Group quarterfinal tie against Belgium, she lost her singles match against 2005 US Open champion Kim Clijsters, but partnering with Dinara Safina, won her doubles match against Justine Henin and Clijsters. However, Russia ended up losing, 2–3.
In January 2007, she advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, before being defeated by third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. She then competed in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she advanced to the second round, upsetting world No. 15 Shahar Pe'er of Israel, before being defeated by Ai Sugiyama. She then competed in the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she reached the second round, before losing in a close match to Daniela Hantuchová. At the San Diego Open in California, Kirilenko upset second seeded Jelena Janković to advance to the quarterfinals, before losing to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva. At the Stanford Classic in Los Angeles, she upset sixth seed Marion Bartoli in straight sets before losing to eventual champion Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals.
Unseeded at the US Open, she defeated Martina Müller and 22nd seed Katarina Srebotnik. She then lost to unseeded Julia Vakulenko. After the US Open, she appeared in the Sunfeast Open. There, Kirilenko won her second WTA Tour singles title, defeating unseeded Mariya Koryttseva in straight sets. The next week at a tournament in Seoul, Kirilenko, as the fourth seed also reached the finals, but lost to top seed Venus Williams.
At the Australian Open, Kirilenko reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, beating sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze. Her next opponent was Daniela Hantuchová, to whom she lost, 6–1, 4–6, 4–6, after leading 6–1, 3–1. Kirilenko then reached the second round of a Tier-I event in Doha, beating Ekaterina Makarova, before losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues in three sets. Kirilenko then lost four matches in a row at Dubai, Bangalore, Indian Wells, and Miami. However, as the second seed, she reached the final of a Tier-IV event at Estoril, where she defeated Iveta Benešová in straight sets. She also won the doubles title there, partnering with Flavia Pennetta. Kirilenko also won in Barcelona, defeating Martinez-Sanchez for her fourth career title and the second of the year. Kirilenko played at the Tier-III tournament in Cincinnati in August, where she was third seed. She reached the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Nadia Petrova. She partnered with Petrova as the second-seed doubles team and beat the top-seed pair of Hsieh Su-wei and Yaroslava Shvedova in the finals.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
