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Biography written by Steffen Name: Lina Krasnoroutskaya ITF Women's Circuit singles titles - 1 (1999 - San
Severo/ITA) Lina Krasnoroutskaya is one of the highly talented russian tennis girls who tries to challenge the world's elite. The now 18 year old was born in Kerch and moved to Obninsk when she was about 6. She lives there together with her parents Vladimir and Marina and her 15 years old brother Alexander("Sasha"). Both of her parents were instructors at a tennis club, later Lina's father got a job as a doctor. Alexander (Krasnoroutsky) is a junior tennis player. Lina is interested in windsurfing and loves to relax while reading books or listening to music. She likes to visit Moskow and her favourite tennis player is Andre Agassi because of his positive attitude. It will be no surprise that Lina has been featured in several fashion magazines - such as Russian Vogue. Besides she is studying at the Sports University in Moscow to become a certified tennis coach. Because of her parents business, Lina spent most of her time on the court and started to play tennis when she was 3 years old. She first participate at a tournament with 6 and won her first with the age of 7. Linas favourite surfaces are hardcourt and grass, "I don't like clay because it's too slow for me", she said. From the beginning of her career Lina was coached by her parents, later by Larisa Neiland, a former Wimbledon doubles champion but after her long injury Lina returned to be coached by her mother. During her junior years Lina growed to a very good player and achieved some very big wins. She was the junior US Open and world champion in 1999. In the same year Lina turned professional and won her first ITF title in San Severo(ITA) in only her second tournament on that circuit. Moreover she made her first WTA appearence at Luxembourg where she received a wild card and was able to go all the way to the semifinal. Lina was finally stopped by D. van Roost. Besides she played the Moskow tournament with a wild card where she lost in the second round, again to van Roost. In 2000, Lina played a lot of qualifications and entered the main draws at the Australian Open, Estoril, Budapest (reaching 2r), Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. She also played the US Open and reached the 3rd round at Birmingham. During the year 2000 Lina entered the top 100 for the first time of her career - #98 (July 10,2000) In 2001 Lina confirmed that she was on the right way. She got through all qualifications she played and reached Quarterfinals at Doha and Dubai, the 4th round at Indian Wells, the 3rd round at Rome and 2nd rounds at the Australian Open and the US Open. Her biggest achievements in 2001 were reaching the 4th round at Wimbledon (lost to C.Martinez) and the the QF at the French Open where she lost to Henin-Hardenne. (Lina is the seventh youngest player ever who reached a QF at a grand slam with 17 years and 1 month of age). Morever she reached her first WTA doubles final (with E.Dementieva) at Moskow. At the end of the season Lina was already the #34 in the world. After climbing 99 spots during the last season, everyone expected that Lina was ready to make her way to the top 20 during the 2002 season. So she started with high expectations into her first tournament, the Australian Open. During her 1st round match against C.Martinez Lina sprained her left ankle and had to retire. A doctor in Latvia initially treated Krasnoroutskaya for strained ligaments by injecting painkillers every day for 10 days into her left heel. The injections weakened the bones and when she tried to run, the bones broke. She returned to her hometown of Obninsk and was seen by more doctors - "eight to 10," she said. They didn't have much better news. "What can you do when the doctor to the president (Vladimir Putin) is telling you they can't help me anymore?" she said. "At that point, I didn't feel like I wanted to play tennis anymore." Due to this injury and the wrong medical treatment she was not able to play any tournaments from February to July and felt down the ranking to # 222. After almost seven month Lina returned to the tour to play at Los Angeles. She won her 1st round match against A.Widjaja but lost in the 2nd round to #1 S.Williams. Following tournaments at Tokyo (2nd round), Bali where she had to retire in the QF due to left knee sprain, Bratislava, Linz and a very satisfying performance at Pattaya City where she reached her 2nd career semifinal. She also played two smaller tournaments in the Bronx and Boynton Beach. For 2003, all we can do is to hope that she will stay injury free. The year started surprisingly successful so far after Lina was able to beat players like Seles, Martinez, Schnyder or Bovina. She even reached another semifinal at Doha and her ranking already improved to # 60. |
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