Magdalena Maleeva

Born in Sofia, Maleeva is the youngest of the three children of Yuliya Berberyan and Georgi Maleev. Yuliya, who came from a prominent Armenian family which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman 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 and Manuela, 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) at Bari. In her Grand 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 first WTA Tour event victory in San Marino and scored her best Grand Slam tournament result with a quarterfinal run at the US Open, upsetting Martina Navratilova on the way. The following year, she reached the fourth round at the Australian, the French and the US Open, as well as the third round of Wimbledon. That same year, she was the opponent of Monica 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 the 1992 US Open, defeating Kateřina Kroupová-Šišková, Martina Navratilova, Kimberly Po and Chanda 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 prestigious Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating three top-10 players on her way (Venus Williams, Amélie Mauresmo, and Lindsay Davenport). In 2004, she married her long-standing boyfriend, Lubomir Nokov.

Maleeva won a career total of ten WTA titles in singles and five in doubles. 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.

Life after tennis

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 'Biomag'. She is also a partner at the Maleeva Tennis Club.

Maleeva in Fed Cup action in 2011

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 the Fed Cup.[2]

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 in 2015, where she partnered Rennae Stubbs; the pair defeated Navratilova and Selima Sfar in the final to win the title.

Magdalena Maleeva debuted for the Bulgaria Fed Cup team in 1991. Since then, she has an 18–8 singles record and a 9–9 doubles record (27–17 overall).

Singles (18–8)

Edition	Round	Date	Against	Surface	Opponent	W/L	Result
1991 World Group I	R1	22 July 1991	Hungary	Hard	Petra Schmitt	W	6–1, 6–2
	R2	24 July 1991	United States		Jennifer Capriati	L	5–7, 2–6
1992 World Group I	R1	14 July 1992	Australia	Clay	Rachel McQuillan	W	7–6(4), 6–2
	RPO	16 July 1992	Romania		Ruxandra Dragomir	W	6–0, 6–1
1993 World Group I	R1	19 July 1993	South Korea	Clay	Park Sung-hee	W	6–0, 6–4
	R2	21 July 1993	Argentina		Florencia Labat	W	6–4, 5–7, 6–3
1994 World Group I	R1	19 July 1994	Croatia	Clay	Iva Majoli	L	6–3, 4–6, 4–6
	R2	21 July 1994	Indonesia		Yayuk Basuki	W	6–3, 6–3
	QF	22 July 1994	France		Mary Pierce	W	6–7(6), 6–4, 6–4
1995 World Group I	QF	22 April 1995	Spain	Carpet (I)	Conchita Martínez	L	2–6, 4–6
		23 April 1995			Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	W	6–3, 6–3
1998 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	14 April 1998	Romania	Clay	Raluca Sandu	L	1–6, 3–6
		15 April 1998	South Africa		Mariaan de Swardt	L	1–6, 5–7
		16 April 1998	Latvia		Elena Krutko	L	6–7(2), 6–1, 1–6
2002 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	24 April 2002	Portugal	Clay	Angela Cardoso	W	6–0, 6–0
		25 April 2002	Georgia		Salome Devidze	W	6–1, 6–3
		26 April 2002	Estonia		Kaia Kanepi	W	6–4, 6–2
	PPO	27 April 2002	Ukraine		Yuliya Beygelzimer	L	3–6, 4–6
2003 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	21 April 2003	Georgia	Clay	Margalita Chakhnashvili	W	6–3, 6–1
		23 April 2003	Serbia and Montenegro		Jelena Janković	W	6–2, 3–6, 6–2
		24 April 2003	Israel		Anna Smashnova	W	7–5, 6–4
2005 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	20 April 2005	South Africa	Clay	Natalie Grandin	W	6–4, 6–3
		21 April 2005	Hungary		Zsófia Gubacsi	W	7–6(4), 6–2
	PPO	23 April 2005	Netherlands		Michaëlla Krajicek	W	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
2005 World Group II Play-offs	PO	9 July 2005	Japan	Hard (I)	Aiko Nakamura	W	3–6, 6–4, 6–3
		10 July 2005			Akiko Morigami	L	6–7(3), 3–6

Doubles (9–9)

Edition	Round	Date	Partner	Against	Surface	Opponents	W/L	Result
1991 World Group I	R1	22 July 1991	Katerina Maleeva	Hungary	Hard	Virág Csurgó Ágnes Muzamel	W	6–1, 6–2
	R2	24 July 1991	Katerina Maleeva	United States		Gigi Fernández Zina Garrison-Jackson	L	2–6, 1–6
1992 World Group I	R1	14 July 1992	Katerina Maleeva	Australia	Hard	Nicole Bradtke Rennae Stubbs	L	2–6, 1–6
	RPO	16 July 1992	Elena Pampoulova	Romania		Ruxandra Dragomir Irina Spîrlea	L	6–7(5), 2–6
1993 World Group I	R2	21 July 1993	Katerina Maleeva	Argentina	Clay	Inés Gorrochategui Patricia Tarabini	L	7–5, 4–6, 2–6
1994 World Group I	R1	19 July 1994	Katerina Maleeva	Croatia	Clay	Iva Majoli Maja Murić	W	6–2, 6–3
	QF	22 July 1994	Katerina Maleeva	France		Julie Halard Nathalie Tauziat	L	2–6, 6–3, 2–6
1995 World Group I	QF	23 April 1995	Katerina Maleeva	Spain	Carpet (I)	Neus Ávila Bonastre Virginia Ruano Pascual	W	6–0, 6–1
2002 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	24 April 2002	Desislava Topalova	Portugal	Clay	Angela Cardoso Ana Catarina Nogueira	W	6–2, 7–5
	PPO	27 April 2002	Desislava Topalova	Ukraine		Yuliya Beygelzimer Alona Bondarenko	L	4–6, 0–6
2003 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	21 April 2003	Desislava Topalova	Georgia	Clay	Margalita Chakhnashvili Tinatin Kavlashvili	W	6–1, 6–2
		23 April 2003	Desislava Topalova	Serbia and Montenegro		Katarina Mišić Dragana Zarić	L	3–6, 6–3, 0–6
		24 April 2003	Desislava Topalova	Israel		Tzipora Obziler Anna Smashnova	L	7–6(3), 3–6, 3–6
2005 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	20 April 2005	Sesil Karatantcheva	South Africa	Clay	Lizaan du Plessis Alicia Pillay	W	6–3, 6–2
		21 April 2005	Sesil Karatantcheva	Hungary		Virág Németh Ágnes Szávay	L	6–4, 3–6, 1–6
2011 Europe/Africa Group I	RR	2 February 2011	Tsvetana Pironkova	Poland	Hard	Klaudia Jans-Ignacik Alicja Rosolska	W	6–1, 6–3
		3 February 2011	Tsvetana Pironkova	Luxembourg		Anne Kremer Claudine Schaul	W	6–2, 7–5
		4 February 2011	Dia Evtimova	Israel		Valeria Patiuk Keren Shlomo	W	6–3, 6–4

• RR = Round robin
• PPO = Promotion play-off
• RPO = Relegation play-off

Maleeva's win–loss record against certain players who have been ranked world No. 10 or higher is as follows:[3] Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.

• Manuela Maleeva
• Katerina Maleeva
• List of female tennis players

• Magdalena Maleeva at the Women's Tennis Association
• Magdalena Maleeva at the International Tennis Federation
• Magdalena Maleeva at the Billie Jean King Cup
• The Maleeva tennis club
• Gorichka.bg

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