Yulia Putintseva


Yulia Antonovna Putintseva is a Kazakh tennis player of Russian origin and descent. She is a two-time French Open quarterfinalist, and she achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 27 in February 2017. So far, she has won one WTA singles title.

Personal life

Yulia Putintseva was born to Anton Putintsev and Anna Putintseva, and has a brother named Ilya. Born in Moscow, she currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida. She was introduced to sport by her father. She liked it and was soon practicing at Spartak Club in Moscow. Later, she moved to Paris to attend Mouratouglou Academy after winning a big Under 14s event. Her favourite surface is clay, while her favourite tournaments are Australian Open and US Open. Tennis idols were Martina Hingis and Justine Henin. She also enjoys dancing, music, singing, Sudoku, playing cards and chess. As of the start of June 2012, she represents Kazakhstan.

Tennis career

Junior years

In 2009, she played the second round of US Open in girls' singles, and the first round of the girls' doubles event, partnering Tamara Čurović. Putintseva also won three junior tournaments: the 17th International junior tournament Città di Prato 2009, the 31st International junior tournament Città di Santa Croce, both in Italy, and the 15th ITF Junior Open in Austria.
In 2010, she lost in the second round of the girls' singles event at the Australian Open. Putintseva advanced to the semifinal at Wimbledon and represented Russia in the Youth Olympic Games in August, where she lost in the semifinal. In the last junior Grand Slam event of this season, the US Open, she reached the final but lost to Daria Gavrilova in straight sets.

2012–2015

In 2012, she won another ITF tournament in Australia, and also received a wild card to the e-Boks Open where she won her first-round match, but then lost to former world No. 1 Jelena Janković, 3–6, 1–6. In May, Putintseva won as a qualifier the Open GdF Suez de Cagnes-sur-Mer, a $100,000 event in France. As a result, she jumped to world No. 122.
At the 2013 Australian Open, Putintseva defeated Christina McHale in three sets. She then lost to Carla Suárez Navarro in three tight sets. At the French Open, she stomped the world No. 44 Ayumi Morita. Her next opponent was the 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani who defeated her in straight sets.
At the 2014 PTT Pattaya Open, Putintseva was defeated in the first round by qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru in three sets. Putintseva reached the quarterfinals of the Swedish Open losing to Jana Čepelová, and of the Japan Women's Open losing to Samantha Stosur.
She reached the second round at the 2015 French Open and Wimbledon losing to eventual quarterfinalist Elina Svitolina and to Venus Williams, respectively.

2016: First Grand Slam quarterfinal

At the Australian Open, she upset former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the first round, winning in three sets. She lost in the third round to Margarita Gasparyan. Putintseva reached semifinals in Kaohsiung, where she lost to the eventual winner Venus Williams. At her next tournament, the Qatar Open, Putintseva earned a straight-sets win over Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, but lost to Timea Bacsinszky in the following match. At Indian Wells, Putintseva defeated Peng Shuai and earned another upset in 2016 by defeating world No. 27, Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets. She then lost to world No. 1, Serena Williams.
At the French Open, Putinseva beat Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round in straight sets, before going on to beat the No. 28 seed Andrea Petkovic and Italy's Karin Knapp en route to the fourth round, where she upset world No. 14 and No. 12 seed Carla Suárez Navarro before losing to eventual finalist Serena Williams in three sets in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Prior to Wimbledon, she played at the inaugural Mallorca Open and the Eastbourne International, losing both in the first round. At the third Grand Slam event of the year, Putintseva was defeated in round two by the hard hitting Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets. The following week, she was chosen as part of the Kazakhstan Olympic Tennis team for the Rio Summer Olympics.
To start off the US Open Series tournaments, Putintseva started with a semifinal run at the Citi Open. Seeded sixth, she lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Yanina Wickmayer. She lost to Pavlyuchenkova in the first round of the Rogers Open. She was scheduled to compete at the Brasil Tennis Cup, but withdrew because of injury. This would also cause her to miss the Olympics.
After returning from injury, Putintseva lost in the first round of the Western & Southern Open to qualifier Annika Beck. As a result of her injury before the Olympics, Putintseva was forced to play in the qualifying tournament before the Connecticut Open. Seeded No. 1 in qualifying, she was stunned in the first round by Carina Witthöft. Putintseva next competed at the US Open. She had an easy first-round win over Sabine Lisicki. However, for the second week in a row, she was beaten by Witthöft in three sets. She had early-round losses in many tournaments after the US Open, and lost in the second round of both the Toray Pan Open and the China Open. She finished the season with another second-round loss to Elina Svitolina at the Kremlin Cup.

2017: First WTA final

Putintseva started the 2017 season at the Brisbane International. She lost in the first round to third seed and eventual champion Karolína Plíšková. In Sydney at the Apia International Sydney, Putintseva was defeated in the second round by tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki. At the Australian Open, Putintseva was the thirty-first seed; it was the first time she was seeded at a Grand Slam tournament. She lost in the second round to Jeļena Ostapenko.
She then competed at the St. Petersburg Open, beating Johanna Larsson and Annika Beck before beating No. 3 and No. 2 seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dominika Cibulková en route to her first WTA final. Her win over Cibulková was her first over a top-5 player. But she then lost to Kristina Mladenovic in three sets. However, her campaign in St. Petersburg ensured a career-high ranking of world No. 27.

Performance timelines

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.

Singles

Current through the suspension of the 2020 WTA Tour.

Doubles

Notes

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runners–up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–12017 St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy – Singles|St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy, RussiaPremierHard Kristina Mladenovic2–6, 7–6, 4–6
Loss0–22018 Guangzhou International Women's Open – Singles|Guangzhou Open, ChinaInternationalHard Wang Qiang1–6, 2–6
Win1–22019 Nürnberger Versicherungscup – Singles|Nuremberg Cup, GermanyInternationalClay Tamara Zidanšek4–6, 6–4, 6–2

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 12 (6 titles, 6 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0May 2011ITF Moscow, Russia25,000Clay Veronika Kapshay6–2, 6–1
Win2–0Jul 2011ITF Samsun, Turkey25,000Hard Marta Domachowska7–6, 6–2
Win3–0Aug 2011Tatarstan Open, Russia50,000Hard Caroline Garcia6–4, 6–2
Win4–0Dec 2011Siberia Cup, Russia50,000Hard Elina Svitolina6–2, 6–4
Win5–0Feb 2012Launceston International, Australia25,000Hard Lesley Kerkhove6–1, 6–3
Win6–0May 2012Open de Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France100,000Clay Patricia Mayr-Achleitner6–2, 6–1
Loss6–1Nov 2012Open Nantes Atlantique, France50,000Hard Monica Niculescu2–6, 3–6
Loss6–2Dec 2012Al Habtoor Challenge, United Arab Emirates75,000Hard Kimiko Date-Krumm1–6, 6–3, 4–6
Loss6–3Apr 2014ITF Pelham, United States25,000Clay Laura Siegemund1–6, 4–6
Loss6–4May 2014ITF Indian Harbour Beach, United States50,000Clay Taylor Townsend1–6, 1–6
Loss6–5Jul 2015Grand Est Open 88, France100,000Clay Alexandra Dulgheru3–6, 6–1, 5–7
Loss6–6Nov 2015Nanjing Open, China100,000Hard Hsieh Su-wei6–7, 6–2, 2–6

Wins over top 10 players