Posts Tagged ‘maria kirilenko’


Ovechkin to marry Kirilenko

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

Maria Kirilenko (Wikimedia Commons)

It appears one of hockey’s greatest players in Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, is set to marry one of the world’s hottest tennis players in Russia’s Maria Kirilenko.

According to Ovechkin, he confirmed the engagement on his twitter account.

Everybody knows about Ovechkin, but what do we know about Kirilenko? Well, she is 25 years old from Moscow and won the Olympic Bronze medal with Nadia Petrova in women’s doubles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Petrova and Kirilenko defeated Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber of the United States 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Kirilenko is also seeded 14th in the world in singles, and has qualified for the quarterfinals at the 2010 Australian Open and 2012 Wimbledon. She has also reached the final in doubles at the 2011 Australian Open and 2012 French Open.

Kirilenko has also done some successful modeling, as she was in the 2009 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and has done modelling with Adidas and famous fashion designer Stella McCartney.

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Sharapova now world no.1

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

Maria Sharapova (Wikimedia Commons)

It was a big win for Maria Sharapova on Thursday.

By defeating Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3, she not only advanced to her first French Open final of her career, but she also passed Belarussian Victoria Azarenka into number one in the world.

Sharapova last was ranked no.1 in the world in 2008. The three-time Grand Slam winner (2004 Wimbledon, 2006 U.S. Open and 2008 Australian Open champion) will also win the career grand slam with a victory on Saturday.

Sharapova’s opponent will be no.21 ranked Sara Errani of Italy, who upset no.6 seeded Samantha Stosur 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in a topsy-turvy match. Errani won despite having 24 fewer winners than Stosur.

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Three Canadians win at Australian Open

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Stephanie Dubois (Robbie Mendelson, Wikimedia Commons)

It was a solid Monday for three Canadians at the Australian Open.

Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario, Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Quebec and Aleksandra Wozniak of Montreal, Quebec have all advanced to round two.

Yesterday, Raonic, seeded 23rd, defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in 91 minutes. Raonic had 13 aces and 13 winners to Violandri’s none.

In women’s action, Dubois defeated Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and Wozniak defeated Shuai Zhang of China 6-3, 6-3. Toronto’s Rebecca Marino lost to Greta Arn of Hungary 6-4, 6-2.

Raonic will now play Philipp Petzschner of Germany in the second round. Petzschner beat Raonic in the quarterfinals of Halle, Germany last year 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

Wozniak will now play the 27th seed, Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Dubois will play the 30th seed, Angelique Kerber of Germany.

The upset of the tournament so far came from Simona Cirstea of Romania, who beat U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6, 6-3. Stosur, a fan favourite, was the sixth seed.

The best match of the tournament I have seen so far came on Sunday night. Australian Bernard Tomic, who is only 19, beat Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 7-5.

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Weekend Sports Preview–Wimbledon, LPGA Championship, Women’s World Cup, Gold Cup

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Christine Sinclair (Wikimedia Commons)

Women’s sports dominates my television viewing in golf, tennis and soccer.

The Women’s World Cup of Soccer starts Sunday from Germany, as Canada’s Christine Sinclair leads a very strong Canadian team that is currently ranked sixth in the world.

And they have luck on their side. German octopus Paula has actually picked the Canadian team to defeat host Germany on Sunday (CBC, 10:00am Mountain Time). The game is to be played at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Canada’s other round robin games in Pool A are against France on Thursday and Nigeria next Tuesday.

Sinclair is obviously the face of the team. In 159 games, she has 116 goals.

Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:

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