Radio Bulgaria

Bulgarian tennis player Tsvetana Pironkova won a historic victory by qualifying for the women’s semi-finals at Wimbledon, third tournament from the Grand Slam. A female Bulgarian tennis player hadn’t reached a Wimbledon semi-final before. The top Bulgarian competitor’s victory was a sensation for a player that had been placed 82nd in the world ranking. Tsvetana Pironkova won over American Venus Williams, ranked second in the scheme. The crushing victory came as a result from a perfect and extremely balanced playing of the Bulgarian that made the American competitor nervous and worried.
Mrs. Pironkova will receive GBP 250 000 and 900 points for this ranking. Then after the end of Wimbledon she will have marked her best result ever – 35th in the world rankings.
Tsvetana will meet Russian Vera Zvonareva at the semi-finals. Mrs. Zvonareva already won over Belgian Kim Clijsters with 2:1 sets – 3:6, 6:4, 6:2. The interesting part is that they both competed with each other last October in Moscow for the Kremlin Cup. Pironkova then simply crushed Zvonareva by 6:0, 6:2 at a match from the second round, before losing at the quarterfinals from Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.
The 22-year old Bulgarian tennis player was born in the town of Plovdiv in a sport family. Her father was a republic canoe champion and her mother – a swimming champion. Her sister Elisaveta also plays tennis. Her brother is her sparing partner and accompanies her at most of the tournaments that she takes part in. Mrs. Pironkova has been playing tennis since the age of four. She is the granddaughter of the famous Bulgarian artist Encho Pironkov. She has won over many Top 20 players in the world in her career so far, among them Shahar Pe’er, Natalie Dechy, Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva, Elena Dementieva and Patty Schnyder. However, this final success of Tsvetana Pironkova is the highest achievement for the Bulgarian female tennis. 

English version: Zhivko Stanchev