Alina Vladimirovna Jidkova (russian: Алина Владимировна Жидкова; born 18 January 1977) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. In her career, she won one WTA doubles title, at the 2005 Mexican Open and reached the finals three other times, at the Memphis Open 2003, Québec 2006 and Cincinnati Masters 2007. She also won nine singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. In March 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 51, while in August 2003, she peaked at No. 50 in the doubles rankings.

Early life

''Alinka'', as is her nickname, was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, then capital of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, to Vladimir, an engineer and a former professional weight lifter, and Lina, a school teacher and a former 100 meter sprinter. She has one brother, Dmitriy, former boxer, who now owns a construction business. She spent her early years in the Spartak Moscow tennis Club, but later she moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and attended

Nick Bollettieri Nicholas James Bollettieri (July 31, 1931 – December 4, 2022) was an American tennis coach. He pioneered the concept of a tennis boarding school, and helped develop many leading tennis players during the past decades, including Andre Agassi, ...

tennis academy Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

Tennis career

In 2004, she reached the quarterfinals of

Generali Ladies Linz The Linz Open, currently sponsored by Generali Gruppe, is a women's tennis tournament held in Linz, Austria. It is played on indoor hardcourts. The inaugural event took place in 1987 in Wels, Austria and was organized by the ITF as a $10,000 tou ...

after beating

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) fo ...

in straight sets. Aside from Williams, she has career victories against

Jelena Jankovic Jelena, also written Yelena and Elena, is a Slavic given name. It is a Slavicized form of the Greek name Helen, which is of uncertain origin. Diminutives of the name include Jelica, Jelka, Jele, Jela, Lena, Lenotschka, Jeca, Lenka, and Alena. Not ...

Mary Pierce Mary Caroline Pierce (born 15 January 1975) is a retired tennis professional who represented France internationally in team competitions and the Olympics. She was born in Canada to an American father and a French mother, and holds citizenship of ...

Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...

Alicia Molik Alicia Molik (born 27 January 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 6. Molik won a bronze medal in singles for Australi ...

Chanda Rubin Chanda Rubin (born February 18, 1976) is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world- ...

Amanda Coetzer Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971, in Hoopstad) is a South African former professional tennis player. Coetzer finished in the WTA rankings top 20 for ten consecutive seasons (1992–2001), peaking at world No. 3. She reached three Grand Slam ...

Brenda Schultz-McCarthy Brenda Anne Marie Schultz-McCarthy (born 28 December 1970) is a former Dutch tennis player. Primarily known by her maiden name Brenda Schultz, she married Sean McCarthy, a former American football player at University of Cincinnati, on 8 April ...

Amy Frazier Amy Frazier (born September 19, 1972) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995 she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, while ...

Petra Martic Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to the mountain of Jab ...

and other notable players. In 2005, she won her single WTA Tour event, the Mexican Open doubles title in Acapulco, partnering with

Tatiana Perebiynis Tatiana Yurevna Perebiynis ( ua, Тетяна Юріївна Перебийніс; born 15 December 1982) is a former professional tennis player from Ukraine. She reached the Wimbledon junior girls' singles final in 2000, and won the Wimble ...

. She has also finished runner-up on three occasions. Jidkova underwent knee surgery on 3 April 2001 for torn meniscus suffered during practice after Miami, returning to action in late April.

Retirement and coaching career

She retired from professional tennis at the end of the 2010 season. Her last official singles match played was against Monica Puig, 2016 Olympic champion. Later she worked as a coach for

Galina Voskoboeva Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva (russian: Галина Олеговна Воскобоева; born 18 December 1984) is a professional Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 42 on 7 May 2012. He ...

, Ksenia Pervak and

Kaia Kanepi Kaia Kanepi (; born 10 June 1985) is an Estonian professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 15 on 20 August 2012 and has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour. Described as a 'resident Grand Slam upset speci ...

. As a coach Alina Jidkova reached with Kaia Kanepi the Quarter-Final of the US-Open in 2017.

Personal life

Jidkova resides in

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

, and is married to entrepreneur Sascha Ghods. The two married on 18 December 2010 in a ceremony in

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

WTA career finals

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

ITF finals

Singles: 17 (9–8)

Doubles: 30 (9–21)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jidkova, Alina 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Boca Raton, Florida Tennis players from Moscow Russian expatriates in the United States Russian female tennis players