page_title: Tsvetana Pironkova
section_title: 2015–2016: Roland Garros quarterfinal
hierarchical_section_title: Tsvetana Pironkova / Career / 2015–2016: Roland Garros quarterfinal
caption_attribution_description: Day 6 of Roland Garros 2016
context_page_description: Tsvetana Kirilova Pironkova is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. She was the highest ranked Bulgarian tennis player for more than a decade. Pironkova is considered to be one of the best grass court players of her generation and has been noted for her "cerebral" skills on the surface. Dubbed as a dramatic ranking phenomenon by media outlets, she is also known for upstaging higher ranked opponents at Grand Slam tournaments.
  Pironkova started playing tennis at the age of four on being introduced to the sport by her father. She made her WTA Tour debut at the İstanbul Cup in 2005, and achieved moderate success earlier in her career. That changed in 2010, when she entered Wimbledon with a 1–4 career record at the event, and went on reach the semifinals of the tournament, becoming just the second Bulgarian tennis player in history to reach the semifinal stage of a Grand Slam in singles. She garnered wide recognition for her performance, and after her semifinal finish reached her highest singles ranking at No. 31 in September 2010. Pironkova followed it up with a quarterfinal run at the event the following year, earning her the nickname "The Wimbledon Darkhorse".
context_section_description: Pironkova started the year ranked no. 50. She began the season at the Brisbane International and lost her first-round match to seventh seed Carla Suárez Navarro. Then she returned to Sydney to play the Aipa International as the defending champion and once again had to go through qualifying, as she was not given a wildcard entry. At the time, Pironkova was ranked No. 67 and lost the points from her title. She beat eighth seed Flavia Pennetta in the first round in straight sets, then overcoming unseeded Madison Keys and Záhlavová-Strýcová both in straight sets, but then lost in the semifinals to second seed and eventual champion Petra Kvitová in a repeat of the 2014 semifinals. With this defeat, she ended her 14-match winning streak at the tournament.
  Pironkova then played at the Australian Open, where she beat Heather Watson in the first round, but then in what was her eighth loss against the Slovak out of nine matches, lost to 11th seed Dominika Cibulková in the second round, again in straight sets. Pironkova reached the third round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she beat Klára Koukalová and Peng Shuai, before losing to top seed world No. 2, Simona Halep, in straight sets. At Indian Wells, she lost in the first round, reached the second round in Miami, losing to 15th seed Flavia Pennetta in three tight sets. She reached second rounds in both Prague and Madrid, losing to top seeds Karolína Plíšková and Lucie Šafářová, respectively. She suffered a first-round defeat in Rome.
  At the French Open, Pironkova reached the third round, where she upset 25th seed Barbora Strýcová and then took out another Czech player Denisa Allertová, both in straight sets, before losing to American Sloane Stephens. The third-round appearance at the Roland Garros was her best to date.
  Pironkova started her grass-court season at the Aegon Classic, where in the first round she beat Brit Katie Stan, but came short against German fourth seed Angelique Kerber, losing in three sets. She then reached her second premier-level event quarterfinal in 2015 in Eastbourne at the Aegon International, where she beat Marina Erakovic in the first round, 16th seed Samantha Stosur, and former Grand Slam finalist Dominika Cibulková, before being beaten by eventual finalist Agnieszka Radwańska. At Wimbledon, she lost to 30th seed and Aegon International winner Belinda Bencic in three sets.
  She then entered the İstanbul Cup as the eighth seed and reached her third quarterfinal of the year. She beat Margarita Gasparyan and Kurumi Nara, both in three sets, but lost to Urszula Radwańska in three sets in a tie-break in the final set.
  Pironkova started the 2016 season with a loss to Samantha Crawford in Brisbane qualifying. She played the Apia International, where she received a wildcard to the main draw and reached the second round, beating Lesia Tsurenko before losing to No. 8 seed Belinda Bencic. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round to Yaroslava Shvedova. Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she entered the main draw after beating Kristýna Plíšková, Kateryna Bondarenko and Anna-Lena Friedsam in the qualifying. She lost to eventual finalist Barbora Strýcová in the first round.
  At Roland Garros, the 102nd ranked Pironkova upset 16th seed Sara Errani in the first round and 19th seed Sloane Stephens in the third round, both in straight sets. In the fourth round against world No. 2, Agnieszka Radwańska, after Pironkova was a set and three games down, the match was cancelled due to rain and resumed after two days. The Bulgarian took advantage of the situation, dominating the rest of the match after the pause by winning 12 out of 15 games, thus eventually reaching the quarterfinals and becoming the first Bulgarian since Sesil Karatantcheva in 2005 to reach this stage of the tournament. Pironkova's run at Roland Garros ended with a loss to Samantha Stosur.
  In June, Pironkova's good performance continued on grass court. She passed through the qualification rounds of the Birmingham event, and then in the second round the Bulgarian b
caption: Pironkova reached the quarterfinals at the 2016 French Open, her best performance at the tournament
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