1. Evgeny Evgenyevich Korolev is a retired Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player and the cousin of former Russian player Anna Kournikova.
33 Facts About Evgeny Korolev
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Evgeny Korolev began playing tennis at age four with his father, and picked up his first ATP points at age 15 in three German challenger events.
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Evgeny Korolev started off the year with a defeat in a German futures event, although only after beating fellow hopeful Andrey Golubev on the way.
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Evgeny Korolev later claimed a second futures win in France, in which he beat home favorite Mathieu Montcourt in the final.
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Evgeny Korolev later won another futures event in Austria and an F1 event in France.
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In 2006 Korolev claimed a win in Marseille over fellow countryman and world number 5 Nikolay Davydenko, but went on to lose in the quarter-finals to French veteran Sebastien Grosjean.
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Shortly after, Evgeny Korolev beat former World Number 1 and Grand Slam winner Carlos Moya, before eliminating Andreas Seppi on his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros, before going out to Gaston Gaudio.
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Evgeny Korolev then won another challenger contest, but lost to Sluiter in the final of the Aachen event.
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Evgeny Korolev then went on to the Australian Open 2007, in which he lost to the eventual runner-up Fernando Gonzalez.
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Evgeny Korolev lost to both Radek Stepanek and James Blake prior to the event.
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Evgeny Korolev then reached the semi-finals of an American contest, losing to Jurgen Melzer, after beating James Blake and Sam Querrey in the earlier rounds.
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Evgeny Korolev then played his first masters series event in Indian Wells, in which he was eliminated by Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
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Evgeny Korolev later described this as a learning curve, after wins over Simon Greul and close friend Dmitry Tursunov.
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Evgeny Korolev later lost in the US Open to Stanislas Wawrinka.
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Evgeny Korolev then played in Saint Petersburg, but went out in straight sets against the British number 1, Andrew Murray.
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In 2008, Evgeny Korolev claimed victories over the likes of Paul-Henri Mathieu and Fernando Gonzalez, and reached the quarter-finals in Sydney, losing to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.
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Evgeny Korolev served for the match twice and was broken each time.
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Evgeny Korolev eventually prevailed in a second set tiebreak but needed 11 match points to win.
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Evgeny Korolev said that if he had lost that second set, he would have lost the match.
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Evgeny Korolev faced Robin Soderling in the first round in Rome.
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At the US Open, Evgeny Korolev beat Swedish Robin Soderling before losing to Gael Monfils in the second round.
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At the 2009 Australian Open, Evgeny Korolev made his way through the qualifying rounds and beat former world number 1 Carlos Moya, in the first round.
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Evgeny Korolev struggled to build on that run, with Masters 1000 defeats to Juan Monaco and Eduardo Schwank when aiming to qualify and was put out of Munich in straight sets to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
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However, Evgeny Korolev did manage to claim a victory in Dusseldorf over Andreas Seppi, later losing to both Troicki of Serbia and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
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At Roland Garros, Evgeny Korolev had to pull out of a match with Gimeno Traver due to an ankle problem which had forced him out of the doubles the week prior to the event.
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Evgeny Korolev's next scheduled event was at Queens Club where he was defeated by Frenchman Michael Llodra.
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Evgeny Korolev then faced good friend and fellow country man Igor Andreev at Wimbledon and lost in four sets.
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Evgeny Korolev has since taken part in occasional challenger events, although he admits his motivation has been hindered by the move to the lower ranks of world tennis, possibly contributing to losses against Pere Riba and Roberto Bautista-Agut.
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Evgeny Korolev began the year at the 2010 Qatar ExxonMobil Open and the 2010 Medibank International Sydney, in both cases reaching the second round, losing to Roger Federer and Mardy Fish respectively.
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Evgeny Korolev then suffered early defeats in the first round of the 2010 PBZ Zagreb Indoors to Ivan Dodig, in the second round of the 2010 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships to Philipp Petzschner, and in the second round of the 2010 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships to Jarkko Nieminen.
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Evgeny Korolev then fell in his next four matches at the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, 2010 French Open, 2010 Aegon Championships and 2010 Aegon International.
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Evgeny Korolev then fell in the qualifying draw of 2010 MercedesCup and first round of 2010 International German Open.
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Evgeny Korolev then made his best performance of the year by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis without dropping a set but lost to Thiemo de Bakker in straight sets.