PETE ZIEBRON
The opportunity to play in a Grand Slam is one of the initial goals of each and every professional tennis player. But what does one do if one is worthy enough to play in a Slam but does not have the means to get to the other side of the world to compete? Welcome to the world of professional tennis player Alina Jidkova in December 1999.
After playing professional tennis for 6 years, Jidkova put together a solid year on court and achieved the necessary results in 1999 to be able to play in the qualification round of the 2000 Australian Open. However, Jidkova did not have the $2,000 to pay for the plane ticket to get to Australia, so the possibility remained that the reward from all of her accomplishments that year might go unfulfilled.
Thanks to an “angel” in Amsterdam who owned a tennis club and learned of Jidkova’s dire situation, a round trip airline ticket from the United States to Australia was sent from the Netherlands to Jidkova’s residence in Florida. This kind gesture helped to secure a dream and change the trajectory of Alina Jidkova’s professional tennis career.
Alina Jidkova playing in her final professional tournament in Phoenix, AZ. Pete Ziebron Images
While most professional tennis players first start getting comfortable with a racquet in their hands at age 2, Alina Jidkova was not even familiar with the sport until 1987 when she was 10 years old. After all, the most popular sports in her home country of Russia were Olympic sports and tennis had just recently made its reentry as an Olympic sport at the 1984 Summer Games after a 64 year absence. Alina’s father Vladimir wanted her to get involved with sports and told her that they were going to a school in Moscow to watch a sport called tennis. Alina and her father took a bus to the school; she liked what she saw and soon started to play tennis twice a month at a club going forward. One year later at age 11, Alina’s talent was recognized, and it was suggested that she play tournaments against better competition.
Alina played at many different clubs throughout Moscow as a pre-teen and into her early teenage years. Her favorite coach at the famous Spartak Club was the legendary Larisa Preobrazenskaya. Beginning at age 11, Alina would train with Preobrazenskaya for 3 years. After just 6 months of working with her favorite coach, Jidkova became a top 20 player in her age group in the Soviet Union. One year later, she was in the top 5, and eventually Alina Jidkova became the #1 tennis player in the entire Soviet Union for all girls born in 1977.
While training at Spartak, she recalled watching Dinara Safina at age 3 always having a smile on her face as she swatted balls with her racquet. Also training at Spartak was Dinara’s brother Marat. Everyone at the club, including Marat himself, knew that he was a star in the making at age 10. Sure enough, Marat would become #1 in the world and win 2 Grand Slams. Ironically, Dinara would also reach #1 in the world.
Alina’s progress at Spartak as well as her #1 ranking led her to go the United States in 1990. She arrived in the US with a group of fellow tennis players and some coaches. Alina’s uncle paid for her trip, and this was an enormous sacrifice for him as he could have purchased a car with the funds that he generously shared with his niece.
As a 13 year-old in the United States, Jidkova would win 7 Junior tournaments in the 18 & under bracket. Her accomplishments were reported in newspapers and a sponsor who read about her arranged for Alina to attend the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida at the end of 1991. The sponsor also arranged for Alina’s Mother, Lina, to accompany her at the Academy. Alina recalled that the practice sessions at the Bollettieri Academy were endless. The coach that was assigned to her spoke no Russian, and Alina spoke no English. So, in addition to working on her game, Jidkova also needed to learn a new language. However, her sponsor’s business ventures ended, he lost money, and Alina Jidkova and her Mother returned to Moscow after spending 6 months at the Bollettieri Academy.
At the age of 16, Alina made her professional debut at the Kremlin Cup in October of 1993 and continued to play primarily ITF events in Europe over the course of the next few years.
In 1997, with $500 in her pocket, Jidkova moved to Delray Beach, Florida, and started to play in more North American tournaments, fully determined to maximize her potential as a professional tennis player. Since she had no money to pay rent, a friend of Alina’s allowed her to live in an office building that he owned which served as a storage unit. Her “neighbors” were not people; they were raccoons. Her decision to move to America paid off as Jidkova won 2 ITF tournaments within 12 months of relocating to the United States.
Alina did not see her family during the next 2 years. Then she returned to Russia to play in the 1999 Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Jidkova lost her 2nd match and encountered heckling by the family and friends of her Russian opponent, telling her to go back to the US. Shortly after returning back “home” to Florida, Jidkova learned that her solid results from earlier in 1999 propelled her ranking to be able to play the qualification round at the 2000 Australian Open in January.
She received her plane ticket from her “angel” in Amsterdam and arrived in Australia ready to compete. Despite dropping the 1st set of in the 1st round of qualifying 1-6, Jidkova was able to win the 2nd set in a close tiebreaker and managed to win that match as well as the next 2 rounds of qualifying to gain entry into the main draw. Again, she dropped the 1st set in the 1st round by a lopsided 2-6 score but won a tight 2nd set tiebreaker, rallied to win the match and won again in the 2nd round. In the next round, she would play the tournament’s #2 seed Lindsay Davenport. This 3rd round encounter would be scheduled as the feature match and would be played at night at Rod Laver Arena, the largest stadium court at the Australian Open. A worldwide television audience would watch the action. As a result of the dramatic moment, Alina was so nervous that she could hardly stand up and managed to win only 1 game and Lindsay Davenport would go on to win the 2000 Australian Open. Jidkova considered Davenport to be the toughest opponent she ever faced in her career, since Davenport hit the ball flat and deep.
The 2000 Australian Open was the first of 23 Grand Slam appearances for Alina Jidkova. However, her greatest career victory came in Linz, Austria, against Serena Williams in October 2004. By this time, Serena had already won a career Grand Slam. Alina remembers the match like she played it yesterday and shared that on the day of the match, she looked at photographs of her family and of herself when she was a younger girl. While viewing the pictures, Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" played in the background.
That week in Linz, Alina made a commitment to herself that she would "run for everything and that she would not miss." As a result, she felt like she was “in the zone” that entire week and she won 3 rounds of qualifying as well as winning a 1st round match prior to facing Serena.
Maintaining her commitment to run everything down, she defeated Serena 7-6(5) 6-2 and advanced to play countrywoman Elena Bovina. The quarterfinal match against Bovina would be Jidkova’s 6th match in 6 consecutive days. Alina vividly recalls that she won the 1st set, won the first 2 games of the 2nd set, and was serving at 30-0 when she simply ran out of gas in the match, lost the next 9 consecutive games and had to retire when she completely "hit the wall" at 0-3 in the 3rd set.
The next week in Quebec City, Alina also enjoyed success, defeating Samantha Stosur as well as 2-time Grand Slam Champion, Mary Pierce. Quebec marked the end of the 2004 season with Jidkova playing some of the best tennis of her career.
Unfortunately, 2005 was a bittersweet year for Alina. She would achieve the highest ranking of her career at #51 in the world in March. However, Alina would suffer the cruel fate of injury that can rudely interrupt, negatively impact and sometimes end the career of a professional athlete. Jidkova played through pain throughout much of 2005. She lost several 1st round matches, and her ranking started to tumble. Alina was forced to retire from her Kremlin Cup match in Moscow in October and spent the next 9 months healing from several serious injuries to her right knee, including: a torn ACL, a torn MCL and excruciating meniscus tears on both sides of her right knee.
A therapist alerted Jidkova that she might not be as good or as fast as she was prior to these injuries. The therapist warned that training hard and playing would be going against the odds and future problems might persist. Nonetheless, Jidkova and her fighting spirit decided to press on and planned to continue to train and play, as she was committed to be the best and had just achieved her career best ranking.
Looking back, Jidkova realizes that she came back from these injuries 3-4 months too early and was not able to feel 100% on the court until 2 years later. The same fighting spirit that Alina displayed on the court in Linz against Serena Williams also drove her to return to the game from injury earlier than recommended. If this were to be the end of her career, then she decided that she would end it on her terms and returned to action in July 2006.
Alina was able to reach #140 in singles and #80 in doubles but played in only 2 more Grand Slams following the devastating injuries sustained in 2005. Yet she fought valiantly and continued to battle, until realizing sometime in 2010 that she started to lose the killer instinct that is necessary on tour to compete and win. Alina also felt that she had nothing left to prove to anyone and that she achieved most of the things that she wanted.
Alina Jidkova was a pioneer for the numerous Russian players that enjoy success today. Many who follow tennis would think that Anna Kournikova was the Russian player that paved the way for the plethora of players who hail from Russia that play professional tennis. However, it was the triumvirate of Jidkova, Elena Likhovtseva and Tatiana Panova that preceded Kournikova and blazed the trail. These players were a few years older and as a result, the Russian tennis coaches often consulted with Jidkova about the development of young Russian tennis prospects.
After 18 seasons, the aspects of being a touring pro that Alina will miss most are the adrenaline rushes and the happy emotions when she was playing well and winning. She compared competing on the court with a racehorse that is always going for the goal. The elements of the tour that Alina will not miss are: the rain delays, waiting to play a match that is scheduled for late in the day, living out of a suitcase and wondering if the plants at home are still alive.
Jidkova won 9 ITF singles titles and 9 ITF doubles titles, and her favorite tour stops include Acapulco, Rome and Barcelona. She has fond memories of the Australian Open and also enjoyed playing the US Open since the American people made her feel welcome and accepted her. Australian Bryanne Stewart and Akiko Morigami of Japan were the doubles teammates that Alina liked best.
When Alina played in one of her first ITF tournaments in the United States in Little Rock in 1997, longtime USTA officials Bunny Williams and Missy Malool were there to manage the tournament and help the players with whatever they needed. Williams and Malool are described by many players as the most kind, respected and liked people in tennis management. Alina made sure that when it was time to retire, she would do it on her terms. These terms included the presence of Bunny Williams and Missy Malool at her final tournament at the Goldwater Women’s Tennis Classic at the Phoenix Country Club in November 2010.
Alina Jidkova plans to get married in December 2010 and will live in Florida and Europe.

Alina (middle) is presented with a chocolate cake after declaring her retirement from professional tennis at the Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic Player's Party at the Phoenix Country Club. USTA official Missy Malool is left of Alina. Pete Ziebron Images
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