Iroda Tulyaganova (nickname Iri) is a powerful, exciting, and very sexy tennis-player from Uzbekistan. The days when women used to have to be consistent and just keep the ball in court are well behind us!
Iroda is remarkably versatile, able to adapt to all surfaces, and to adopt the role of brilliant baseliner or serve-and-volleyer as appropriate. She can mix up her game with dropshots, lobs, volleys, and sliced backhands (the offshoot of a back-injury in 1997 which forced her to play one-handed). She's a very ambitious shotmaker.
She has been ranked as high as #16 on the WTA Tour and has won three WTA singles titles in her career. She returned to the main Tour in 2006 after a long injury absence, and in Kolkata in September 2006, she reached the semi-finals as a qualifier, leaping more than 120 places in the rankings to No. 222 after her success. The following week, she reached the final of her home event in Taskent, beating a string of players including Top 60-ranked Olga Poutchkova. She also won the women's singles gold medal in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan by defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand.
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