| Manuela Maleeva-fragniere |
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Manuela Maleeva (born February 14 , 1967 ) is Bulgaria ’s all time best female tennis player. She played in the WTA tour, competing in singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles between 1982 and 1994 . BIOGRAPHY Born in Sofia , Manuela was the oldest of the four children of Yulia Berberyan and Georgi Maleev . The mother, who came from a prominent Armenian family, which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire , was the best Bulgarian tennis player in the 1960 s. After she retired from professional tennis in the 1970s, Berberyan started on a coaching career. She was the coach of all of her three daughters, Manuela, Katerina and Magdalena , each of whom eventually became WTA top ten players. In 1982 Manuela won the junior French Open . Later the same year she made her debut among the women and ended the year within the first 200 of the WTA rank list. In 1984 Manuela won a total of seven tournaments beating all stars in the women’s tennis with the exception of Martina Navratilova . After the victory at the tournament in Indianapolis the same year, Manuela became № 3 in the WTA rank list. Once in the top ten, she did not leave it for a period of ten whole years – until 1992 . Also in 1984 , Manuela won her first and only Grand Slam title – in mixed doubles at the US Open together with Tom Gullikson from the USA . In 1988 she won a Bronze Medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics 's singles in Seoul . In 1992 and 1993 she registered her all time best achievement in Grand Slam singles reaching the semi-finals of the US Open (in 1992 after beating her sister, Magdalena Maleeva , at the quarter-finals). In 1994 , Manuela retired from professional tennis. Throughout her 12-year carrier, she won a total of 19 WTA Tour singles titles, four in Doubles and one in Mixed Doubles . She won the Hopman Cup in 1992 together with Jakob Hlasek and reached twice the semi-finals at Fed Cup in 1985 and 1987 . Manuela has been married since 1987 to Switzerland ’s best tennis player from the 1980 s, Francois Fragniere . They live near Geneva and have three children, two girls and a boy. TOURNAMENTS WON Singles Winner (WTA Tour):
Doubles Winner:
Mixed doubles Winner:
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