Kichenok has won ten additional doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including four with her twin sister, Nadiia. On 21 July 2014, she reached a her career-high singles rankings of No. 156.
Career
2015: WTA doubles title, singles top 10 win
In 2015, she won her first WTA Tour doubles title together with her sister. They escaped a 5–0 deficit in the second set tie-break of their 6–4, 7–6 defeat of Liang Chen and Wang Yafan in the Shenzhen Open final. This win made the Kichenoks the second pair of twins, after Karolína Plíšková and Kristýna Plíšková, to win a tour doubles title. They previously had been runners-up at Tashkent in 2011, and Shenzhen in 2014.[2] She won the second tour doubles title at the Brasil Tennis Cup.
During the Tianjin Open, Lyudmyla caused the biggest upset of the tournament with a top-10 win over Flavia Pennetta, world No. 8 and reigning US Open champion, in the first round; it has been the biggest win of her singles career so far.[3]
At the French Open, she reached the semifinals of a major for the first time in her career, partnering again with Ostapenko, falling to the eventual champions, Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.[5] She reached the top 20 in doubles on 6 June 2022.
The following week, she won her sixth title at Birmingham with Ostapenko. At the Wimbledon Championships, they also reached the semifinals, again falling to the eventual champions, this time Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková.
At the Cincinnati Open, she reached the final with Ostapenko defeating Australian Open finalists Haddad Maia and Anna Danilina and top seeds Kudermetova and Mertens. The pair won their biggest title defeating Nicole Melichar and Ellen Perez.[6] Lyudmyla reached new career-highs in doubles of world No. 10, on 22 August 2022, and No. 9, on 12 September 2022.
At the inaugural edition of the Tallinn Open, seeded third with her sister, she won her eighth title defeating top-seeded pair Nicole Melichar and Laura Siegemund in the final.[7]
She and Ostapenko qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals where they reached the semifinals.[8]
2024: US Open title, world No. 3, Olympics quarterfinal
At the 2024 Australian Open, she reached her first doubles final with her usual partner Jeļena Ostapenko, defeating reigning US Open champions and fourth seeds, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, in straight sets.[11] Kichenok became the fourth Ukrainian female tennis player to reach a major doubles final, following sisters Kateryna Bondarenko and Alona Bondarenko who won the title at the 2008 Australian Open, and Elena Tatarkova who reached the final with Mariaan de Swardt of South Africa in the 1999 Wimbledon Championships.[12]
At the US Open, seeded seventh in doubles, she reached another Grand Slam final with her partner Jelena Ostapenko, defeating Anna Danilina and Irina Khromacheva in the quarterfinal,[14][15] and then Veronika Kudermetova and Chan Hao-ching in the semifinal, also in straight sets, 6–1, 6–2. Kichenok became the first Ukrainian tennis player to reach the semifinals in doubles at all four majors, and the first finalist at the US Open.[16][17][18][19]
Ostapenko and Kichenok defeated Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai in the final, in straight sets, to lift their first a Grand Slam trophy together, becoming the first Latvian and Ukrainian champions in women’s doubles.[20][21] As a result, she reached a new career-high of world No. 3 in the doubles rankings, on 23 September 2024.[citation needed]
Kichenok and Ostapenko qualified for the end-of-season WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as top seeds but were eliminated in the group stages after losing all three of their matches.[22]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.
^The first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
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