Dubai: Glamour girl Maria Kirilenko feels she still has a lot to give to the game she loves despite yet another first-round exit at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open here on Monday.
"I'm still not very old yet. I still have a few years to play for sure," Kirilenko told Gulf News after a fourth straight first round exit in Dubai.
After seven appearances in Dubai, Kirilenko has been losing in the first round since 2008. In 2005, she bowed out in the qualifying stages, while her best result came in 2006 where she made it to the quarter-finals only to lose to second seeded Lindsay Davenport.
"I am trying to find my game again because I feel that there's a little bit too many mistakes. I don't feel what to do," she admitted.
And she has not given up on Dubai. "I have very good memories from Dubai because a lot of time I come here just for practice. Especially three, four years ago when I was younger I came here just for two weeks' preparation," she disclosed.
Her record of the Tour is not too compelling either, having lost an amazing 36 first rounds since the start of the 2007 season. Now at 26 in the latest rankings released last Monday, Kirilenko's start to the season has not been all that heartening after yet another first round exit at the season-opening Sydney Open.
Background
As a rising teenage star, Kirilenko launched the Stella McCartney tennis attire created especially for her just before the 2006 Australian Open.
Seeded No18 at the Australian Open, the 23 year old made it to the second round singles losing to Iveta Benesova. However, it was the doubles that Kirilenko flourished as she teamed up with Victoria Azarenka to reach the final. But in a final that witnessed an amazing turnaround, Kirilenko and Azarenka went down in three sets 6-2, 5-7, 1-6 to the Argentinean-Italian pair of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.
"I think I played well at the beginning of the year, but then I lost in the Australian Open also playing bad," she recollected.
"However, everything is fine for me and in my mind there is still tennis," Kirilenko said.
