Born: 1/4/75 Nationality: Bulgarian Seeded: 21 World ranking: 23 Wimbledon best: 4th round (2001 & 2002) Recent record: 2003: 2nd round 2002: 4th round 2001: 4th round

The youngest of three tennis-playing sisters, injury threatened her career before she came back to win titles in each of the last three years.

But a run to the final in Tokyo and the last eight in Antwerp has been followed by more defeats than wins.

She showed slight signs of a recovery with a place in the last 16 in Paris.

Maleeva first made her breakthrough in 1992 when she reached the quarter-finals of the US Open, defeating Martina Navratilova in the second round.

She has come close to causing a stir at Wimbledon since then but only boasts a 15-11 win-loss record on the world's premier grass courts.

Twice in the last three years, however, she has booked her place in the fourth round.