1.
Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
2.
Madrid Arena
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Madrid Arena is an indoor arena located in the city of Madrid, in the fairgrounds in the Casa de Campo, just minutes from the city centre. The pavilion was sponsored by the company Telefónica for what was known as Telefónica Arena. The arena was built in 2002 as part of the facilities planned for the Madrid 2012 Olympic bid and it was expected to house basketball competitions. The first phase was about in 2002, expanded the following year and it is distributed on three floors. Its central court has three retractable bleachers, allowing the surface to change depending on the type of event. The pavilion features a Satellite Pavilion, with an area of 2,100 m²and it was the location of the Mutua Madrileña Masters Madrid mens tennis tournament until Caja Mágica was opened and it has a maximum seating capacity of 12,000 seats. It is owned by the City Hall of Madrid and is managed by Madrid Destino and it has a maximum capacity of 10,248 spectators for basketball and 12,000 for boxing and 30,000 m². Its dome is 11,000 m² and is supported by a structure supported on 181 piles. It has a skylight that can be opened, letting in natural light, the facade is composed of a double curve of glass, very light and variable transparency. CB Estudiantes played its matches in the Madrid Arena from 2005 to 2010 and it has signed a five-year contract with an option for another five. It hosted also all the games of the round of the Eurobasket 2007. On November 1,2012 a human stampede in a Halloween party resulted in five girls being crushed to death, the partys organizers were allowed to sell 9,000 tickets, but far more people entered. In the enquiry, judicial agents gathered more than 19,000 tickets, a few days later it was announced that the Madrid Arena was not going to host the Handball World Championship as expected, due to its safety problems. In 2015 the Spanish writer Saúl Cepeda Lezcano, who worked for the main parties blamed for the tragedy, the book uncovers many illegal activities in nightlife and clubbing activities that had led to a similar disaster. Line 6, Alto de Extremadura station
3.
Clay court
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A clay court is one of many different types of tennis court. Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone or brick, the French Open uses clay courts, making it unique among the Grand Slam tournaments. Clay courts are common in Continental Europe and Latin America than in the United States. Two types exist, red clay, the common variety, and green clay, also known as rubico. Although less expensive to construct than other types of tennis courts, the water content must also be balanced, green courts are often sloped in order to allow water run-off. Clay courts favor the full western grip for more topspin, clay-courters generally play in a semicircle about 1.5 to 3 metres behind the baseline. Clay courts are considered slow, because the balls bounce high and more slowly. Points are usually longer as there are fewer winners, Clay court players use topspins to throw off their opponents. Movement on gravel courts is very different from movement on any other surface, playing on clay often involves the ability to slide into the ball during the stroke, as opposed to running and stopping like on a hard or grass court. Players who excel on clay courts but struggle to replicate the form on fast courts are known as clay-court specialists. Clay courts are unique in that the ball leaves an impression in the ground. Critics of red clay courts point to the constant need to wet them down, problems renewing the surface if it out. All clay courts, not just red clay, tend to cause a build-up of clay on the bottom of the shoes of the players, almost all red clay courts are made not of natural clay but of crushed brick that is packed to make the court. The crushed brick is covered with a topping of loose crushed particles. This type of surface does not absorb water easily and is the most common in Europe, the French Open is played on red clay courts at Stade Roland Garros. True natural clay courts are rare because they take two to three days to dry, a good example of natural red clay can be seen at the Frick Park Clay Courts in Pittsburgh, a public facility of six red clay courts that has been in continual use since 1930. A crushed brick surface was introduced by a British firm, En Tout Cas, in 1909, En tout cas, also known as fast-dry, or continental clay, court surfaces spread through Europe in the 1920s. An en tout cas court plays similarly to natural clay despite its considerably more granular appearance, the crushed brick surface allowed more water to run through the surface of the court drying the surface more quickly after a rain
4.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
5.
Alexander Zverev Jr.
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Alexander Sascha Zverev Jr. is a German professional tennis player and currently the youngest player in the ATP top 50. He is the son of former Russian tennis player Alexander Zverev Sr. in October 2016 he became the youngest player to enter the ATP top 20 since Novak Djokovic in 2006. As of March 20,2017 he is the only teenager in the top 100 of the ATP world rankings, Zverev was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1997. Both his parents, Alexander Sr. and Irina are former tennis players, zverevs older brother, Mischa, is also a professional tennis player. Between October 2013 and June 2014, Zverev was the No.1 ranked boys junior player, as a junior, he compiled a singles win/loss record of 96–35. Zverev reached the final of the 2013 French Open juniors, losing to Christian Garín, after losing in the third round of the 2013 Jr. Wimbledon Championships, he reached the semifinals of the 2013 Jr. US Open, losing to the champion, Borna Ćorić. Zverev won the 2014 Jr. Australian Open as the top seed, defeating second seed, in the first six months, Zverev competed in 10 Challenger tournaments, only qualifying for five. He also entered five ATP250 events, but was unable to qualify for any of the main draws, Zverev won his first ATP Challenger Tour title at the Sparkassen Open in Braunschweig, defeating three players ranked within the top 100. He defeated No.87 Tobias Kamke in the first round and he defeated the top seed and No.56 Andrey Golubev in the semifinals, followed by No.89 Paul-Henri Mathieu in the final. Zverev became the youngest player to win a Challenger tournament since Bernard Tomic won the Maccabi Mens Challenger in 2009, the following week he received a wildcard for the Stuttgart Open, and lost to the eventual runner up Lukáš Rosol in two tiebreaker sets. Zverev won his first ATP tour-level match at the 2014 International German Open when he beat Robin Haase and he faced 5th seed Mikhail Youzhny in the 2nd round and won. This was his first career win over a top 20 player and he defeated 11th seed Santiago Giraldo in the round of the last 16, and went on to beat Tobias Kamke in the quarterfinals. He then lost against David Ferrer in the semi-finals, at Munich he defeated Benjamin Becker in the first round, and was defeated by eventual runner-up Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round. Zverev reached the semifinals of the Open du Pays dAix ATP Challenger tournament in May, the following week, Zverev won an ATP Challenger Tour title at Heilbronn in Germany. He defeated Guido Pella in the final, en route to his title win in Heilbronn, he defeated the defending champion and No.90 Jan-Lennard Struff in the semifinals. As a result of this tournament win, Zverev moved into the Top 100 for the first time, at the 2015 Aegon Open Nottingham, he defeated Mikhail Kukushkin and Thomaz Bellucci to reach the round of 16 where he was defeated by Marcos Baghdatis. As a result of this, Zverev achieved a new career-high ATP ranking of No.74, at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships, Zverev made it to the main draw of a grand slam for the first time, automatically qualifying as a top 100 ranked player
6.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
7.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
8.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
9.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
10.
Ekaterina Makarova
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Ekaterina Valeryevna Makarova is a Russian professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of number 8 on 6 April 2015 and her best Grand Slam singles results have come at the 2014 US Open and the 2015 Australian Open where she reached the semifinals on both occasions. Ekaterina Valeryevna Makarova was born to Valery and Olga in Moscow and her father is a banker and her mother a housewife. At age five or six she was sent by her parents to the Luzhniki per the recommendation of friends, in her first professional tournament in Elektrostal as a wildcard, she reached the quarter-finals losing to Olga Savchuk. At her last tournament of 2003 in Zhukovsky, Russia, she lost in the first round and she then played in Cairo, Egypt, reaching the second round as a qualifying. At Antalya, Turkey, she won her career first title over Kateryna Avdiyenko, appearing at Felixstowe, Great Britain, she lost in the first round. At Târgu Mureş, Romania, Makarova claimed her second $10,000 title without dropping a set, in Moscow as a wildcard in the qualifier, she earned her first top 100 victory over Tatiana Perebiynis and Marta Domachowska, but lost to compatriot Anna Chakvetadze. At Redbridge, Makarova lost to Baltacha in the semifinals, in the next tournament she again reached semifinals, at St. Petersburg, in which she lost to her compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova. Bychkov beat her in the semifinal at the tournament in Cagnes-sur-Mer, in the second round of qualifying for the US Open losing to Indian Shikha Uberoi. Her next tournaments were fruitless, often reaching first rounds or losing in qualifications, the last tournament she would play that year would be in Dubai, where as a wildcard lost in the first round to Yaroslava Shvedova in two sets. Her first tournament in 2006 was at Ortesei, in which as a qualifier she lost to Eva Birnerová in the first round, at Torrent, Valencia, Spain, she reached the finals, eventually losing to Romina Oprandi. At an ITF event in Moscow she reached the finals defeating Vesna Manasieva in the quarter-finals and Anna Lapushchenkova in the semi-finals, Makarova began her 2007 season losing to Olga Blahotová, at Tampa, Florida. In Moscow she won the title with victories over Evgenia Grenbenyuk, Makarova entered the qualifying draw for the French Open defeating Erika Takao but was defeated again by Ioana Raluca Olaru. Then, in Zagreb, she reached the semifinals, before losing to Kyra Nagy, Makarova then lost in qualifying for the Wimbledon Championships to Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová after defeating Lilia Osterloh. In her last tournament of the year in Minsk, she reached the second round, Makarova began the year by losing in the qualifying round of 2008 Medibank International. She earned her first win over a top 20 at the 2008 Australian Open, 14th seed Nadia Petrova hindered her way to the fourth round. In the opening season Makarova had a number of second round achievements, Makarova suffered consecutive first round loses in 2008 Wimbledon,2008 Banka Koper Slovenia Open,2008 Nordea Nordic Light Open and 2008 Western & Southern Financial Group Womens Open. At the 2008 US Open she earned her first top ten win over world no.9 Anna Chakvetadze and she also reached the final of the 2009 Estoril Open defeating Maria Kirilenko and Anna-Lena Grönefeld en route but losing to Yanina Wickmayer