The first time Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova really, really made global sports headlines (not to disparage her prior successes, of course) was Wimbledon 2010 when she beat Venus Williams in the quarter-final to become the first Bulgarian ever to play a semi-final match at the top tournament.

A year later, she's done it again – she kicked Venus Williams out of Wimbledon 2011, this time at the quarter final - bringing really good news to Bulgaria – of the sort that rarely makes it to Bulgarian-language media (which prefer to focus on horrific deaths, dirty sex stories, and political mudslinging). Not only that, but in the previous round she got back at Vera Zvonareva for losing to her at last year's semi-final.

It is high time that Pironkova gets the recognition she deserves. Interestingly, she is still widely regarded as an underdog. Even more interestingly, and sadly, she will probably get true recognition globally around the world than she will in Bulgaria.

This young tennis player has always impressed me with her tenacity, the powerful simplicity of her focus on what she is striving to achieve, and the fact that out of the question for her to be complacent no matter how great a success she might achieve. (Sadly, one can't say the same of other young Bulgarian tennis hopes whose suns set prematurely in the recent years.)

Pironkova represents all that is right with today's Bulgaria (too many other people in sports and other fields stand for all that is wrong). Her tenacity and successes are all the more impressive as her extended family – as they told the Bulgarian public last year – have been selling cars and properties so that she can travel and compete.

For our foreign readers who are unaware of that – her family name comes from the Bulgarian word for "nail". Let's wish Tsveti to keep "nailing" her matches – at Wimbledon and beyond – for a long time to come!

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