Corina Maria Morariu (born January 26, 1978) is an American former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Morariu (pronounced: mo-RA-R'ju) was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and is of

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

descent. She turned professional in 1994. Mainly known as a doubles specialist, she won the women's doubles title at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

in 1999 with

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...

. She also won the mixed-doubles title at the

2001 Australian Open The 2001 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Australia. It was the 89th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 15 through 28 January 2001. Seniors Men's singles An ...

with

Ellis Ferreira Ellis Ferreira (born 19 February 1970) is a former professional male tennis player from South Africa. He played collegiately at the University of Alabama, earning all-SEC and all-American honors. Ferreira competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in ...

. She reached the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

women's doubles final with Davenport in 2005. She also reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles in 2000. In 2001, Morariu was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

and began a program of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. During this time,

Jennifer Capriati Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics. C ...

dedicated her 2001 French Open victory to Morariu. She also received an inspirational letter from

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 Tour de ...

, a

cancer survivor A cancer survivor is a person with cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether ...

. After recovering from cancer, along with shoulder surgery, Morariu was largely restricted to doubles play. The WTA then created the Corina Comeback Award, which was presented to Morariu by Capriati. Morariu retired from the tour in 2007. She is an International Sports Ambassador for

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1949, is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer in the world. The LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's ...

, and has released a memoir titled ''Living Through the Racket: How I Survived Leukemia...and Rediscovered My Self''. Following her retirement, she began working as a commentator for

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of ...

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 1 (title)

WTA career finals

Singles: 4 (1–3)

Doubles: 20 (13–7)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles (5–0)

Doubles (9–4)

Doubles performance timeline

Awards

* The Corina Comeback Award (established by the WTA and named after her; she was the first recipient) * The 2002 WTA Tour Comeback Player of the Year Award

References

Publications

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morariu, Corina 1978 births Living people American female tennis players Australian Open (tennis) champions Sportspeople from Detroit Sportspeople from Boca Raton, Florida American people of Romanian descent Tennis commentators Tennis people from Florida Tennis people from Michigan Wimbledon champions French Open junior champions US Open (tennis) junior champions Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles American memoirists American women memoirists 21st-century American women WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players