Emily Webley-Smith (born 14 July 1984) is a British 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.
She has a career-high
WTA singles ranking of No. 240, achieved on 7 November 2011. She also has a best WTA doubles ranking of No. 113, set on 2 November 2015. Webley-Smith has won four singles titles and 26 doubles titles on the
ITF Circuit. She has also reached the second round of her home
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
,
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
* ...
, on one occasion in
2004.
Personal life
Emily Webley-Smith was born in 1984 in
Thornbury,
Avon, which is now in
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...
. Her mother, Jane, is a PE teacher and her father, Mike, an amateur footballer and cricketer. She also has a sister named Hannah. Her first introduction to tennis was playing swingball in her garden and in the cricket grounds where her father was the club captain. She is coached by
Jeremy Bates.
Webley-Smith plays right-handed with a two-handed backhand. Her favorite surface is grass.
In her spare time of late, she plays on the
touchtennis
Touchtennis is a modified version of tennis played on a compact court with foam balls and shorter () rackets. It is regularly featured on Sky Sports and is growing in popularity and acceptance as an alternative form of the full size game.
Forme ...
tour against amateurs and other professional tennis players for fun. Her highest ranking was No. 2 in 2011.
Injury problems
Problems with Webley-Smith's right ankle began in 2002 when she broke it whilst on court competing in the qualifying tournament for the $25k
ITF Circuit event in Cardiff and underwent surgery to repair both the bone and the damage caused to the ligaments. She was unable to compete on the tour for six months.
In November 2003, she needed a second operation on her ankle to remove cartilage which had come loose; an operation which was successful and enabled Emily to play injury-free tennis for almost two years.
However, she had to take yet more time out later in 2005 when she began experiencing sharp pains in the same ankle while warming up for an ITF tournament in Puebla, Mexico. She had treatment on the ankle again and returned, with limited success, to competitive tennis in spring 2006 before having surgery for a third time to remove fluid from her ankle.
She began recovering well before
septicaemia
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
left her unable to walk for five weeks. Webley-Smith said of the time, ''"My ankle was the size of a football. I remember the doctor trying to take my sock off and I was screaming. I was taking what they call an 'elephant dose' of antibiotics and the strongest painkillers they could give me"''. She returned full-time to the circuit in August 2006.
In 2009, she also began to have trouble with her wrist after injuring it during an ITF event in Tanjung Selor in Indonesia, just a number of weeks before
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
* ...
. It recovered well enough in time for Webley-Smith to compete in the Wimbledon qualifying rounds however she reaggravated the injury later in the year and was unable to compete again until February 2010.
Career
Junior (1998–2002)
Webley-Smith played her first junior ITF tournament in February 1998 and her last in July 2002. Over her junior career in singles, she reached a total of four quarterfinals, two semifinals and the final of the "Slazenger Appletise Winchester Junior Tournament". She competed at
Wimbledon juniors a total of four times; in
1999,
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
and
2001 she lost in the qualifying stages but in
2002 she reached the second round of the main draw. Her career-high singles ranking was world No. 119 (reached on 29 April 2002) and her win–loss record was 31–31.
In doubles, she won three tournaments, was a runner-up in another and also reached one semifinal and seven quarterfinals. Her doubles win–loss record was 22–27 and her career-high ranking was world No. 95 (achieved on 30 July 2001).
1999–2002
Webley-Smith played her first match on the
ITF Women's Circuit
The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players.
History
It serves as a developmental ...
in October 1999, a match which she lost 0–6, 0–6 against
Melanie Schnell
Melanie Schnell (born 22 February 1977) is a former professional tennis player from Austria.
Biography
Schnell, a right-handed player from Radstadt, began competing on tour in 1993. She made her grand slam main draw debut at the 1995 Wimbledon C ...
from Austria. It was her only professional match in 1999.
In
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
, she played a total of six tournaments. She lost in the qualifying rounds of four $10k events in Great Britain (Bournemouth, Frinton, Hatfield and Sunderland), lost in the first round of another (in Glasgow) and was also beaten in the first round of the $25k event in Felixstowe by fellow Brit
Jane O'Donoghue
Jane O'Donoghue (born 29 March 1983) is a retired British tennis player who turned professional in 2000 and played her last match on the pro circuit in 2007. During her career, she won three ITF singles and six ITF doubles titles. In July 2006 ...
, 4–6, 3–6.
The
2001 season began well for Webley-Smith as in her very first tournament of the year she qualified and reached the quarterfinals of the $10k event in Jersey before being beaten by
Anne Keothavong
Anne Viensouk Keothavong (born 16 September 1983) is a retired British tennis player. During her career, she won a total of 28 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 48 (achieved on 23 Febru ...
, 6–3, 7–6. But she was unable to show this form for the rest of the year, losing in the qualifying stages in every other tournament she entered with the exception of the $10k Sunderland event where she was defeated again by Keothavong, 6–3, 6–4. She also played in the main draw of her final ITF tournament of the year as a
lucky loser
A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw, usually when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness, injury ...
but was again beaten in round one. She ended the year ranked 712.
Webley-Smith had a varied year in
2002, with limited success on the ITF Circuit but also her first appearance in a
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournament 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
* ...
where she lost in the first round of qualifying to
Nina Dübbers
Nina Dübbers (born 24 June 1980) is a former German 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 r ...
, 1–6, 2–6. She only reached one quarterfinal in 2002, at the $10k London event in August. In October, Emily broke her ankle during a qualifying match for a $25k event in Cardiff and did not compete again that season. Nevertheless, her year-end world ranking rose to world No. 673.
2003
Webley-Smith played her first professional match since breaking her ankle in 2002 in April at the qualifying event for the $10k tournament in Bournemouth where she lost in the second round. In May, she reached two consecutive quarterfinals of $10k events in Spain: Monzón and Almeira. In June, for the first time in her career, she was given a
wildcard
Wild card most commonly refers to:
* Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games
* Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...
into the
DFS Classic
The Birmingham Classic (currently sponsored by Rothesay Pensions) is a 250-level women's tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held at the Edgbaston Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Held at this location since 1982, the tournam ...
qualifying draw, a Tier-III tournament in Birmingham where she was beaten by
Bethanie Mattek
Bethanie Mattek-Sands ( Bethanie Lynn Mattek; born March 23, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. She has won nine Grand Slam titles (five in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles), and an Olympic gold medal, and is a former w ...
in straight sets, 6–3, 6–4. She then received another wildcard into
Wimbledon qualifying and again lost her first round match, 2–6, 1–6, to Sada Noorlander. Two more consecutive quarterfinal appearances in ITF tournaments immediately followed this, Waco, Texas ($10k) and Vancouver ($25k), and one more in August in a $10k event in London. She ended the year with a singles ranking of world No. 469.
2004
2004 started slowly for Webley-Smith; she won only two of her first ten matches on the ITF Circuit. However, in March she reached the quarterfinals of the $10k tournament in Patras before losing to
Ekaterina Dzehalevich
Ekaterina Dzehalevich ( be, Кацярына Міхайлаўна Дзегалевіч; russian: Екатерина Михайловна Деголевич; born 3 May 1986) is a former professional Belarusian tennis player. Her career-high singl ...
, 2–6, 0–6. In this same tournament, she reached the doubles final partnering compatriot, Chantal Coombs, and lost to
Martina Müller and
Vladimíra Uhlířová
Vladimíra Uhlířová (born 4 May 1978) is a retired Czech tennis player.
In her career, she won five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. In October 2003, she reached her best singles ranki ...
, 6–7, 3–6. Two months later, she reached two more ITF quarterfinals consecutively in Mérida, Yucatán and Surbiton. In June, she was given wildcards into the qualifying draws for the Tier-III Birmingham Classic and the
Eastbourne International
The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 2 ...
(Tier II), where she lost in the first and second rounds of qualifying, respectively.
This was immediately followed by another wildcard, this one into the main draw of
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 her first ever main-draw Grand Slam appearance, she managed to survive rain delays and defeat Frenchwoman
Séverine Beltrame
Séverine Beltrame (born 14 August 1979) is a retired tennis player from France. She was known as Séverine Brémond during her marriage to her coach, Eric Brémond, from September 2005 to November 2008, and then as Séverine Brémond-Beltrame ...
, in straight sets, to reach the second round
where she faced 31st seed
Amy Frazier
Amy Frazier (born September 19, 1972) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995 she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, while ...
. The final result did not go Webley-Smith's way though as she was defeated with a final score of 6–2, 3–6, 8–6. She spent the rest of the year on the ITF Circuit but did not progress past the second round in any tournament she played. Her year-end ranking for 2004 was 272.
2005
Webley-Smith began the
2005 season well on home ground by reaching the semifinals of the $10k tournament in Tipton where she had to retire during her semifinal match against fellow Briton,
Katie O'Brien
Katie Jill O'Brien (born 2 May 1986) is a British former professional tennis player from Beverley, Yorkshire. She was briefly the British No. 1 tennis player, and reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 84 on 1 February 2010. She w ...
. She continued competing on the ITF Circuit for the first half of the year and reached the quarterfinal stages in two more $10k tournaments, in Tampico, Tamaulipas and Ho Chi Minh City. In June, she was given a wildcard into the qualifying draw for the Tier III tournament, the
DFS Classic
The Birmingham Classic (currently sponsored by Rothesay Pensions) is a 250-level women's tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held at the Edgbaston Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Held at this location since 1982, the tournam ...
where she lost in the first round of the qualifying event. This was followed by a wildcard into the qualifying draw of
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
* ...
where she was also beaten in the first round, by
Meilen Tu
Meilen Tu (traditional Chinese: 涂美倫, simplified Chinese: 涂美伦, Hanyu Pinyin: ''Tú Měilún'') (born January 17, 1978) is a retired professional tennis player from the U.S. She has won one WTA Tour singles title, four WTA Tour doubles ...
, 7–5, 6–3. She reached only one more ITF semifinal that year, in the $25k event in Lagos where she lost, 2–6, 4–6, to Anne Keothavong. Her year-end ranking for 2005 was world No. 385.
2006
She spent much of the
2006 season out of action due to suffering from
septicaemia
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
as a result of her long-term ankle problems which began in 2002. She was forced to retire in only her second match of the year in February and was unable to compete again until August when she reached the semifinals of an
ITF tournament in London and the quarterfinals a tournament in Istanbul. She was beaten by compatriot
Naomi Cavaday
Naomi Kathleen Cavaday (born 24 April 1989) is a British former professional tennis player from Sidcup, Kent. She retired in April 2011 to take up a coaching role with the Lawn Tennis Association. At the time of her retirement, she was the Br ...
in either the first or second round in three out of four consecutive $25k tournaments in September, October and November that year. As a result of her injury problems, Webley-Smith's final ranking of the year fell to No. 713.
2007
She spent the first three months competing in lower
ITF tournaments. In April, Webley-Smith was a semifinalist in Obregón in Mexico and in May she reached two quarterfinals in Mazatlán and Irapuato, both also in Mexico. She was awarded a wildcard into the qualifying draw of
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
* ...
where she lost in the first round, 2–6, 3–6, to
Jenifer Widjaja
Jenifer Widjaja (born 7 December 1986) is a former professional tennis player from Brazil.
Biography
Widjaja, a right-handed player, is originally from São Roque near the city of São Paulo and is of Indonesian descent.
Coached by her father ...
. She reached only one more quarterfinal that year, in Wrexham. Her year-end ranking was world No. 595.
2008
The circuit started slowly for Webley-Smith as she began the season with four consecutive losses. However, in July she reached the quarterfinals of an
ITF event in Atlanta and then immediately went on to reach two consecutive finals in Evansville, Indiana and Saint Joseph, Missouri. In late September and early October, she reached two more $25k quarterfinals and just a few weeks later she reached two consecutive ITF semifinals: in Port Pirie ($25k) where she was beaten by
Melanie South
Melanie Jayne South (born 3 May 1986) is a former English tennis player.
She won six singles and 24 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 2 February 2009, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 99. On 9 March 2009, she peaked at No. ...
, 6–1, 6–4, and in Muzaffarnagar where she lost to
Sanaa Bhambri
Sanaa Bhambri ( hi, सना भाम्बरी; born 7 March 1988) is a former professional tennis player from India. Her highest doubles ranking is world No. 298, which she achieved October 2005. She won one $25k doubles event at Lagos, N ...
, 0–6, 0–6. She reached the quarterfinals of the $50k event in Kolkata in November and finished the season ranked world No. 475.
2009
In February 2009, Webley-Smith returned to the
ITF Circuit and in March she won the first singles title of her career in Spain by beating Elena Chalova in the final, 6–0, 7–6. She then headed to Indonesia for a series of three tournaments but in the third of these she injured her wrist and was forced to retire in round one. Returning to the tour in mid-June, Webley-Smith was given a wildcard into the qualifying tournament at
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
where she lost 0–6, 6–7 to
María José Martínez Sánchez
María José Martínez Sánchez (; born 12 August 1982) is a Spanish retired professional tennis player. In singles, she has won five WTA singles titles, her biggest being a Premier 5 title at the 2010 Italian Open where she defeated two form ...
. A second consecutive wildcard allowed her entry into qualifying for
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
* ...
, where she lost in the first round to
Gréta Arn
Gréta Arn (born 13 April 1979) is a Hungarian retired tennis player of Danube Swabian German descent.
She has won two titles on the WTA Tour, the 2007 Estoril Open in Portugal, and the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, as well as ...
. In August, she reached two ITF tournament finals, winning the first to give her the second title of her career and losing the other. Webley-Smith spent the rest of the season competing in Australia and reached two $25k quarterfinals before reinjuring her wrist in November. Her year-end ranking was 332.
2011
In the spring, Webley-Smith made her first $50k singles final in Gifu, Japan, where she finished runner-up to
Sachie Ishizu
Sachie Ishizu ( ja, 石津幸恵, Ishizu Sachie) is a former professional tennis player from Japan.
Tennis career
She was runner-up in the girls' singles event of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships and reached a highest ranking of No. 5 on the ...
.
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 12 (4 titles, 8 runner–ups)
Doubles: 54 (26 titles, 28 runner–ups)
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
References
External links
*
*
LTA Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webley-Smith, Emily
1984 births
Living people
British female tennis players
People from Thornbury, Gloucestershire
Tennis people from Gloucestershire
English female tennis players
People educated at The Red Maids' School