Nicole Bradtke (née Provis) (born 22 September 1969) is a retired 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 from Australia.
Bradtke won three singles and nine doubles titles on the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tourna ...
. She reached the semifinals of the
1988 French Open
The 1988 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 23 May until 5 June. It was the 92nd staging of the French Open, and the second Grand ...
, and won a bronze medal in doubles at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
, partnering
Rachel McQuillan
Rachel McQuillan (born 2 December 1971) is a retired tennis player from Australia.
She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.Mark Woodforde
Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM (born 23 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of "The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge.
Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joined ...
. Bradtke reached career-high rankings of No. 24 in singles and No. 11 in doubles. She retired from professional tennis in 1997 after a shoulder injury.
Professional career
The young Nicole Provis (Bradtke) started playing tennis at the age of seven. Whilst still at school, she played her first professional tennis match in 1985, and made her debut at the Australian Open later that year. She found early success in mixed doubles, finishing runner-up at the
1987 Wimbledon Championships
The 1987 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 101st edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...
with
Darren Cahill
Darren Cahill (born 2 October 1965) is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from Australia. In addition, Cahill is a tennis analyst for the Grand Slam events on the US sports network ESPN and a coach with the Adidas Player Devel ...
.
Bradtke burst into prominence in 1988, when she made the semifinals of the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
as a relative unknown. She beat
Sybille Niox-Château,
Emmanuelle Derly
Emmanuelle Derly (born 30 April 1970) is a French former professional tennis player. In 1988, she was French Open girls’ doubles champion with Alexia Dechaume and was the runner-up in Wimbledon in the girls’ singles final, losing to Brenda ...
before defeating two seeded players,
Claudia Kohde-Kilsch
Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (''née'' Kohde; born 11 December 1963) is a former German tennis player and member of the Die Linke. During her tennis career, she won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won eight singles titles and a total of ...
and
Sylvia Hanika
Sylvia Hanika (born 30 November 1959) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. She is best remembered for finishing runner-up at the French Open in 1981, and for winning the Year End Championships in 1982. She was ranked as high as N ...
, as well as
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: four in singles, ...
(who had earlier beaten
Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
) before losing to
Natasha Zvereva
Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava ( be, Наталля Маратаўна Зверава; russian: Наталья Маратовна Зверева, Natalia Maratovna Zvereva; born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. ...
, despite holding two match points.
In early 1989, she reached the top 30, but failed to fulfill her early promise and quickly settled into the lower top 100 range, despite making further fourth rounds at the
1989 Australian Open
The 1989 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 77th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 through 29 January 1989.
Seniors
Men's s ...
and the
1990 French Open
The 1990 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 94th staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...
and winning her first title at home in Brisbane in 1992.
She then went on to great success in mixed doubles, winning both the
1992 Australian Open
The 1992 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne, Australia and was held from 13 through 26 January 1992. It was the 80th edition of the Australian Open and the first Grand Slam tourna ...
and the
1992 US Open with her partner,
Mark Woodforde
Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM (born 23 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of "The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge.
Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joined ...
; and women's doubles, earning a bronze medal at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
in Barcelona.
She enjoyed a minor resurgence in singles in 1993, winning her second tour title in Kuala Lumpur and reaching the fourth round of 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 ...
. She also earned her biggest career victory during that year, beating world No. 1
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
in a
Fed Cup tie. Bradtke later helped Australia to reach the final, where they lost to the Spanish team.
After playing only eight events in 1994, she dropped out of the top 100, before recovering in 1995, earning another big victory over
Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini (; born 16 May 1970) is an Argentine-Italian former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 ...
at the tournament in Berlin and returning to the top 40 in the world.
Bradtke retired after the
1997 Australian Open
The 1997 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 85th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 13 through 26 January 1997.
Prior to the ...
.
Personal life
She is married to
Mark Bradtke
Mark Robert Bradtke (born 27 September 1969) is an Australian retired professional basketball player who played mainly in Australia's National Basketball League, but also had a single stint in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the ...
, a former Australian professional basketball player, since 1994. Together they have two boys, Austin (born 2000) and Jensen (born 2004), and run an indoor sports centre in Melbourne. She previously served as a coach for the Australian Fed Cup team, as well as undertaking private coaching. She has worked with fellow Australians
Samantha Stosur
Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...
and
Alicia Molik
Alicia Molik (born 27 January 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 6.
Molik won a bronze medal in singles for Australi ...
. In 2007, she joined the National High Performance Academy team.
Her sister Natasha is married to
Todd Woodbridge
Todd Andrew Woodbridge, OAM (born 2 April 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster with the Nine Network.
Woodbridge is best known for his successful Doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde (n ...
, making him her brother-in-law.
Her eldest son Austin was selected by the
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...
as a category B rookie and will join the club from 2019.
Grand Slam finals
Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runners-up)
WTA career finals
Singles (3–1)
Doubles (9–4)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles (4–0)
Doubles (0–1)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradtke, Nicole
1969 births
Living people
Australian female tennis players
Australian Open (tennis) champions
Hopman Cup competitors
Olympic bronze medalists for Australia
Olympic tennis players of Australia
Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia)
Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olympic medalists in tennis
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Tennis players from Melbourne
Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Australian Open (tennis) junior champions
20th-century Australian women
People educated at Mentone Girls' Grammar School