Silvija Talaja (born 14 January 1978) is a Croatian former professional tennis player.
Talaja won two singles titles and one doubles title 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 tou ...
, as well as one singles title on the
ITF Circuit. On 29 May 2000, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 18.
In her career, Talaja defeated former world No. 1 players
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario,
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 ...
and other top-ten players such as
Conchita Martinez,
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also ...
,
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova (russian: Надежда Викторовна Петрова ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ...
,
Nathalie Tauziat,
Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova ( rus, Анна Сергеевна Курникова, p=ˈanːə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ˈkurnʲɪkəvə, a=Anna_kournikova.ogg; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player and American televisi ...
,
Chanda Rubin
Chanda Rubin (born February 18, 1976) is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world- ...
,
Barbara Schett and
Irina Spîrlea. A powerful, fast baseline player, her best Grand Slam results were third-round appearances at Roland Garros (twice) and Wimbledon (once). She also won a gold medal at the
1993 Mediterranean Games
The XII Mediterranean Games, commonly known as the 1993 Mediterranean Games, were the 12th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Languedoc-Roussillon, France, from 16 June to 27 June 1993, where 2,598 athletes (1,994 men and 604 women) fro ...
in doubles.
After 15 seasons on the tour (five of which she finished in the top 100), in 2006, Talaja married her long-time partner and retired from professional tennis.
Career
The early years
Talaja debuted at the age of 13, representing
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
at the ITF Belgrade in 1991 but lost in the first round in three tight sets to
Cătălina Cristea
Cătălina Cristea (born 2 June 1975) is a former tennis player from Romania. She was ranked No. 59 in singles (21 July 1997) and No. 40 in doubles (17 August 1998). She retired from professional tennis in September 2001, before returning in 20 ...
. She played further ten ITF tournaments in 1992, reaching one quarterfinal and one semifinal, as well as scoring her first top-100 win (defeated
Jenny Byrne
Jenny Byrne (born 25 February 1967) is a former tennis player from Australia who turned professional in 1987 and retired from the tour in 1997. Her career-high world rankings were world No. 45 in singles (in 1989) and world No. 27 in doubles ( ...
). In 1993, she qualified for a WTA tournament in Essen where she lost to top seed Sanchez-Vicario in the first round. She reached the second round at the WTA Palermo in 1994 and qualified for further three WTA tournaments in 1995 (Zagreb, Palermo and Vienna).
First WTA final
In March 1996, Talaja won her first ITF title at Makarska and soon after reached her first WTA Tour final at Bol (lost to
Gloria Pizzichini
Gloria Pizzichini (born 24 July 1975) is an Italian former tennis player.
On 18 November 1996, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 45. In the same year, she won her only WTA Tour title. In the 1996 "M" Electronika Cup final ...
). In August, she reached the semifinals of the WTA Vienna (l. to
Sandra Cecchini
Anna-Maria "Sandra" Cecchini (; born 27 February 1965) is a retired professional tennis player from Italy.
Career
Cecchini turned professional in 1984. She won 12 singles and 11 doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She had career wins over Chris Ev ...
) and quarterfinals at Prague (def.
Karina Habšudová
Karina Habšudová (; born 2 August 1973) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as 10 in the world (1997). Together with Karol Kučera, she won the Hopman Cup in 1998. Her best performance at a Grand Slam to ...
, l. to
Ruxandra Dragomir
Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie (born 24 October 1972) is a retired tennis player from Romania.
She won four singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour during her career. The right-hander reached her highest individual WTA ranking on 25 August 1997 ...
). In October the same year, she entered the top 100 for the first time.
In 1997, she debuted at a Grand Slam at the Australian Open (l. to ninth seed Habsudova in 1st round) and reached second round at Roland Garros. She reached the semifinals at Pattaya in 1998 (d.
Henrieta Nagyová
Henrieta Nagyová (born 15 December 1978) is a former tennis player from Slovakia.
She turned professional in 1994 and has been ranked as high as No. 21 in the world (17 September 2001). She won nine singles tournaments and four doubles tournam ...
in the 1st round, l. to
Li Fang) but played mostly on the ITF Circuit.
Entering top 50
At the 1999 Australian Open, Talaja lost to fifth seed
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...
7–9 in the third set, being two points away from victory. In May, she reached the semifinals at the Warsaw Open and then made it to third round at Roland Garros (d.
Chanda Rubin
Chanda Rubin (born February 18, 1976) is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world- ...
, l. to fourth seed
Jana Novotná
Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbl ...
in three sets). Talaja then reached her second WTA final at s-Hertogenbosch (l. to
Kristina Brandi
Kristina Brandi (born March 29, 1977) is a former Puerto Rican tennis player. She was the first tennis player representing Puerto Rico to win a singles match in an Olympic tennis tournament.
Some of Brandi's career highlights: She achieved her b ...
in three sets) and entered top 50 for the first time. The following month she reached another final, this time at WTA Vienna (l. to Habsudova in 3s). The following week, she reached the semifinals at WTA Sopot, again losing to Habsudova. In August, Talaja reached hear third semifinals of the season at WTA Brussels and in November her fourth semifinal at WTA Pattaya. On November 1999, she entered top 30 for the first time. In 1999, Talaja won career-best 32
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 tou ...
matches (going 18-9 on clay) and finished the season at No. 29.
Winning first WTA tournament
In January 2000, Talaja won the WTA Gold Coast, scoring three successive top-20 victories along the way (
Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova ( rus, Анна Сергеевна Курникова, p=ˈanːə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ˈkurnʲɪkəvə, a=Anna_kournikova.ogg; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player and American televisi ...
in quarterfinal, Sanchez-Vicario in semifinal and C. Martinez in final). At the German Open in Berlin, she lost to
Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis (, sk, Martina Hingisová; 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis is the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks a ...
in the third round, after having two set points in the first set. In May, Talaja won the her second WTA tournament of the year at the WTA Strasbourg (def. 7th ranked
Nathalie Tauziat in QF,
Nathalie Dechy
Nathalie Dechy (born 21 February 1979) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Dechy is a three-time doubles Grand Slam champion, winning the 2006 US Open women's doubles title with Vera Zvonareva, the 2007 French Open mixed doubl ...
in SF and
Rita Kuti-Kis
Rita Kuti-Kis (born 13 February 1978) is a former professional tennis player from Hungary.
In 1992, she was beaten by future international No. 1, Martina Hingis, in the Petits As competition, a juniors tournament at Tarbes, France which has b ...
in F). The following week, her ranking rose to her career-high at No. 18.
[ Later that year, Talaja reached the third round at Wimbledon (def. Irina Spîrlea and ]Mirjana Lučić-Baroni
Mirjana Lučić-Baroni (; ; born 9 March 1982) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. She enjoyed a meteoric rise on the WTA Tour in the late 1990s, during which she set several "youngest-ever" records. She captured the women's doubles ...
, l. to Hingis). In August, she reached the third round at the Du Maurier Open (def. Barbara Schett in the first round, her 6th top-20 victory of the year), but apart from the Sydney Olympics, failed to reach a second round at a tournament for the rest of the year. She finished her most successful season ranked at No. 30.
Injuries and come-back
At the 2001 Australian Open, Talaja defeated Alicia Molik 6–0, 6–0 but lost to Amanda Coetzer
Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971, in Hoopstad) is a South African former professional tennis player. Coetzer finished in the WTA rankings top 20 for ten consecutive seasons (1992–2001), peaking at world No. 3. She reached three Grand Slam ...
in the second round. She reached just one quarterfinal (at Gold Coast) and one semifinal (Porto) during the entire season (13 first-round losses). Struggling with injuries, Talaja dropped out of top 100 by the end of the year.
She started the 2002 season by reaching the semifinals at the Auckland Open (having gone through qualifications). She reached another semifinal at the Warsaw Open in May, and reached the finals of WTA Tokyo (def. 19th ranked Ai Sugiyama
is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles t ...
but l. to Jill Craybas
Jill N. Craybas (born July 4, 1974) is an American former professional tennis player.
From the 2000 US Open to the 2011 US Open, Craybas competed in 45 consecutive Grand Slam main draws; her best result coming in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships ...
after leading 4–0 in the third set). She finished the season at No. 75, having also reached quarterfinals at the WTA events in Pattaya and Memphis and the second round at Indian Wells and Scottsdale.
2003 was the final top-100 season of Talaja's career. She reached the quarterfinals four times (at Hyderabad, Bol, Estoril and Nordic Open where she def. 17th ranked Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
) and second round seven times, including at Indian Wells, Miami, Roland Garros and US Open. Her year-end ranking was No. 93.
Final years of her career
In 2004, Talaja reached quarterfinals just once (Korea Open) and played in the third round of the Pacific Open at Indian Wells (going through qualifying, ret. to Fabiola Zuluaga, and at the French Open (l. to Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
). In 2005, Talaja reached the second round of a WTA tournament three times (including Pacific Open) and finished her season at No. 200. She played just three tournaments in 2006 (losing all three matches in 1st round) and retired at the end of the year. In November 2007, she made a short come-back, playing at the $25k in Ismaning, Germany, but lost in the first round.
WTA career finals
Singles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)
Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)
ITF finals
Singles: 2 (1–1)
Best Grand Slam results details
Head-to-head records
* Anke Huber
Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired top-five professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Finals. Huber won twelve singles and one doubles title on the WTA ...
3–0
* Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis (, sk, Martina Hingisová; 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis is the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks a ...
3–0
* Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova ( rus, Анна Сергеевна Курникова, p=ˈanːə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ˈkurnʲɪkəvə, a=Anna_kournikova.ogg; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player and American televisi ...
0–1
* Dominique Monami 1–0
* Silvia Farina Elia
Silvia Farina Elia (; born 27 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. She won three WTA singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. ...
7–2
* 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) ...
1–0
* 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 ...
2–1
* Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Ol ...
2–1
* Elena Dementieva
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. ...
1–0
* Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
1–0
References
External links
*
*
* (Silvija Talaja's life after retirement)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talaja, Silvija
1978 births
Living people
Croatian female tennis players
Olympic tennis players of Croatia
Sportspeople from Imotski
Sportspeople from Makarska
Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Croatia
Mediterranean Games medalists in tennis
Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games