Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (''née'' Kohde; born 11 December 1963) 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 racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player and member of the

Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

. During her tennis career, she won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won eight singles titles and a total of 25 doubles titles.

Personal life

Kohde-Kilsch was born Claudia Kohde in Saarbrücken, but added the hyphenated "-Kilsch" to her name which came from her adoptive father Jürgen Kilsch, an attorney. She has a younger sister, Katrin. She began playing tennis aged 5, and was soon a rising junior player. Kohde-Kilsch campaigned for

Oskar Lafontaine Oskar Lafontaine (; born 16 September 1943) is a German politician. He served as Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998, and was federal leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1995 to 1999. He was the lead candid ...

at the 2012 Saarland state election. With the party winning over 16% of the vote, it was announced that as of 1 May 2012 she would become the new spokesperson for the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...

parliamentary group. She currently lives in

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, a ...

with her partner and her son Fynn from her previous marriage with the singer Chris Bennett, from whom she divorced in 2011. Bennett died in 2018. The couple operated CeKay Music, a music publishing house and production company.

Career

Kohde-Kilsch turned professional on 1 January 1980, and by 1981, she had defeated Martina Navratilova in Oakland. In 1982, she captured the title at Pittsburgh, and in 1984, she triumphed at the German Open, defeating

Kathleen Horvath Erica Kathleen "Kathy" Horvath (born August 25, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. She is best known for upsetting world No. 1 Martina Navratilova in the fourth round of the 1983 French Open, delivering her only defeat for th ...

of the United States, 7–6, 6–1. In 1985, she reached the Australian Open and French Open semifinals as well as won in Los Angeles. Later that year, she defeated Navrátilová in the quarterfinals at the Canadian Open, eventually losing to

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 ...

, 2–6, 4–6 in the final. In 1987, she again reached the finals of the German Open, where she lost to

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, ...

2–6, 3–6. In women's doubles, Kohde-Kilsch and Helena Suková won the 1985 US Open and 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 ...

. Between 1984 and 1987, Kohde-Kilsch and Suková, sometimes referred to as the "twin towers" for their height, won 14 doubles tournaments. At the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, she partnered with Steffi Graf in the doubles competition, and they won the bronze medal in the event.

Major finals

Grand Slam tournaments

Women's doubles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runners-up)

Olympics

Doubles: 1 bronze medal

Graf and Kohde-Kilsch lost in the semifinals to Jana Novotná and Helena Suková 5–7, 3–6. In 1988, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semifinal pairs received bronze medals.

Year-end championships

Doubles: 5 runners-up

WTA career finals

Singles: 16 (8–8)

Doubles: 64 (25–39)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohde-Kilsch, Claudia 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Saarbrücken Sportspeople from Saarland German female tennis players West German female tennis players German expatriates in Monaco Olympic tennis players of West Germany Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for West Germany Olympic medalists in tennis US Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles The Left (Germany) politicians 21st-century German politicians Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics 21st-century German women