Julie Pullin (born 5 November 1975), now Julie Hobbs, is a retired British

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 who turned professional in 1993. She won eight singles titles and 25 doubles titles on the ITF circuit, many with compatriot Lorna Woodroffe. She is most well known for receiving nine wild cards over her career for the ladies' singles at Wimbledon, but failing to win a match. She reached her career-high WTA singles ranking of 125 in April 2000, after she achieved her best performance in a Grand Slam championship, qualifying and reaching the second 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 Ope ...

for the first time. Pullin had defeated Slovak 15th seed Martina Suchá in the first round of qualifying 6–4, 7–5, Gloria Pizzichini 6–4, 6–0 in the second and American

Samantha Reeves Samantha Reeves (born January 17, 1979) is an American former professional tennis player. Her best results in singles have been reaching the quarterfinals at Hawaii (2002), Bahia and Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec) ...

in the final round 6–2, 7–6. She defeated another American,

Jane Chi Jane Chi (; born June 21, 1974) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Early career Chi was born in El Paso, Texas, to parents Steven and Ling. At the age of 11 she started playing tennis and after graduating from hig ...

, 6–1, 6–3 in the first round proper, before narrowly losing to Chinese wild card Yi Jing-Qian, 3–6, 6–2, 7–9. It was the only tournament where Pullin won a main-draw Grand Slam match in singles. She reached the second round of the Wimbledon ladies' doubles tournament once in 2000, with Woodroffe, beating

Dawn Buth Dawn Alexis Buth (born May 29, 1976) is an American former college and professional tennis player. As a collegiate player, she played for the University of Florida and won two national doubles championships. As a professional, she played on the I ...

and Julie Scott 6–4, 6–1, before losing to the 14th seeded Anke Huber and

Barbara Schett Barbara Schett Eagle (; born 10 March 1976) is an Austrian former professional tennis player, who reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 7 in September 1999. Between 1993 and 2004 she played in 48 matches for the Austria Fed Cup team, ...

in the second round. Julie Pullin announced her retirement in 2003, after playing her last professional singles match in the first round at Wimbledon, losing 1–6, 3–6 to Lina Krasnoroutskaya.

Personal life

Pullin was born in

Cuckfield Cuckfield ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, on the southern slopes of the Weald. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby tow ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

to her father Alan and her tennis coach mother Andrea. She has two brothers, Roger and Keith, and a sister, Vicki. She was coached during her career by

Leighton Alfred Leighton Alfred (born 27 August 1962) is a British tennis coach and former professional player. As a coach he has worked with many British tennis players, including Dan Evans (tennis), Dan Evans. A left-handed player from Wales, Alfred competed ...

. Her married name is now Hobbs, and under that name she is now the head coach at the Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club in Brighton.

WTA career finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

ITF finals

Singles: 18 (8–10)

Doubles: 46 (27–19)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pullin, Julie British female tennis players Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics 1975 births Living people Olympic tennis players for Great Britain English female tennis players