Sunitha Rao (born October 27, 1985) is an American former 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 cov ...

player, who represented India in international tournaments. She won eight doubles titles on the ITF Circuit in her career. On July 7, 2008, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 144. On May 19, 2008, she peaked at No. 108 in the doubles rankings. Playing for

India Fed Cup team The India Billie Jean King Cup team represents India in the WTA & ITF Billie Jean King Cup professional tennis competition and are governed by the All India Tennis Association. They will compete in the Asia/Oceania Zone of Group I in 2016. ...

, she has a win–loss record of 5–6. Rao also is the fourth female tennis player in history representing India to enter the top-200 world rankings, after

Nirupama Sanjeev Nirupama Sanjeev (''née'' Vaidyanathan; born 8 December 1976) is an Indian former professional tennis player. In the 1998 Australian Open, Sanjeev became the second Indian woman (after Nirupama Mankad) in the Open era to feature in a majo ...

Shikha Uberoi Shikha Devi Uberoi (born 5 April 1983) is an Indian-American former professional tennis player, who formerly represented India in international tournaments and a former Indian No. 1. After Nirupama Sanjeev. She is also the second Indian female ...

, and

Sania Mirza Sania Mirza (; born 15 November 1986) is an Indian professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she has won six major titles – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles ...

Personal life

Rao was born in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Career

2002–2007

Rao played her first

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 ...

match at the 2002 Brasil Open, where she defeated Vanessa Henke in the first round. She was beaten by Anastasia Myskina in the second round. Rao played at the 2004 Korea Open where she was beaten by

Miho Saeki (born 18 March 1976) is a retired Japanese tennis player, winner of professional tournaments in doubles and singles, and a representative of Japan for the Federation Cup. Career Saeki's career began officially in April 1994. As a junior finale, ...

in the first round. Rao participated at the 2005 Internationaux de Strasbourg, but was overpowered by

Iveta Benešová Iveta Benešová () (formerly Melzer, cs, Melzerová; born 1 February 1983) is a Czech former tennis player. She began playing tennis at age of seven and turned professional in 1998. She won two WTA Tour singles and 14 doubles tournaments, and ...

in the first round. Then she played at the

Sunfeast Open The Sunfeast Open was an annual Women's Tennis Association, WTA Tour tennis tournament that was started in Kolkata in 2005. The event was a Tier III-tournament with a prize money of USD 175,000 and was played on indoors greenset. The fourth ed ...

where she beat

Neha Uberoi Neha Uberoi, also known by her married name Neha Uberoi Khangoora (born 6 February 1986), is an American former professional tennis player and fitness blogger. On 29 January 2007, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 196. On 22 M ...

in the first round before falling to

Elena Likhovtseva Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva (russian: Елена Александровна Лиховцева ; born 8 September 1975) is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together ...

. She took part at the 2006

Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic The Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic was a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held in Bali, Indonesia in 2007 and 2008. During the period 1994–2006 it was known as Wismilak International, organized successively in Surabaya (1994–1997), Kuala Lu ...

, where she lost to

Angelique Widjaja Angelique Widjaja (; born 12 December 1984) is a retired Indonesian professional tennis player. She won the junior championships at Wimbledon in 2001, defeating Dinara Safina. She reached a peak of No. 55 in the WTA singles rankings in March 2 ...

in the first round. She also suffered a first-round defeat at the 2006 Sunfeast Open to

Nicole Pratt Nicole Pratt (born 5 March 1973) is a retired tennis player from Australia. Pratt was born in Mackay, Queensland. She is the middle sibling of five children of cane farmers and was taught to play by her father, George, who was a top junior pl ...

. Rao defeated

Sandy Gumulya Sandy Gumulya (born 2 April 1986) is an Indonesian former tennis player and the older sister of Beatrice Gumulya, also a professional tennis player. Career Sandy made her debut as a professional in July 2000, aged 14, at an ITF tournament i ...

in the first round of the 2007 Sunfeast Open to advance to the second round where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She then lost in the first round of the 2007 Challenge Bell to Alina Jidkova.

2008

Rao received an entry into the

PTT Pattaya Open The Thailand Open (also known as PTT Pattaya Open) was a women's tennis tournament held in Pattaya, Thailand. Held since 1991, this WTA Tour event was classified as an International Series tournament and was played on hardcourts. The event was ...

via a lucky loser spot. She beat

Junri Namigata is a Japanese professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA singles ranking is 105, which she reached in February 2011. Her career-high doubles ranking is 101, achieved May 2015. Early life and amateur career Namigata was born in Koshigaya ...

before losing to Ekaterina Bychkova. Then, at the Copa Colsanitas, she lost to Edina Gallovits in the first round. Rao received the best result of her WTA career at the 2008 DFS Classic in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. She beat

Petra Kvitová Petra Kvitová, OLY ( , ; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 29 career singles titles, including two major titles at Wimbledon in 2011 and ...

(who would be the future world No. 2 and Wimbledon titlist) in the first round and Naomi Cavaday in the second before falling to

Alona Bondarenko Alona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko Dyachok ( uk, Альона Володимирівна Бондаренко; born 13 August 1984) is a Ukrainian former tennis player. Her younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko plays on the WTA Tour. Her career-high s ...

in the third round. She partnered with

, representing India in the women's doubles event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. They got a walkover in round one, but lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova and

Dinara Safina Dinara Mubinovna Safina (; ; tt-Cyrl, Динара Мөбин кызы Сафина; born April 27, 1986) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis player. Safina was runner-up in singles at the 2008 French Open, 2009 Australian Open, and the ...

of Russia in round two. Rao announced retirement from tennis in 2009.

ITF finals

Singles (0–7)

Doubles (8–7)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Sunitha 1985 births Living people People from Jersey City, New Jersey Sportspeople from Bradenton, Florida Tennis people from Florida Tennis people from New Jersey American female tennis players Indian female tennis players Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players of India Indian-American tennis players American sportspeople of Indian descent American people of Indian Tamil descent American expatriates in India Babson College alumni 21st-century American women