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2003 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Serena Williams defeated her sister Venus Williams in the final, 7–6(7–4), 3–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2003 Australian Open. It was her first Australian Open singles title and fourth consecutive major singles triumph, completing the "Serena Slam", both a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam. It was Venus' record fourth consecutive runner-up finish at a major, losing every final to Serena. Serena saved two match points en route to the title, against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals (where at one point in the third set Serena was 1–5 down). Jennifer Capriati was the two-time defending champion, but lost to Marlene Weingärtner in the first round. Capriati's loss marked the first time the defending Australian Open champion lost in the first round, and the first time at any major that the defending champion lost in the first round since Steffi Graf at the 1994 Wimbledon Championships. With Lindsay Davenport's defeat in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks (List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, third-most of all time), and finished as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Year-end No. 1 players, year-end No. 1 five times. Williams won 73 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including 23 Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major women's singles titles — the most in the Open Era, and the All-time tennis records – women's singles#Grand Slam singles totals, second-most of all time. She is the only player to accomplish a Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Golden Slam, career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Along with her elder sister Venus Williams, Venus, Serena Williams was coached by her parents Oracene Price and Richard Williams (tenn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including five major titles, as well as the 2004 WTA Tour Championships. She is one of ten women to achieve the Career Grand Slam in singles. A teen sensation, Sharapova broke through to the top of the sport by winning the 2004 Wimbledon Championships as a 17-year-old, upsetting two-time defending champion Serena Williams. She then won the 2004 Tour Finals, and became the world No. 1 for the first time in August 2005 at the age of 18, the first Russian woman to top the singles rankings. Continued success over the following years, including titles at the 2006 US Open – Women's singles, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open – Women's singles, 2008 Australian Open, was accompanied by recurring injuries, and Sharapova dip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandra Stevenson
Alexandra Winfield Stevenson (born December 15, 1980) is an American former professional tennis player. At four years old, Alexandra began learning tennis technique from Angel Lopez at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club. Lopez would continue to coach Alexandra through her professional career. Early life and education Stevenson's mother is Samantha Stevenson, a sports journalist. Her father is former National Basketball Association player Julius Erving. Erving was married when he met Samantha Stevenson, and Alexandra Stevenson was conceived as a result of an affair. Alexandra Stevenson met her father for the first time October 2008 after she initiated a meeting. The meeting was documented by ESPN.com's "Reaching Out". Stevenson keeps up with her father between tournaments. Stevenson graduated from the University of Colorado in December 2007, with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, Sociology. She graduated on the Dean's List and is the only final-eight member to have graduated from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Smashnova
Anna Aleksandrovna Smashnova (, ; born July 16, 1976) is a Soviet-born Israeli former tennis player. She retired from professional tour after Wimbledon 2007. Smashnova reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 15 in 2003. She reached 13 finals, and won 12 of them. In addition, she won a junior Grand Slam title, the 1991 French Open girls' singles championship. Early life Smashnova, born in Minsk, is of Russian-Jewish descent. Her father Sasha is an engineer, and her mother is Zina. She has a brother, Yura, who is a software analyst. Smashnova graduated from American International High School outside Tel Aviv in 1995. She completed her service in the Israel Defense Forces in 1997. Her family immigrated to Israel in September 1990, after Freddy Krivine, one of the founders of the Israel Tennis Centers, invited her to immigrate. Tennis career Smashnova began playing tennis when she was six. She became the No. 1 junior in the Soviet Union at the age of ten. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978) Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss retired tennis player. A former top 10 player in singles, she twice defeated a reigning List of WTA number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 player in her career: Martina Hingis at the 1998 Grand Slam Cup (by retirement) and Jennifer Capriati at the Family Circle Cup in 2002. In addition, she has notable wins over such former No. 1 players as Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Ana Ivanovic, and Caroline Wozniacki. In her career, she reached six Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam singles quarterfinals and one major singles semifinal. She won eleven WTA Tour singles titles including Zurich Open (Tier I), and five WTA doubles titles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magdalena Maleeva
Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva (, ; born 1 April 1975) is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles. Early life Born in Sofia, Maleeva is the youngest of the three children of Yuliya Berberyan and Georgi Maleev. Yuliya, who came from a prominent Armenian family which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, was one of the best Bulgarian tennis players in the 1960s. After she retired from professional tennis in the 1970s, Berberyan started on a coaching career. She trained all of her three daughters, Magdalena, Katerina and Manuela, each of whom eventually became WTA top six players. Career Juniors In 1988, Maleeva became the youngest ever national tennis champion of Bulgaria, at the age of 13 years and four months. She turned professional in 1989, reaching ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 No. 1s Serena Williams and Martina Hingis. In doubles, she won the 1996 Australian Open with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and alongside Sandrine Testud, were runners-up at the 1999 US Open. She is also known to have played at the very first official match of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, at the 1997 US Open, in which she faced Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and lost in two sets. Early life and family Rubin was born to Edward D. Rubin, a state judge in Louisiana, and Bernadette Fontenot Rubin. She was the middle child of three siblings. As a child, she was taught the sport of tennis by Nehemiah Atkinson. She married Mireyou Hollier in April 2015, and their daughter was born in October 2016. In early 2016, her younger brother, Edward Rubin Jr. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anastasia Myskina
Anastasia Andreyevna Myskina ( ; born 8 July 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Myskina won the 2004 French Open singles title, becoming the first Russian woman to win a major singles title. Due to this victory, she rose to No. 3 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, becoming the first Russian woman to reach the top 3 in the history of the rankings. In September 2004, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 2. Tennis career 1999–2001 Myskina was born in Moscow and turned professional in 1998, the year in which she broke into the WTA top 500. She won her first WTA title in Palermo in only her second appearance in the main draw of a WTA Tour tournament. She made her debut in a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open and the Fed Cup (playing doubles). In 2000, Myskina scored first career top-20 victory over No. 17 Barbara Schett en route to the Sopot semifinal. She debuted at Roland Garros (which she would later win) and Wimbledon. She played in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Open, defeating Martina Hingis in the final and becoming the lowest-ranked player to ever win the tournament. She also reached the quarterfinals of that year's 2002 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, Wimbledon Championships and 2002 US Open – Women's singles, US Open, ending the year in the top ten. She was part of the Slovak team that won the 2002 Fed Cup and the 2005 Hopman Cup. Hantuchová reached her highest ranking of world No. 5 in January 2003, after playing the quarterfinals of the 2003 Australian Open – Women's singles, Australian Open. She has won seven WTA Tour tournaments, including the Indian Wells Open for a second time in 2007 Pacific Life Open – Women's singles, 2007, with the 2015 PTT Thailand Open – Singles, 2015 Thailand Ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Justine Henin
Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in 2003 WTA Tour, 2003, 2006 WTA Tour, 2006 and 2007 WTA Tour, 2007. Henin won 43 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including seven Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, majors (four at the French Open, two at the US Open (tennis), US Open and one at the Australian Open), as well as an Olympic gold medal at the Tennis at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's singles, 2004 Athens Games and two WTA Finals, Tour Finals titles. Coming from a country with little success in the sport, Henin helped establish Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis alongside Kim Clijsters, leading it to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001 Fed Cup World Group, 2001. Henin was known for her all-court style of play and for being one of the few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. 11 in May 2002. Farina-Elia won her first ITF title at Caltagirone in 1991 and her first WTA tournament at Strasbourg in 2001. She made her debut Grand Slam appearance at the 1991 French Open and was coached by husband Francesco Elia, whom she married September 1999. Career Farina-Elia made steady progression on the ITF circuit during the early 1990s and finished her first year in the top 100 in 1991. She completed her first victory over a top ten player ( Gabriela Sabatini, Roland Garros) in 1994 and won her first doubles title the next year. In 1996, she represented Italy at the Atlanta Olympics. 1998 was considered her breakthrough year, reaching the final of four tournaments and in the process securing a place in the year end top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flavia Pennetta
Flavia Pennetta (; born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, on 28 February 2011. She is a Grand Slam (tennis), major champion, having won the 2011 Australian Open – Women's doubles, 2011 Australian Open women's doubles title with Gisela Dulko, and the 2015 US Open – Women's singles, 2015 US Open singles title over childhood friend Roberta Vinci in the first all-Italian major final. Pennetta won ten other WTA Tour, WTA singles titles, including the 2014 BNP Paribas Open – Women's singles, 2014 Indian Wells Open, where she defeated the top two seeds. She also was a mainstay in the Fed Cup team competition, helping Italy Fed Cup team, Italy win four titles in 2006 Fed Cup, 2006, 2009 Fed Cup, 2009, 2010 Fed Cup, 2010, and 2013 Fed Cup, 2013. Her other highlights in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
