Hana Mandlíková (born 19 February 1962) is a Czech–Australian former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. She was ranked world No. 3 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in the mid-1980s. Mandíková won 27 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including four

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

s: the 1980 Australian Open, 1981 French Open, 1985 US Open and 1987 Australian Open. She was the runner-up at a further four singles majors – twice at Wimbledon and twice at the US Open. She also won 19 career doubles titles, including a major in women's doubles at the 1989 US Open partnering

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

. Competing for Czechoslovakia and later Australia, Mandlíková was one of the brightest stars of her generation and is considered one of the greatest female players of the Open Era. She was inducted into the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...

in 1994. Mandlíková was ranked in the top 50 for twelve consecutive seasons (1978–89), including seven seasons ranked in the top 10. She led Czechoslovakia to three consecutive Federation Cup victories from 1983 to 1985, and was only the third woman to win Grand Slam titles on

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

(the Australian Open was a grass-court tournament until 1988),

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and

hardcourt A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the s ...

s, joining

Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...

and Martina Navratilova. She retired in 1990, and went on to coach Jana Novotná to the Wimbledon singles title and a career-high ranking of world No. 2. Mandlíková also served as the Czech Republic's Olympic and Fed Cup coach.

Early life

Born in Prague, Mandlíková is the daughter of Vilém Mandlík, who was an Olympic 200-metre semi-finalist for Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. He also competed in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Career

Junior

Mandlíková first came to the tennis world's attention as a junior. In 1978, the International Tennis Federation launched world junior rankings, and Mandlíková became the first female world No. 1 junior.

Professional

Mandlíková captured her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open in 1980, aged 18, defeating Australian

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, (born 26 November 1952) is an Australian retired tennis player. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runner-u ...

in straight sets in the final. Her second came the following year at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

with straight-sets wins over

in the semifinals and West German Sylvia Hanika in the final. Mandlíková was also runner-up at the US Open in 1980 and 1982 and at Wimbledon in 1981, losing in all three finals to Evert. From the 1980 US Open through to Wimbledon 1981, she made four consecutive Grand Slam singles final appearances. Mandlíková ended Chris Evert's 72-match winning streak on clay at the 1981 French Open. In 1983, Mandlíková led Czechoslovakia to the first of three consecutive Federation Cup titles. The following year, she defeated

in three sets in the final at Oakland, California, ending Navratilova's 54-match winning streak, two short of tying the record held by Evert at the time. Navratilova then embarked on a 74-match winning streak, a record that still stands. It was in April 1984 that Mandlíková first achieved her career-high world No. 3 ranking. At the 1985 US Open, Mandlíková became the first woman since Tracy Austin to defeat both Evert and Navratilova in the same tournament when she stopped top-seeded Evert in the semifinals and then second-seeded Navratilova in the three-set final. This victory in the final made her only the third woman, after Evert and Navratilova, to win Grand Slam titles on grass, clay and hard court. The following year, Mandlíková teamed with Turnbull to win the women's doubles title at the WTA Tour Championships. In doing so, they defeated the top two teams at the time - Navratilova and Pam Shriver in the semifinals and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and Helena Suková in the final. Mandlíková and Turnbull were also runners-up to Navratilova and Shriver at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1986. Mandlíková also lost in the Wimbledon singles final that year to Navratilova. A high point of Mandlíková's European summer in 1986 was a win over Steffi Graf in the quarterfinals of the French Open. Graf had won four titles that season on clay with victories over Mandlíková, Evert, Navratilova, Kohde Kilsch, and Gabriela Sabatini, and held a match point in the second set of their quarterfinal before Mandlíková broke another winning streak. Graf had won her previous 23 matches. In 1987, Mandlíková won her fourth and final Grand Slam singles title when she conquered Navratilova in straight sets in the final of the Australian Open. With this victory, she once again ended a Navratilova winning run, this time after 56 matches. This was the last Australian Open played on grass. Mandlíková attained Australian citizenship in 1988, and her last consistent performance in a Grand Slam event was at the 1988 Australian Open, where, as the defending champion at the new hard court venue, she reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Graf. Injury problems Mandlíková had been experiencing for several years saw her year-end ranking for 1988 drop to 29, her lowest since 1978. She teamed with

Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upo ...

to represent Australia in the first edition of the Hopman Cup, reaching the final played on New Year's Day 1989, but losing to Czechoslovakia. In September she teamed with Navratilova to win the US Open women's doubles title, defeating Shriver and Mary Joe Fernández in the final. Mandlíková ended the 1989 season ranked 14 in the world. Ten years after her first Grand Slam victory, Mandlíková retired from the professional tennis tour in 1990 at age 28, having won 27 singles and 19 doubles titles. Her Federation Cup win-loss singles record is 34–6. Mandlíková is one of only 13 women during the Open Era to have reached the singles finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. During her professional career, Mandlíková was coached by former player Betty Stöve. Mandlíková was inducted into the

in 1994 and received the Hall of Fame ring in 2017.

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Personal life

Mandlíková married Czech-born Australian restaurateur Jan Sedlak at the Old Town Hall in Prague during 1986 Federation Cup. The couple divorced two years later, shortly after Mandlíková obtained Australian citizenship. In May 2001, she gave birth to twins Mark Vilém and Elizabeth Hana. Their father was a friend who was to have no role in their upbringing.

References

External links

Websites
hanamandlikova.com

Inside Hana's Tennis
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandlikova, Hana 1962 births Living people Australian female tennis players Australian Open (tennis) champions Australian tennis coaches Czech female tennis players Czechoslovak emigrants to Australia Czechoslovak female tennis players French Open champions Hopman Cup competitors International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Australian lesbian sportswomen Czechoslovak LGBTQ people Naturalised citizens of Australia Naturalised tennis players Tennis players from the Gold Coast, Queensland Tennis players from Prague US Open (tennis) champions Czech lesbians LGBTQ tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles French Open junior champions Sportswomen from Queensland 20th-century Australian sportswomen