Karolina Šprem Baghdatis (born 25 October 1984) is a 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 from Croatia. She won eleven titles (ten singles), all at the
ITF level. Her highest ranking is world No. 17, achieved in October 2004.
Personal life
Karolina was born to Gabro and Božena Šprem in
Varaždin
Varaždin ( or ; , also known by #Name, alternative names) is a city in Northern Croatia, north-east of Zagreb. The total population is 46,946, with 38,839 in the city settlement itself (2011).
The city is best known for its baroque buildings, ...
, SFRY. She was introduced to tennis by her father at nine years of age. She turned professional in July 2001.
Šprem represented Croatia at the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
held in Athens where she reached the third round in singles and the second round in doubles (with
Jelena Kostanić).
On 14 July 2012, Šprem married
ATP player
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis (Greek language, Greek: Μάρκος Παγδατής, Arabic language, Arabic: ماركوس بغداتيس); born 17 June 1985 is a Greek Cypriot former professional tennis player and coach. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Aus ...
at
Trakošćan Castle
Trakošćan Castle (pronounced , or ''Dvorac Trakošćan'') is a castle located in northern Croatia (in Varaždin County) that dates back to the 13th century (although the first written mention of the toponym "Trakošćan" is dated to 1334).
Tr ...
in Croatia. At
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
, as a spectator for Baghdatis' match on centre court against
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...
, Šprem confirmed that she and Baghdatis were expecting their first child. Karolina gave birth to a girl, named Zahara, on 20 October 2012.
Professional career
2003–2006
Šprem displayed stunning results at the beginning of the 2003 season. Playing on the ITF Circuit, she had a record 29-match winning streak from January to March, which earned her four titles at Grenoble, Southampton, Redbridge and Castellón.
Later in the year, she went on to reach two
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...
-level finals in Strasbourg and Vienna. She also reached the semifinals of the WTA Tour event in Helsinki, and won the ITF event in Poitiers.
Šprem's career highlight came 2004 at Wimbledon, where she was a quarterfinalist. She defeated the then-two-time champion, four-time finalist and world No. 8,
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been 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 11 wee ...
, en route. Her run was ended by
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...
. The umpire of her match against Venus had awarded her an extra point in the second set tiebreak by mistake.
After Wimbledon, Karolina struggled to find her good form she had, losing early in many tournaments. She began training with Borna Bikić.
She rebounded at the Australian Open 2005, where she had a run to the fourth round. In September 2005, at the WTA event in
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
, India, she reached the final after a string of good wins. However, she lost the final to
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 ...
.
2007–2009

In late 2007, Šprem announced a permanent split from Bikic and returned to her old coach Ricardo Sanchez. She had to cope with a serious elbow injury, which needed surgery. She was out of the tour for 10 months.
In April 2008, she returned to the pro tour, winning in Amelia Island over
Ai Sugiyama
is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles ...
and top-10 player
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 Martin ...
, before falling to
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...
in the third round.
In July, Šprem made the semifinals of a Tier III event in Budapest.
In 2009, Karolina won three big ITF Circuit titles in Biberach, Torhout, and Mestre.
2010–2011
In 2010, she scored one of her biggest wins in years when she defeated 25th seed
Anabel Medina Garrigues
Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues (, ; born 31 July 1982) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player.
As a player she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 16 in 2009, and won 11 singles and 28 doubles titles, including the 2008 ...
at the
Australian Open
The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
.
During the Australian hard-court season in 2011, Karolina suffered a left-wrist injury, which forced her to stop competing. She tried playing in April at the tournament in Estoril, Portugal, but was unable to finish her first qualifying match against
Heather Watson
Heather Miriam Watson (born 19 May 1992) is a British professional tennis player. A former British No. 1, Watson has won nine titles over her career, including the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships – Mixed doubles, 2016 ...
. This confirmed that the injury was very serious. She has been out of the tour since, and is still recovering.
'Karolina & Marcos: It all started in Sydney'
''WTA'' (Retrieved 19 September 2012)
WTA career finals
Singles: 3 (3 runner-ups)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 14 (10–4)
Doubles (1–0)
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sprem, Karolina
1984 births
Living people
Croatian female tennis players
Olympic tennis players for Croatia
Sportspeople from Varaždin
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics