Michaëlla Krajicek (; born 9 January 1989) is a Dutch former
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 has won three singles and five doubles titles on the
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 ...
, as well as one
WTA 125 doubles title, and 14 titles in singles and 24 in doubles on the
ITF Women's Circuit
The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players.
History
It serves as a developmenta ...
. On 11 February 2008, she reached her highest
WTA singles ranking of world No. 30. On 23 March 2015, she peaked at No. 23 in the doubles rankings.
Personal life
Michaëlla Krajicek, born in
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
, is the younger half-sister of former world No. 4 and
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 ...
champion
Richard Krajicek
Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek (; born 6 December 1971) is a Dutch former professional tennis player and tournament director. Krajicek won 17 singles titles during his career, including the 1996 Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first (an ...
. She is therefore nicknamed ''Kleine Kraai'', which means "little crow" in Dutch ("kraai" is a Dutch
heterograph
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
of the Czech origin surname "Krajicek" and has long been Richard's nickname).
Austin Krajicek
Austin Krajicek ( ; born June 16, 1990) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 1 in doubles by the ATP in June 2023. He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 94 in October 2015.
A form ...
is her cousin.
An article in a Dutch newspaper with statements from the
Fed Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
captain
Manon Bollegraf
Manon Maria Bollegraf (born 10 April 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands, who was a quarterfinalist at the singles event of the 1992 French Open, a finalist in doubles at the 1997 Wimbledon Championships, and a fo ...
caused Krajicek to stop participating for the Dutch team. Bollegraf commented on Krajicek's relationship with her coach Allistair McCaw. In April 2010, Krajicek confirmed she was in a relationship with McCaw who started as her fitness coach in 2007. In 2011, she returned in the Fed Cup team, after having resolved her differences with Bollegraf.
She lives in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, Czech Republic, her parents' native homeland.
In September 2013, she started dating German doubles player
Martin Emmrich
Martin Emmrich (born 17 December 1984) is a retired professional tennis player and current professional pickleball player on the PPA tour who specialized in doubles & mixed. He participated primarily on the ATP World Tour. On 12 October 2009, ...
.
They met at the combined ATP/WTA event in Rosmalen that year. One year later in 2014 at the same tournament in Rosmalen, the two got engaged on 16 June, when Emmrich proposed to Krajicek on centre court after her first-round win against
Jana Čepelová
Jana Čepelová (; born 29 May 1993) is a Slovak former professional tennis player.
Čepelová won seven singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 12 May 2014, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 50. On 18 Ma ...
; they got married in July 2015. However, they separated in mid-2017 and announced their divorce via Twitter in May 2018.
Krajicek has two sons with her partner tennis player
Jelle Sels.
Career
Juniors (2002–2004)
In 2002, the 13-year-old Krajicek was included in the Dutch team for the Cesky Telecom World Junior Tennis final. She was the number-one-ranked junior player in Europe at the time. Krajicek led her country to victory over Poland in the final, winning both her singles and doubles matches en route to a 3–0 win for the Netherlands.
Krajicek won the first Grade-A tournament of 2003 (the Yucatán Cup in Mexico), making it her fourth victory in the seven tournaments she had entered. Her record stood at 33–3. Krajicek won her second Grade-A tournament at the Italian Open taking her to the No. 2 ranking in the world. At the French Open Krajicek lost in the semifinals to
Vera Douchevina and reached the final of the doubles with
Kateřina Böhmová, losing to Marta Fraga Pérez & Adriana González Peñas in straight sets. Prior to Wimbledon, Krajieck was expected to be one of the main challengers but she lost a three set match 6–8 in the third to
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Djambuliovna Chakvetadze ( ; born 5 March 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player.
In her career, Chakvetadze won eight WTA Tour singles titles. She reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 5 in September 2007, after r ...
, which ended at 8.50 pm. She got to her second successive Grand Slam junior doubles final with Böhmová, but they lost to scratch pairing Alisa Kleybanova & Sania Mirza in three sets. At the US Open, Krajicek was the favourite, alongside recent Wimbledon winner
Kirsten Flipkens. The draw went to form and they met in the final, with Flipkens winning 6–3, 7–5. Krajicek was in tears afterwards and said that she was happy to reach the final but blamed the loss on tiredness and inferior conditioning. In September, Krajicek was named in the Dutch Junior Fed Cup team, a competition the Netherlands had not won since 1990. Despite a persistent nosebleed which threatened her to retire in the semifinals Krajicek was undefeated throughout the tournament as the top-seeded Dutch team won, beating Canada 2–1 in the final. She needed a win in the final event of the year to end 2003 the No. 1 junior in the world but lost in the second round of the Orange Bowl International to Neha Uberoi. She ended the year ranked No. 2 behind Flipkens.
Krajicek had a knee injury at the beginning of 2004 and did not play until late February. At the French Open Krajicek & Böhmová finally won their first Grand Slam Junior Doubles title, beating
Irina Kotkina & Yaroslava Shvedova 6–3, 6–2. Krajicek had lost in the quarterfinals of the singles to Timea Bacsinszky 6–8 in the third set. At Wimbledon, Krajicek reached the semifinals of the singles and doubles, losing to eventual champion
Kateryna Bondarenko in the singles and alongside new doubles partner
Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er (, ; born ) is an Israeli retired tennis player.
Pe'er won five singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as four singles and three doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation, ITF circuit in her career ...
falling to
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
&
Olga Govortsova
Olga Alekseyevna Govortsova ( (Volha Alyakseyeuna Havartsova); ; born 23 August 1988) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. On 23 June 2008, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 35. On 29 August 2011, she peaked at No. 2 ...
. It was at this point that Krajicek started playing ITF tournaments on a regular basis.
After winning Satellite tournaments in Brussels in July and Koksijde in August, Krajicek built on these successes by finally winning her maiden singles Junior Grand Slam at the US Open. She beat Jessica Kirkland 6–1, 6–1 to go one step further than the previous year and become the first Dutch winner of the event in ten years (when
Sjeng Schalken
Sjeng Schalken (; born 8 September 1976) is a coach and a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands.
Playing style
A right-handed baseliner with a single-handed backhand, Schalken's game is characterised by his consistency of both ...
won the boys' in 1994). In October, Krajicek qualified for her first WTA Tour event in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
but she lost to No. 8 seed
Shinobu Asagoe in the first round proper. She won another ITF tournament in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, then beat her first top-100 player (Slovak Ľudmila Cervanová) as well as her Wimbledon conqueror Bondarenko en route to the semifinals of the tournament in
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...
. She followed that up with a win in
Bergamo
Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...
(a tournament) and ended the year ranked No. 429 in the world in the WTA rankings and was the 2004 ITF Junior World Champion, ending the year No. 1 in the world for juniors. She had a 41–6 record in singles and was the first Dutch player to become junior world champion. Her record in seniors was 26–4, winning 26 of her last 28 matches, capturing four ITF titles in the year. Her record on hard courts was 16–2, clay was 10–1, and she lost her only match on grass.
2005
At the age of 16 Krajicek qualified for her first Grand Slam event, the Australian Open. She beat three opponents ranked higher than her to qualify, then beat top-100 player
Stéphanie Foretz in straight sets before losing in the second round to No. 12 seed
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
. In February she won her first ITF tournament in
Urtijëi
Urtijëi (; ; ) is a town of 4,637 inhabitants in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It occupies the Val Gardena within the Dolomites, a mountain chain that is part of the Alps.
Geography
Urtijëi borders the following municipalities: Kastelruth, V ...
, beating No. 51 in the world Martina Suchá in the last 16. Three months later, Krajicek reached her first doubles final on the WTA Tour, the
Estoril Open partnering
Henrieta Nagyová
Henrieta Nagyová (born 15 December 1978) is a former tennis player from Slovakia.
She turned professional in 1994 and has been ranked as high as No. 21 in the world (17 September 2001). She won nine singles tournaments and four doubles tournam ...
.
Now ranked No. 114, she qualified for her second successive Grand Slam (the French Open) without dropping a set but unfortunately drew the No. 20 seed
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 ...
in the first round and lost to the Slovak 3–6, 1–6. A consolation was that her performance in qualifying had made her a top-100 player for the first time, ranked No. 99. After the French Open, Krajicek received three wild cards into Wimbledon. She intended to play in both the women's doubles and mixed doubles (together with her brother Richard). However, she was injured during the
Rosmalen Open just a week before the start of Wimbledon, and had to withdraw.
Krajicek returned to play in October by qualifying for the Tier II event in Luxembourg, but a week later, Krajicek won her first WTA event by winning the
Tashkent Open. She beat
Akgul Amanmuradova
Akgul Charievna Amanmuradova (; born June 23, 1984) is an inactive professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. At 1.90 metres in height, she is one of the tallest female tennis players in history.
Amanmuradova has won two doubles titles ...
in the final. It was the first WTA tournament win for a Dutch female in eight years, after
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy won the
Bell Challenge in Quebec. Three weeks after that in
Hasselt
Hasselt (, , ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium.
As of 1 August 2023, Hasselt had a total population of 80,846. The old ...
, she beat Anna Chakvetadze,
Lucie Šafářová
Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles.
She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
and the No. 13 in the world
Nathalie Dechy
Nathalie Dechy (born 21 February 1979) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Dechy is a three-time doubles Grand Slam champion, winning the 2006 US Open women's doubles title with Vera Zvonareva, the 2007 French Open mixed doubl ...
on her way to the semifinals where she lost to
Francesca Schiavone.
She ended the year ranked No. 58 in the world with a 30–10 playing record. She went 17–5 on hardcourts, 6–4 on clay, 2–1 on grass and 5–0 on carpet.
2006
She started the year by qualifying for the
Hopman Cup tournament in Perth with
Peter Wessels
Peter Wessels (; born 7 May 1978) is a former tour professional male tennis player and a coach from the Netherlands. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 72 in February 2005.
Biography
Wessels had an excellent junior caree ...
where the duo went all the way to the final to be beaten in a very close mixed doubles by the American team of
Taylor Dent
Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21, winning 4 singles titles.
Career
Early career and back injury
Dent won ATP titl ...
and
Lisa Raymond
Lisa Raymond (born August 10, 1973) is an American former professional tennis player who has achieved notable success in doubles tennis. Raymond has eleven major titles to her name: six in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. On June 12, ...
. She won three out of her five singles matches (def. Lisa Raymond,
Gisela Dulko
Gisela Dulko (; born 30 January 1985) is an Argentine former tennis player. Although she enjoyed modest success in singles, reaching a career-high ranking of world No. 26 and winning four WTA Tour, WTA titles, her speciality was doubles, where s ...
and
Anna-Lena Grönefeld
Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional tennis player.
Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2006 M ...
; lost to
Samantha Stosur
Samantha Jane Stosur (born 30 March 1984) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She is a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and ...
and
Peng Shuai
Peng Shuai (; ; born 8 January 1986) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In February 2014, she was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 doubles player by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA ...
). In mixed doubles, they had a 3–2 record (def. Reid/Stosur, Peng/Sun, Grönefeld/Kiefer; lost to Raymond/Dent, Dulko/Gaudio).
A week later, Krajicek won her second WTA title in
Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
only dropping one set en route to the final, where she beat her practice partner
Iveta Benešová 6–2, 6–1. This win put her inside the top 50 to a career-high ranking of No. 43 entering the Australian Open. At the Australian Open Krajicek reached the third round for the first time ever in a Grand Slam tournament. In the first round she beat
Kristina Brandi and in the second she defeated 32nd seed
Sania Mirza of India. However, she retired from her third-round match against
Amélie Mauresmo
Amélie Simone Mauresmo (; born 5 July 1979) is a French former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tournament director. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 39 weeks. Maur ...
, after suffering from heat exhaustion.
The clay-court season was not a successful one, despite a semifinal appearance at the
İstanbul Cup where she lost 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 ...
in straight sets. This was the only real highlight on clay for Krajicek in 2006 as she lost in the first round of the French Open in straight sets to No. 7 seed Patty Schnyder. This led her to drop out of the top 50, but that was only briefly as in the warm up for Wimbledon she won her third career title (and second of the year) in
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...
(her brother Richard was one of the tournament organisers). In the semifinal she beat a top-10 player for the first time in what she described as the best match of her career, overcoming top seed (and No. 8 in the world) Elena Dementieva in three sets. She beat
Dinara Safina
Dinara Mubinovna Safina (, ; ; born April 27, 1986) 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 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina ...
in the final, but could not continue her form into Wimbledon though, losing in the first round to Australian doubles expert Sam Stosur.
Post-Wimbledon Krajicek won two successive Tier IV doubles tournaments on clay with
Janette Husárová
Janette Husárová (; born 4 June 1974) is a Slovak former tennis player.
On 13 January 2003, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 31. On 21 April 2003, she peaked at No. 3 in the doubles rankings.
She won the WTA Tour Championshi ...
in Palermo and Budapest, the latter where she also got to the semifinals in singles competition. Thereafter the hardcourt season was not a productive one for Krajicek, losing in the first round of four successive tournaments, including the US Open where she lost 3–6, 0–6 to the eventual winner
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 sin ...
.
Krajicek ended the year ranked No. 35 in the world, she had a 27–18 record, 14–9 on hardcourts, 8–7 on clay, 5–1 on grass and 0–1 on carpet. She was 1–5 against top-10 opponents.
2007

Krajicek's 2007 season did not start as strongly as her 2006 one did as she lost 6–3, 1–6, 0–6 to
Séverine Brémond in the first round of the Hobart International, where she was the defending champion. She was then defeated in straight sets by Luxembourg's
Anne Kremer in the first round 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 ...
. The inability to defend the previous year's points dropped her ranking dramatically as she entered
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
ranked No. 70 in the world. After being dumped out of the first round in Paris in straight sets by Dinara Safina, Krajicek proceeded to lose in the second round of four successive tournaments. Her best result on clay prior to the French Open was a quarterfinal run in a Tier I tournament in
Charleston. Krajicek beat both top seed
Nicole Vaidišová and
Sybille Bammer in three sets, before losing to
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Igorevna Zvonareva ( rus, Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, p=ˈvʲerə ˈiɡərʲɪvnə zvənɐˈrʲɵvə, a=Vera zvonareva.ogg; born 7 September 1984) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ran ...
.
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 ...
she made the third round, beating local favorite and 31st seed Séverine Brémond followed by
Shenay Perry before losing to No. 8 seed
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 (WT ...
. As the No. 31 seed 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 ...
(but ranked outside the top 40 for not defending points in 's-Hertogenbosch), her skills on the grass shone through as she defeated
Tzipora Obziler
Tzipora "Tzipi" Obziler (; born 19 April 1973) is an Israeli former professional tennis player.
She reached her career-high singles world ranking of No. 75 in on 8 July 2007, and career-high doubles ranking of No. 149 on 10 April 2000.
Early a ...
, British wildcard
Katie O'Brien, world No. 7 Anna Chakvetadze and
Laura Granville en route to her very first quarterfinal showing at a Grand Slam. In her quarterfinal match, she was defeated by 18th seed and eventual finalist,
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007 Wimbledo ...
, in a rain-affected three-set match.
Following Wimbledon, though top-seeded she lost in the first round of
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
, losing 2–6, 4–6 to 111th ranked
Eva Birnerová in her final tournament prior to the American hardcourt season. Krajicek lost in the second round in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
to former No. 1,
Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...
, the third round in
L.A. to Maria Sharapova (a match where the wind conditions were so poor one end was virtually unplayable) and the first round in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
to Shahar Pe'er. At the
US Open, Krajicek fell in the second round to
Ágnes Szávay in two sets.
On the European indoor-circuit Krajicek fared a little better, going out in the first round in three of her final five tournaments and only winning one match in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. Her only good run came in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
where, due to the heavily packed field, she had to qualify and won four matches in a row before succumbing to Nadia Petrova 1–6, 3–6 in the last 16.
Her record in 2007 was 24–26 (her first season on tour with a losing record), with 11–12 on hardcourts, 7–8 on clay, 5–3 on grass and 1–3 on carpet. Her record against top-10 players was 2–5. She finished 34th in the ''Race to the WTA Championships.''
2008
Krajicek struggled early in 2008. After bombing out in the first round at the
Auckland Open, she lost to
Akiko Morigami during the first round of 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 ...
. Following a break of over a month, she lost her first match at the
Indian Wells Open to the Russian
Galina Voskoboeva
Galina Olegovna Voskoboeva (; born 18 December 1984) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani former tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 42 in singles and No. 26 in doubles.
Career
Born in Moscow, Voskoboeva turned pro in 2002. Du ...
. Then at the
Miami Open, she lost first up
Marina Erakovic in three sets, and then to
Alizé Cornet at the Family Circle Cup.
Returning to Europe, she lost four straight tournaments without winning a set. These were to
Akgul Amanmuradova
Akgul Charievna Amanmuradova (; born June 23, 1984) is an inactive professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. At 1.90 metres in height, she is one of the tallest female tennis players in history.
Amanmuradova has won two doubles titles ...
at the
ECM Prague Open, Sybille Bammer at the
German Open, Sam Stosur at the
Internazionali BNL d'Italia and then
Sanda Mamić
Sanda Mamić (born 22 March 1985) is a retired female tennis player and current full-time gaming streamer on Twitch from Croatia.
Early career
* 2001 – reached final at ITF Hvar/CRO
* 2002 – reached final at ITF Sopron/HUN
* 2003 – won fir ...
at the French Open.
Her form turned around at Birmingham where she defeated
Tatiana Poutchek 6–2, 6–1 for her first win of the year. However, she lost to eventual finalist
Yanina Wickmayer. At her home tournament in
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...
, she defeated Japanese veteran
Ai Sugiyama in a tough battle. In the second round she then defeated Sania Mirza, 6–2, 6–2. However, she lost the quarterfinal match against
Tamarine Tanasugarn.
At the end of the year her singles ranking was 219. Her record for the year was 8–16.
2009
Krajicek mainly played ITF tournaments early in the year, with limited success. In particular, she missed the Australian Open for the first time since 2004. However, she did play some WTA tournaments, notably the
Cellular South Cup where after qualifying, she made it to the quarterfinals, losing to top seed Caroline Wozniacki. Furthermore, Krajicek made the doubles final of that tournament, playing with
Yuliana Fedak, eventually losing to Wozniacki and
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
.
In June, she won an ITF event in Boston, defeating Rebecca Marino in the final. Throughout the year, Krajicek never failed to make at least the semifinals in any doubles tournament that she competed in. She won two, the first in Torhout with Yanina Wickmayer in April, and then in November with
Sofia Arvidsson in Bratislava.
The only major tournament that Krajicek entered qualifying for in 2009 was the French Open, losing her first match to
Simona Halep.
At the end of the year her ranking in singles was 129. Her record for the year was 4–7.
2010
Preparing for 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 ...
, she participated in Brisbane and Hobart both losing in the qualifications. Because of her ranking Krajicek had to play the qualifications for the Australian Grand Slam, falling in the third round to
Angelique Kerber
Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German 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 34 wee ...
in three sets. She also competed in the doubles main event with
Dominika Cibulková
Dominika Cibulková (; born 6 May 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. She is the 2016 WTA Finals champion, becoming the fourth player (after Serena Williams in 2001 WTA Tour Championships, 2001, Maria Sharapova in 2004 WTA Tour ...
, but lost in the first round.
Her next tournament was the Cellular South Cup in Memphis. She lost in the second round to
Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová (; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 31 career singles titles, including two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major titles ...
. She won the doubles titles with her partner
Vania King.
She played in the qualification rounds for
Monterrey
Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
, Indian Wells, Miami and
Ponte Vedra Beach. Only reaching the main event in Miama, losing in the first round to
Melanie Oudin. Later in Charleston, she reached the second round.
Before going to Europe for the two Grand Slams, she competed on the ITF Circuit in the U.S. Reaching the second round in Dothan, winning Charlottesville and falling in the quarterfinals in Indian Harbour Beach. Charlottesville would be the only singles title Krajicek would win in 2010.
Her season end ranking in singles was 141.
2011
In 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 ...
she participated in the qualification tournament, losing in the first round to the No. 156 player
Sabine Lisicki
Sabine Katharina Lisicki (; born 22 September 1989) is a German inactive professional tennis player.
Lisicki turned professional in 2006, and her breakthrough came in 2009 when she reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships � ...
. In the doubles, she reached the second round with partner Petra Kvitová.
For the first time since 2007, Krajicek competed for the Netherlands in the
Fed Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
. Playing in Group I of the European/African zone against Hungary, Romania and Latvia, she won all her singles matches. Winning most notably from
Monica Niculescu
Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA as high as No. 28 in singles and No. 11 in doubles. She has won three singles and 10 dou ...
, ranked 68 on the WTA Tour. After being undefeated in the group round the Netherlands faced Switzerland in the semifinal. Krajicek lost both her single and double match, partnered with
Arantxa Rus
Arantxa Rus (; born 13 December 1990) is a Dutch professional tennis player.
She won one WTA Tour singles title at the 2023 Hamburg European Open – Women's singles, 2023 Hamburg Open and four in doubles.
Her biggest singles successes to date ...
, thus eliminating the Netherlands from the competition.
Like previous years she competed at the
Cellular South Cup winning the first round from
Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová with 6–1, 6–3. Later losing in the second round to
Alexa Glatch in a three-setter. In the doubles, she reached the semifinals with partner Vania King.
At the
Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, she won the first round from her doubles partner
Tatjana Malek, and then in the second round from 2010 winner and No. 3 seed
Alisa Kleybanova
Alisa Mikhailovna Kleybanova (, born 15 July 1989) is a Russian former tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 20, achieved in February 2011. In her career, she won two singles titles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour. ...
. She won in the quarterfinals from Luxembourg player Anne Kremer but lost in the semifinals from later winner
Jelena Dokić with 2–6, 3–6. In the doubles, she lost in the first round.
At the
US Open, Krajicek came through to qualifying to reach her first Grand Slam main draw since Wimbledon 2008, facing
Eleni Daniilidou
Eleni Daniilidou (; ; born 19 September 1982) is a Greek former tennis player from the island of Crete.
She is considered one of the best Greek tennis players of the Open Era, winning five singles titles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tou ...
in the first round. She won in three sets to progress to the second round, where she faced title favourite
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 (WT ...
to whom she lost easily, 0–6, 1–6.
She then played at the
Bell Challenge in Québec City. She defeated wildcard Marie-Ève Pelletier in the first round and French qualifier
Julie Coin
Julie Coin (; born 2 December 1982) is a retired French tennis player.
Coin recorded the biggest win of her career by defeating the then- world No. 1 ranked Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 60, ...
in the second. Krajicek faced No. 4 seed
Rebecca Marino in the quarterfinals, defeating her 6–1, 6–3. Thus reaching her second semifinal of the year. In the semifinals, she lost to No. 6 seed and eventual champion, Záhlavová-Strýcová. In doubles, she reached the quarterfinals with partner Lucie Šafářová.
After Quebec City, Krajicek played ITF tournaments in Joué-lès-Tours, Limoges, Barnstaple and Toyota. She reached the semifinals, quarterfinals, quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. She withdrew from the Toyota single semifinals and double finals because of a knee injury. Due to her achievements at the end of the season she reentered the top 100, entering at No. 95. She ended the season at No. 93.
2012
Krajicek entered qualifications for the
Brisbane International
The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Hard courts, outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA 500 tournaments, WTA 500 tournament and an ATP World T ...
. She faced
Kristina Mladenovic
Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. Her best singles ranking is world No. 10.
She is a nine-time Grand Slam ...
in the first round of the qualifying tournament. Mladenovic hit 20 aces during the match. Krajicek hit 12 aces and saved zhtrr match-points in the second set and lost eventually in three sets. She played doubles with Vania King and held a match-point in the super-tiebreak before falling to second seeded duo Iveta Benešová and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. The following week she played at the
Sydney International
The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...
where she beat Brit
Anne Keothavong in the first qualifying round. In the second round, she lost to
Stefanie Vögele
Stefanie Vögele (born 10 March 1990) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 42 on 11 November 2013. Her highest WTA rankings, WTA ranking in doubles is 100, which she reached on 5 January ...
. In doubles, she played the main draw with her partner
Alexandra Dulgheru. They faced wildcards
Sofia Arvidsson and Jelena Dokić in the first round and lost in two sets.
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 ...
, Krajicek gained direct entry into the main draw for the first time since 2008. She played
Kristina Barrois in the first round and came through with a two-sets victory after saving five setpoints in the tiebreak. She was set to play her second-round match against former world No. 1, Ana Ivanovic. However, she was suffering from nerves as the match was played on the Hisense Arena and Krajicek lost in straight sets.
In the last week of January, Krajicek played the Fed Cup together with fellow Dutch players Arantxa Rus,
Kiki Bertens and
Bibiane Schoofs. She failed to convert a matchpoint against Shahar Pe'er and lost in three sets. Also Elena Baltacha and
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito (born 29 January 1993), known by the anglicized name Michelle Larcher de Brito, is a Portuguese former professional tennis player. She is the former Portuguese No. 1. Larcher de Brito won four singles titles on ...
proved too strong, defeating Krajicek in two sets. In February and March, Krajicek made a trip along tournaments in North America. At her usual stop at the indoor WTA tournament of
Memphis, she defeated Elena Baltacha, firing 15 aces. She then played Belarusian Olga Govortsova in the second round and won after being down 1–4 in the first set. She fired an additional ten aces in this match. In the quarterfinals, she fell just short of Marina Erakovic in a narrow match. At the WTA tournament of
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...
, played on clay. She managed to beat
Alexandra Cadanțu
Alexandra () is a female given name of Greek origin. It is the first attested form of its variants, including Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thu ...
and
Alberta Brianti, both in three sets. She lost to top seed
Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci (; born 18 February 1983) is an Italian former tennis player. In doubles tennis, she is a Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Grand Slam, Career Grand Slam champion having won all Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments and reac ...
in the quarterfinals. This was the first time since 1996 that a Dutch woman reached back to back quarterfinals in WTA tournaments. In 1996,
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy reached the quarterfinals for four consecutive weeks.
She qualified for the Premier Mandatory event in
Indian Wells, beating veteran
Yvonne Meusburger and
Mandy Minella from Luxembourg. She also pulled off a main-draw win against
Urszula Radwańska
Urszula Radwańska (; born 7 December 1990) is a Polish professional tennis player.
Radwańska has won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as seven singles and eleven doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 8 October 2012, she reac ...
, coming back from being down 2–4 in the third set and eventually winning before she lost easily to 31st seed
Zheng Jie
Zheng Jie (born 5 July 1983) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In May 2009, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15.
Zheng is one of China's most successful tennis players. She won four singles titles on the ...
in two sets. After the tournament it was announced that Krajicek had ended her collaboration with her coach Eric van Harpen.
Krajicek played
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
in the second half of March and got direct entry into the main draw. She defeated
Eva Birnerová in three sets before losing a competitive match to world No. 1, Victoria Azarenka. In
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, she lost in the first round against qualifier
Akgul Amanmuradova
Akgul Charievna Amanmuradova (; born June 23, 1984) is an inactive professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. At 1.90 metres in height, she is one of the tallest female tennis players in history.
Amanmuradova has won two doubles titles ...
, after having several match points. In the doubles, she reached the finals with partner Eva Birnerová.
After the tournament in Budapest, Krajicek underwent surgery for her right knee. In spite of this she still managed to play
Roland Garros. Krajicek lost in the first round to Petra Martić.
Her next tournament was
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, she played Czech
Andrea Hlaváčková
Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew.
Origin of the name
The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that ...
but had to retire at 0–4 in the third set due to viral illness. She then was out for multiple weeks with this illness. She returned at the
US Open losing both her singles and doubles match in the first round. Krajicek took time off after the tournament to work on her health problems.
2013
After seven months of not playing any tournaments because of problems with her heart and fatigue Krajicek returned in a $10k tournament in Heraklion, Greece. Ranked 922 at the time she won the singles and doubles title, partnering with
Indy de Vroome. She also faced de Vroome in the singles final winning in three sets. Because she had her ranking 'frozen' after the US Open she can use her protected ranking of 105 to enter higher level tournaments.
After Heraklion she played in the Dutch competition for match practice. She played for ALTA Amersfoort. Her first WTA tournament in 2013 was
's Hertogenbosch. In the first round she defeated
Sílvia Soler Espinosa. This was her first win against a top-100 player since March 2012. She lost to Kirsten Flipkens in the second round with 6–7, 6–7, after being ahead in each set. The two sets took over two hours.
In her first appearance in a
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 ...
main draw since 2008, she lost to
Li Na
Li Na (born 26 February 1982) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association. Li won nine WTA Tour-level singles titles, including two Grand Slam (t ...
in two sets.
After Wimbledon, she reached the quarterfinals in the Beijing $75k tournament and won the doubles title at the WTA International in
Suzhou
Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce.
Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...
, partnering with
Tímea Babos
Tímea Babos (; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian professional tennis player who is a former List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles.
She has won three WTA Tour titles in singles and 27 in doubles. Babos is a f ...
.
In September, she reconnected with her former coach Eric van Harpen to work on her technique.
2015
At the
Rosmalen Championships, Krajicek served a tournament record 21 aces in her second-round loss to
Camila Giorgi
Camila Giorgi (; born 30 December 1991) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She had a career-high singles WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 26, which was achieved on 22 October 2018. Giorgi was known for her aggressive style of pla ...
, beating the 19 served by
CoCo Vandeweghe against Marina Erakovic the previous year. That tied her for eight on the all-time list of aces in a match at a WTA tournament. Giorgi served nine aces herself during the match.
2024: Comeback
Krajicek received a main-draw wildcard for the W15 tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, marking her return to professional tour for the first time since 2019.
Grand Slam performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 3 (3 titles)
Doubles: 16 (5 titles, 11 runner–ups)
WTA Challenger finals
Doubles: 1 (title)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 16 (14–2)
Doubles: 33 (24–9)
World TeamTennis
Krajicek was named
2016 WTT Female Rookie of the Year playing for the
Springfield Lasers. She was tied for fifth in the league with teammate
Pauline Parmentier in winning percentage in women's doubles and was also fifth in mixed doubles.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Krajicek, Michaella
1989 births
Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Dutch female tennis players
Dutch people of Czech descent
French Open junior champions
Hopman Cup competitors
Living people
Sportspeople from Bradenton, Florida
Sportspeople from Delft
Tennis players from South Holland
US Open (tennis) junior champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Sportspeople from Almere