Paula Maria Kania-Choduń (; born 6 November 1992) is a former professional Polish

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. Kania-Choduń won one title in doubles 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 five titles in singles and fourteen 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 15 June 2015, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 128, and on 2 May 2016, she peaked at No. 58 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Tennis career

Paula was born to Paweł and Zdzisława Kania. She has one sister, Zuzanna. Paula began playing tennis at the age of seven and her favourite surface is

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 ...

. She became a professional player in 2008. She was coached by husband and physiotherapist Pawel Chodun and her tennis idol growing up were

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. ...

and

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 ...

2012

Kania and Polina Pekhova won the

Tashkent Open The Tashkent Open by Zeromax was a women's tennis tournament held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, ...

title defeating

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 ...

and

Vesna Dolonc Vesna Ratkovna Dolonc (Serbian Cyrillic and ; née Manasieva, Манасиева; born 21 July 1989) is a retired Serbian tennis player. She earned career-highs of 84 in singles and 93 in doubles. Career Dolonc began competing on the ITF Circ ...

in the final when their opponents retired, after losing the first set 2–6. This was Kania's first

title of any kind.

2014

Having qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw 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 ...

, Kania lost in the first round to world No. 2,

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 straight sets. The match was also her first singles main draw of any event, after participating in qualifying at 20 tournaments. Kania continued her momentum by qualifying for another main draw a month later, at the Stanford Classic.

Grand Slam performance timeline

Singles

Doubles

WTA Tour finals

Doubles: 6 (1 title, 5 runner-ups)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runner–ups)

Doubles: 32 (14 titles, 18 runner–ups)

Personal life

In June 2020, she married Paweł Choduń and changed her name to Kania-Choduń. The ceremony took place in

Krapkowice Krapkowice (; ; ) is a town in southern Poland with 16,301 inhabitants (2019), situated in the Opole Voivodeship, straddling both banks of the Oder River at the point where it joins with the Osobłoga. It is the regional capital of Krapkowice Cou ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kania-Chodun, Paula 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Sosnowiec Polish female tennis players Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for Poland 21st-century Polish sportswomen