Tamara Zidanšek (; born 26 December 1997) is a Slovenian 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 has career-high
rankings
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...
of world No. 22 in singles and No. 47 in doubles by the
WTA, and has won one singles title and four 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 ...
and three singles titles along with one doubles title on the
WTA Challenger Tour. She has also won 17 titles in singles and six in doubles on the
ITF Circuit.
Playing for the
Slovenia Fed Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 12–11.
Career
Juniors
On the
ITF Junior Circuit, she was in the top 20 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 16, achieved in December 2015.
2014: Professional debut
Zidanšek made a perfect professional debut in 2014 at her home in Velenje, passing three qualifying rounds to go in the main draw and claim her first title on the pro-level at the age of 16.
2021: First major semifinal, top-50 debut, first top-10 win & WTA Tour title
She reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam championship for the first time at the
2021 French Open
The 2021 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major level tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 30 May to 13 June 2021, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles pla ...
, defeating
Sorana Cîrstea
Sorana Mihaela Cîrstea (; born 7 April 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player. In singles, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 21 on 12 August 2013. In doubles, her career-best ranking is No. 35, which she reached on 9 March ...
in straight sets and
Paula Badosa in three sets. These wins made her the first Slovenian female player to accomplish this since the country became independent in 1991. As a result, Zidanšek entered the top 50 for the first time. She also scored her first top-ten win in the first round, against the No. 6 seed,
Bianca Andreescu
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (; born June 16, 2000) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked world No. 4 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Andreescu has won two singles titles on the WTA T ...
. In her semifinal match, Zidanšek was defeated by
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Anastasia Sergeyevna "Nastia" Pavlyuchenkova (; born 3 July 1991) is a Russian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 11 on 8 November 2021. Pavlyuchenkova has won twelve singles titles ...
in straight sets.
At the
Ladies Open Lausanne, as the top seed, Zidanšek beat
Marina Melnikova
Marina Anatolyevna Melnikova (; born 5 February 1989) is a Russian tennis player.
She has won seven singles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 4 May 2015, Melnikova reached her best singles ranking of world No. 170. On 20 June 2016, s ...
,
Mandy Minella
Mandy Minella (born 22 November 1985) is a Luxembourgish politician and former professional tennis player. Having made her debut on the WTA Tour in 2001, she peaked at No. 66 in the WTA singles rankings in September 2012, and No. 47 in doubles ...
,
Lucia Bronzetti
Lucia Bronzetti (born 10 December 1998) is an Italian professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 46 in singles and No. 194 in doubles. She has played three finals and won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2023 M ...
,
Maryna Zanevska
Maryna Volodymyrivna Zanevska (; born 24 August 1993) is a Ukrainian-born Belgian former professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 62, achieved on 23 May 2022, and a WTA doubles ranking of 86, reached on 16 ...
and
Clara Burel
Clara Burel (; born 24 March 2001) is a French professional tennis player. On 10 June 2024, she peaked at No. 42 in the WTA singles rankings.
Career Juniors
In 2018, Burel reached the junior singles final at three major events, the Australian ...
to win her first WTA Tour singles title.
2022: Top 25 debut, two major third rounds
Seeded 29th 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 ...
, she reached the third round for the first time, but lost to
Alizé Cornet
Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. She has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circuit. ...
. 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 ...
, Zidanšek also reached the third round in which she lost to
Jessica Pegula
Jessica Pegula (born February 24, 1994) is an American professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings in singles of world No. 3, achieved October 2022, and in doubles of world No. 1, set on 11 September 2023. Pegula reached the single ...
, in straight sets.
2023-2024: Third WTA 125 title, WTA semifinal
After saving four championship points and defeating
Rebecca Šramková
Rebecca Šramková (; born 19 October 1996) is a Slovak professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA rankings, singles ranking of world No. 36, achieved on 31 March 2025, and a best doubles ranking of No. 209, reached on 9 June 2025. Sh ...
in the final, Zidanšek won the WTA 125 tournament in
Bari
Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
. As a result, she moved 30 positions up in the rankings back to the top 100 on 11 September 2023.
She qualified for the
2024 French Open defeating
Hailey Baptiste in the final qualifying round. In the main draw, she defeated
Alison Van Uytvanck
Alison Van Uytvanck (; born 26 March 1994) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. In August 2018, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 37.
Van Uytvanck has won five singles and two doubles WTA Tour titles and three Chall ...
, to set up a match against world No. 3,
Coco Gauff
Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff ( ; born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 2 in singles and of world No. 1 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Gauff has won ten career ...
, which she lost in straight sets.
Ranked No. 261 at the
Thailand Open, Zidanšek reached her first WTA Tour semifinal since January 2022 coming back from a set down to beat
Tatiana Prozorova, sixth seed
Katie Volynets, and
Nadia Podoroska
Nadia Natacha Podoroska (; born 10 February 1997) is an Argentine professional tennis player. On 12 July 2021, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 36, and on 18 October 2021, she peaked at No. 62 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Podor ...
, saving four match points in the quarterfinals. She lost in the last four to eventual champion, Rebecca Šramková.
2025: Australian Open
Zidanšek qualified for the main draw 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 ...
, losing to
Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Sergeyevna Potapova. (born 30 March 2001) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of No. 21 by the WTA rankings, WTA, achieved on 19 June 2023, and a doubles ranking of world No. 40, reached on 5 ...
in the first round.
Coaches
Zidanšek was coached by Zoran Krajnc until April 2021. In May 2021, her team signed with Pancho Alvariño from Spain.
Carl Maes joined the team in December 2021 for a period of one year. After a few coaching trials, she is now coached by former Slovenian ATP Tour player
Blaž Kavčič
Blaž Kavčič (born 5 March 1987) is a Slovenian tennis coach and former professional player.
He was the highest ranked Slovenian male player ever, achieving a career-high of World No. 68 in August 2012, until Aljaž Bedene began to play for ...
.
Performance timelines
''Only main-draw results in
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 ...
,
Grand Slam tournaments,
Billie Jean King 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 chan ...
,
United Cup
The United Cup is an international hard court tennis competition featuring mixed-gender teams from 18 countries. The first event was held in December 2022 into January 2023. The event is played across multiple Australian cities over 11 days in ...
,
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an international tennis tournament that plays mixed teams (one male and one female) on a country-by-country basis. It was first held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, played on indoor hardcourt, before b ...
and
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
are included in win–loss records.
''
Singles
''Current through the
2024 Mérida Open.''
Doubles
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)
Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)
WTA Challenger finals
Singles: 3 (3 titles)
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 25 (17 titles, 8 runner–ups)
Doubles: 10 (6 titles, 4 runner–ups)
Team competitions
Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup
Singles (9–8)
Doubles (3–3)
WTA Tour career earnings
''Current through the 2022 Australian Open''
Head-to-head record
Record against top 10 players
* She has a 1–7 () record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zidansek, Tamara
1997 births
Living people
Slovenian female tennis players
Sportspeople from Postojna
People from the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice