Iva Majoli

Iva Majoli

Country	Croatia
Residence	Zagreb, Croatia & Bradenton, Florida U.S.
Born	August 12, 1977 (1977-08-12) Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	61 kg (130 lb; 9.6 st)
Turned pro	August, 1991
Retired	June, 2004
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$4,405,867
Singles
Career record	316–225
Career titles	8 (2 ITF)
Highest ranking	No. 4 (February 5, 1996)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	QF (1996)
French Open	W (1997)
Wimbledon	QF (1997)
US Open	4R (1994)
Doubles
Career record	99–124
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 24 (August 21, 1995)

Iva Majoli Marić (Iva Majoli) (born August 12, 1977) is a former professional tennis player from Croatia. She upset Martina Hingis to win the women's singles title at the French Open in 1997. Majoli also won eight singles titles and one women's doubles title during her career.

Career

Majoli was born in Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia and turned professional in 1991 at the age of 14. At age 19, Majoli won the 1997 French Open singles title, defeating Martina Hingis in straight sets. Most had expected Hingis, 16 years old, to win the title. Majoli, however, played aggressively from the baseline and ended Hingis's 37-match winning streak and handed Hingis her first sound defeat in a final of a grand slam. Her adept ground-strokes kept Hingis moving, therefore Hingis was not allowed to control the rallies.

Majoli played her best tennis as a teenager, reaching her career high ranking of World No. 4 in 1996. After a quarterfinal appearance at the 1998 French Open, she failed to reach the fourth round of any subsequent Grand Slam singles tournament. Her game steadily declined, with her ranking plummeting to World No. 131 in 2003. In the final years of her tennis career, Majoli suffered from a series of injuries – most notably a shoulder injury – and struggled to play consistently. Her jet-setting lifestyle, well documented by the press, may have contributed.

In 2002, Majoli, ranked World No. 58, defeated Patty Schnyder, ranked World No. 30, in the final of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. The victory increased Majoli's ranking to World No. 33. She reached another final shortly thereafter, prompting some to believe that she was climbing back to the top of the game. This, however, was wishful thinking, as Majoli's ranking then plummeted even further. On June 12, 2004, Majoli announced her retirement from the game.

In 2006, she announced that she was engaged and pregnant with her first child. She married a local businessman, Stipe Marić, on September 9, 2006, with Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce attending the wedding. She gave birth to her daughter Mia on October 31, 2006.

In 2007, Majoli participated in the second season of the Croatian version of Dancing with the Stars. Her partner was Marko Herceg. She was eliminated in the fourth episode.

In 2012, she´s the non-playing captain of the Croatian Fed Cup team [1].

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner (1/1)	1997	French Open	Clay	Martina Hingis	6–4, 6–2

Titles (11)

Singles (10)

Legend

Grand Slam (1)

WTA Championships (0)

Tier I (3)

Tier II (4)

Tier III (0)

Tier IV & V (0)

ITF Titles (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	June 21, 1992	St. Simons, Georgia, USA	Clay	Beverly Bowes-Hackney	7–6(7), 7–6(5)
2.	July 19, 1992	Evansville, Indiana, USA	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–1
3.	October 8, 1995	Zürich, Switzerland	Carpet (I)	Mary Pierce	6–4, 6–4
4.	October 15, 1995	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard (I)	Gabriela Sabatini	6–4, 7–6(4)
5.	February 4, 1996	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (I)	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6–4, 6–1
6.	February 25, 1996	Essen, Germany	Carpet (I)	Jana Novotná	7–5, 1–6, 7–6(6)
7.	February 23, 1997	Hannover, Germany	Carpet (I)	Jana Novotná	4–6, 7–6(2), 6–4
8.	May 4, 1997	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Ruxandra Dragomir	6–3, 6–2
9.	June 8, 1997	French Open	Clay	Martina Hingis	6–4, 6–2
10.	April 21, 2002	Charleston, South Carolina, USA	Clay	Patty Schnyder	7–6(5), 6–4

Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score in final
1.	February 11, 2001	Paris, France	Carpet	Virginie Razzano	Kimberly Po & Nathalie Tauziat	6–3, 7–5

Runner-ups (13)

Singles (9)

• 1994: Osaka (lost to Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière)
• 1994: Barcelona (lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
• 1994: Essen (lost to Jana Novotná)
• 1995: Barcelona (lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
• 1996: Paris (lost to Julie Halard-Decugis)
• 1996: Leipzig (lost to Anke Huber)
• 2000: Kuala Lumpur (lost to Henrieta Nagyová)
• 2001: Quebec (lost to Meghann Shaughnessy)
• 2002: Bol (lost to Åsa Svensson)

Doubles (4)

• 1995: Linz (with Petra Schwarz) (lost to Meredith McGrath and Nathalie Tauziat)
• 1995: Barcelona (with Mariaan de Swardt) (lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Larisa Neiland)
• 1995: Rogers Cup (with Martina Hingis) (lost to Gabriela Sabatini and Brenda Schultz-McCarthy)
• 1997: Hamburg (with Ruxandra Dragomir) (lost to Anke Huber and Mary Pierce)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	QF	1R	3R	A	A	3R	2R	1R	0 / 6
French Open	A	4R	4R	QF	QF	W	QF	A	2R	1R	2R	2R	1 / 10
Wimbledon	A	A	1R	1R	A	QF	2R	A	A	1R	3R	1R	0 / 7
US Open	2R	2R	4R	1R	1R	2R	2R	1R	A	3R	3R	1R	0 / 11
SR	0 / 1	0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	1 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	1 / 34

A = did not participate in the tournament.

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

External links

• Majoli announces retirement
• More about her French Open Win
• Iva Majoli at the Women's Tennis Association

Awards
Preceded by Debbie Graham	WTA Newcomer of the Year 1993	Succeeded by Irina Spîrlea
Preceded by Sabine Appelmans	Comeback Player of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Barbara Schwartz