Karolina Šprem

Karolina Šprem

Country	Croatia
Residence	Varaždin, Croatia
Born	October 25, 1984 (1984-10-25) Varaždin, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	61 kg (130 lb; 9.6 st)
Turned pro	2001
Retired	23 October 2011
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$ 1,175,989
Singles
Career record	245-151
Career titles	0 WTA, 10 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 17 (October 11, 2004)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4r (2005)
French Open	3r (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	1r (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Doubles
Career record	14–16
Career titles	0 WTA, 1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 182 (May 8, 2006)
Last updated on: May 10, 2010.

Karolina Šprem (born October 25, 1984) is a Croatian tennis player. She has won eight titles (seven singles, one doubles) all at the ITF level. She has not won any titles on the WTA Tour.

Biography

Šprem was born in Varaždin. She turned professional in 2001.

In 2004, she reached the quarterfinal at Wimbledon by defeating the two-time champion, four-time finalist and then-world No. 8 Venus Williams in the second round before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinal. The umpire of her match against Venus Williams awarded her an extra point in the second set tie break. He was relieved of his duties after the end of the match.^{[citation needed]}

In her first two WTA-tournaments she reached the finals, however in late 2004 her form declined. She began training with Borna Bikic, who at that time was brother of the boyfriend of Jelena Dokić.

In late 2007 Šprem announced a permanent split from Bikic, and returned to her old coach. Still, she had to cope with a serious elbow injury. In April 2008 she successfully returned to the pro-tour winning in Amelia Island over Ai Sugiyama and top 10 player Daniela Hantuchová, before falling to Lindsay Davenport in the third round.

In July 2008, Šprem made the semi-finals of a Tier III event in Budapest, eventually losing to Andreja Klepač.

In 2009, Karolina came back in the top 100, with a main draw entry in the Australian Open, Winning Qualifier rounds at Paris and the Sony Ericsson open. Karolina has won 2 ITF single tournamnets, Beating Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in Biberach, Germany and defeating Viktoriya Kutuzova in Torhout, Belgium

At the start of 2009, Šprem changed from a Wilson K-factor Blade 98 to a Tecnifibre racquet.

In 2010, she scored one of her biggest wins in years when she defeated 25th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues at the 2010 Australian Open. She followed this up with a tight loss to Australian wildcard Casey Dellacqua

At the 2010 Open GDF Suez in Paris Šprem won through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw of the Premier event. In the first round she defeated Swiss no. 2 Timea Bacsinszky before losing to 6th seed Shahar Pe'er in the second round.

In 2011, Sprem started her campaign with a first round qualifying win at the Brisbane International defeating Doi of Japan in 3 sets. In the second round, she lost to Anna Tatishvili in 3 sets. Her next tournament was the Medibank International where she defeated American Christina McHale again in the qualis in a rain interrupted match. She the lost to Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 6-3. She now faces Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa in the first round at the Australian Open .

Career statistics

WTA singles finals (3)

No.	Outcome	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	Runner–up	May 24, 2003	Strasbourg (Tier III)	Clay	Silvia Farina Elia	3-6, 6-4, 4-6
2.	Runner–up	June 14, 2003	Vienna (Tier III)	Clay	Paola Suárez	6(0)-7, 6-2, 4-6
3.	Runner–up	September 25, 2005	Kolkata (Tier III)	Hard	Anastasia Myskina	2-6, 2-6

ITF singles finals (14)

No.	Outcome	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	Runner–up	September 2, 2001	Mostar ($10,000)	Clay	Adriana Basaric	4-6, 3-6
2.	Winner	January 27, 2002	Courmayer ($10,000)	Hard	Stefanie Weis	4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4
3.	Winner	February 17, 2002	Bergamo ($10,000)	Hard	Rita Degli-Esposti	6-1, 6-2
4.	Runner–up	March 31, 2002	Rome - Parioli ($10,000)	Clay	Dinara Safina	7-6(3), 2-6, 3-6
5.	Runner–up	June 23, 2002	Gorizia ($25,000)	Clay	Ainhoa Goni-Blanco	6(4)-7, 1-6
6.	Runner–up	August 11, 2002	Rimini ($25,000)	Clay	Laurence Andretto	5-7, 4-6
7.	Winner	January 26, 2003	Grenoble ($10,000)	Hard	Sophie Lefèvre	7-5, 7-5
8.	Winner	February 16, 2003	Southampton ($25,000)	Hard	Magdalena Zdenovcova	6-1, 3-0 RET
9.	Winner	February 23, 2003	Redbridge ($25,000)	Hard	Olga Barabanschikova	6-3, 6-2
10.	Winner	March 23, 2003	Castellon ($25,000)	Clay	Ľudmila Cervanová	6-3, 6-3
11.	Winner	November 2, 2003	Poitiers ($50,000)	Hard	Roberta Vinci	6-4, 7-5
12.	Winner	March 1, 2009	Biberach ($50,000)	Hard	Kirsten Flipkens	6-1, 6-2
13.	Winner	April 11, 2009	Torhout ($100,000+H)	Hard	Viktoriya Kutuzova	6-1, 6-4
14.	Winner	April 11, 2009	Mestre ($50,000+H)	Hard	Yvonne Meusburger	2-6, 6-2, 6-4

ITF doubles final (1)

No.	Outcome	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	Winner	November 24, 2002	Zagreb ($10,000)	Hard	Mervana Jugić-Salkić	Jelena Kostanić Matea Mezak	6–2, 6-4

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Australian Open		1R	4R	2R	1R		1R	2R	2R
French Open		1R	2R	3R		1R	1R	1R
Wimbledon	2R	QF	1R	3R			1R	2R
US Open	1R	1R	1R	1R		1R	LQ	1R

External links

• Ajmo K-Lina - Official Karolina Šprem website
• Karolina Šprem at the Women's Tennis Association
• Karolina Šprem at the International Tennis Federation