Klára Zakopalová

Klára Zakopalová

Klara Zakopalova at the 2011 US Open
Country	Czech Republic
Residence	Prague, Czech Republic
Born	24 February 1982 (1982-02-24) Prague, Czechoslovakia now Czech Republic
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 4 1⁄2 in)
Weight	50 kg (110 lb; 7.9 st)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$1,391,603
Singles
Career record	337–275
Career titles	2 WTA (7 ITF)
Highest ranking	No. 27 (6 March 2006)
Current ranking	No. 45 (13 February 2012)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3R (2003)
French Open	2R (2004, 2005, 2008, 2010)
Wimbledon	4R (2010)
US Open	1R (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011)
Doubles
Career record	21–57
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 96 (17 May 2009)
Last updated on: 10 January 2011.

Klára Zakopalová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈklaːra ˈzakopalovaː]; born as Klára Koukalová on 24 February 1982 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech professional female tennis player. She was born and still lives in Prague, the capital.

Career

In her career, Zakopalová has reached eight singles finals and won two, both in 2005: on grass in Rosmalen (Netherlands) and in September in Portorož (Slovenia) on hard court.

In January 2006, she played a comeback player Martina Hingis, at the WTA Tournament in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, whom she lost to in the second round. Zakopalová was seeded No.29 at the 2006 Australian Open but lost in the first round to Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia. In that year, Klara had ten first-round losses in singles and failed to win a doubles match.

In 2008, Zakopalová reached the final of the inaugural Cachantun Cup in Chile. She played the top seed Flavia Pennetta but was forced to retire due to an ankle sprain. This also forced her to withdraw from the next tournament in Bogotá, where she had made the quarterfinals in 2007.

Zakopalová 's biggest win came at the 2009 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Spain. She defeated World No. 1 and ten time grand slam champion Serena Williams, 6–4, 3–6, 6–1. Williams was also her first round opponent at the 2009 French Open, where Zakopalová lost 3–6, 7–6, 4–6.

Zakopalová gained another good win over a top 5 player, defeating Dinara Safina in the first round of the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open 7–6(1), 7–6(3).

In the first round of the 2010 Polsat Warsaw Open, Zakopalova caused a big upset by defeating 4th seed and World No.14 Marion Bartoli 4–6, 6–1, 6–2. She was then defeated by World No.205 Gréta Arn in the second round 6–4, 6–4.

At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, Zakopalova advanced to the 4th round for the first time at a Grand Slam. She scored upset wins over 18th seed Aravane Rezaï and 10th seed Flavia Pennetta before falling to qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

Zakopalova made the final at the 2010 e-Boks Danish Open where she lost to then World No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki. Zakopalova defeated Rossana De Los Rios, Tatjana Malek, Sorana Cîrstea, and Li Na en route to the final. After this tournament, could not match up her performance as she went on to do poorly her last four tournaments, only advancing to the second round in the 2010 Generali Ladies Linz where she lost to Patty Schnyder 6–2, 6–0.

Zakopalova started her 2011 season at the Moorila Hobart International after having to withdraw from the Brisbane International. She made the semifinals in Hobart, upsetting the top seeded Marion Bartoli in the quarter finals, before falling to her doubles partner Jarmila Groth.

At the 2011 Australian Open, Zakopalova defeated American Melanie Oudin in 3 sets in the 1st round before falling to fellow Czech Lucie Safarova in 3 sets in the 2nd round. This was Zakopalova's first victory at the Australian Open since 2003.

Zakopalova was seeded 31st for the 2011 French Open, her first seeding at a slam since 2006. She was upset in the first round by Chinese-Taipei qualifier Chan Yung-jan.

After her defeat at Roland Garros, Zakopalova traveled to Copenhagen to defend her finalist points from the year before. Seeded 2nd, she was upset in the 1st round by German Kathrin Woerle.

Zakopalova then returned to the site of her greatest slam accomplishment, Wimbledon. Unseeded, she came from a set down to defeat British wild-card Emily Webley-Smith in the first round. In the second round she avenged her Australian Open loss by upsetting the 31st seed Lucie Safarova in three sets. In the third round, Zakopalova fell to eventual finalist Maria Sharapova 2–6 3–6.

After Wimbledon, Zakopalova made the semi-finals in Budapest where she lost to the eventual champion Roberta Vinci, and then made the quarter-finals in Palermo, Italy, where she lost to eventual finalist Polona Hercog.

Personal Life

On 6 June 2006, Klara married Czech soccer player Jan Zakopal (born 22 October 1977 in Zlín), who played five times for the Czech Republic national under-20 football team in 1997 while he was a player of Sparta Prague, and who previously had played for FC Zlín and Dukla Příbram, and later played for SK Chrudim, Tatran Poštorná, FK Viktoria Žižkov, SK České Budějovice and FC Viktoria Plzeň.

WTA Career Finals

Singles: 11 (2-9)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (0)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (1/5)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (1/2)	International (0/2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	20 May 2001	Antwerp, Belgium	Clay	Barbara Rittner	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	14 July 2002	Casablanca,Morocco	Clay	Patricia Wartusch	5–7, 6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	2 August 2003	Sopot, Poland	Clay	Anna Smashnova	6–2 6–0
Runner-up	4.	19 June 2004	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Mary Pierce	7–6(6), 6–2
Runner-up	5.	14 August 2004	Sopot, Poland	Clay	Flavia Pennetta	7–5, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	1.	18 June 2005	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Lucie Šafářová	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	6.	24 July 2005	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Anabel Medina Garrigues	6–4, 6–0
Winner	2.	25 September 2005	Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Katarina Srebotnik	6–2, 4–6, 6–3
Runner-up	7.	17 February 2008	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Flavia Pennetta	6–4, 5–4 ret.
Runner-up	8.	8 August 2010	Copenhagen, Denmark	Carpet (i)	Caroline Wozniacki	6–2, 7–6(5)
Runner-up	9.	26 September 2010	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Alisa Kleybanova	6–1, 6–3

Doubles: 5 (1-4)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0/0)	Premier Mandatory (0/0)
Tier II (0/0)	Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (0/1)	Premier (0/1)
Tier IV & V (0/0)	International (1/2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	17 September 2001	Quebec City, Canada	Hard (i)	Alena Vašková	Samantha Reeves Adriana Serra Zanetti	7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Runner-up	2.	25 July 2009	Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Camille Pin	Julia Görges Vladimíra Uhlířová	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	3.	24 October 2009	Moscow, Russia	Hard	Maria Kondratieva	Maria Kirilenko Nadia Petrova	6–2, 6–2
Winner	1.	18 June 2011	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	Dominika Cibulková Flavia Pennetta	1–6, 6–4, [10–7]
Runner-up	4.	16 July 2011	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Andrea Hlaváčková	Sara Errani Roberta Vinci	7–5, 6–1

Singles performance timeline

This table is current through

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	W–L
Australian Open	3R	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	2R	4–9
French Open	1R	2R	2R	1R	A	2R	1R	2R	1R	4–8
Wimbledon	1R	2R	1R	1R	A	1R	1R	4R	3R	6–8
US Open	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	LQ	1R		0–7
Win–Loss	2–4	2–4	2–4	0–4	0–2	1–4	0–3	4–4	3–3	14–32
Tournaments Won	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Year End Ranking	62	46	36	125	62	75	95	41	41

External links

• Klára Zakopalová at the Women's Tennis Association
• Klára Zakopalová at the International Tennis Federation