Timea Bacsinszky

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Timea Bacsinszky
Bacsinszky in 2016 US Open
Country (sports)  Switzerland
ResidenceBelmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
Born (1989-06-08) 8 June 1989 (age 34)
Lausanne, Switzerland
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned proOctober 2004
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$ 4,749,520
Singles
Career record343–185 (65.0%)
Career titles4 WTA, 12 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 9 (16 May 2016)
Current rankingNo. 22 (15 April 2017)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open3R (2015, 2017)
French OpenSF (2015)
WimbledonQF (2015)
US Open3R (2008)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games1R (2008, 2016)
Doubles
Career record139–80
Career titles4 WTA, 14 ITF
Highest rankingNo. 36 (31 January 2011)
Current rankingNo. 209 (17 October 2016)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open2R (2010, 2011)
French Open2R (2008, 2015)
Wimbledon2R (2010)
US Open3R (2010)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic GamesF (2016)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon1R (2010)
US Open1R (2010)
Team competitions
Fed Cup23–16
Medal record
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Doubles
Last updated on: 14 August 2016.

Timea Bacsinszky[1] (born 8 June 1989) is a Swiss professional tennis player who has reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 and won three singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. 2015 was a breakthrough year for her in singles, winning a career-best 15 consecutive matches spanning two titles then reaching the semifinals of the French Open, the first time she advanced past the third round of a major. She also reached her first Premier Mandatory final at the China Open.

Playing for Switzerland in the Fed Cup, Bacsinszky has a career match record of 23–16.[2] She also has won 12 singles and 14 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

Personal life

Bacsinszky, who first picked up a racket at age 5, was pushed hard to succeed in youth tennis by her father Igor, a Hungarian tennis coach born in Romania.[3][4] She has stated that she resented him for this and remains estranged from him after her parents divorced, though she still developed a passion for competitive tennis.[5] Her mother, Suzanne, is a dentist from Hungary.[3] She has one brother, Daniel, a music teacher and member of The Evpatoria Report, and two sisters, Sophie (musician and student) and Melinda.[3] While growing up, Bacsinszky idolized Monica Seles.

Bacsinszky roots for her hometown team, Lausanne HC.

Career

2004–10

Bacsinszky's early tennis highlights included reaching the semifinals of three junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2004–05. Her breakthrough professional tournament was the 2006 Zurich Open, where she qualified then defeated Anastasia Myskina and Francesca Schiavone before losing to former No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Her early years on tour were a learning experience, and she finished both 2006 and 2007 ranked in the 120s.

Her singles ranking climbed in 2008, and she finished in the top 60 three straight years. The breakthrough was reaching the semifinals of the Diamond Games in February, winning three qualifying and several main draw matches before losing to world No. 1 Justine Henin in three sets. She won her first WTA singles title at the 2009 Luxembourg Open then won her first three doubles titles the following year.

2011–14

Bacsinszky suffered a serious foot injury in the spring of 2011, requiring surgery and a long recovery.[6] She returned at the Fed Cup the following February then used her protected ranking to play several WTA tournaments. She also played a number of ITF Women's Circuit events. However, she decided to skip the Olympics for personal reasons[7] and soon took a hiatus from tennis altogether. She ended up working in restaurants and bars while preparing to attend hotel management school.[8]

In May 2013 Bacsinszky received an email stating she was eligible to compete in that month's French Open qualifier. With no practice and having to take time off work, she drove from Lausanne to Paris; she lost her first match but felt her passion for the game reignited. Thus she hired Dimitri Zavialoff, former coach of compatriot Stan Wawrinka, and committed herself to reviving her tennis career.[8][9][10] Her gradual return to the WTA Tour reached a big milestone at the 2014 Wuhan Open when she upset No. 4 Maria Sharapova in the third round. A few weeks later she won her fourth career doubles title.

2015: Breakthrough season, first Premier Mandatory final, Top 10 debut and First Major SF

Bacsinszky began the year in Shenzhen, upsetting No. 4 Petra Kvitová in the semifinal before losing to No. 3 Simona Halep in her first WTA final in five years. She then reached the third round of the Australian Open followed by back-to-back titles in Mexico at Acapulco and Monterrey, beating Caroline Garcia in both finals. As a result, her ranking rose into the top 30 for the first time. She continued this good form at the Indian Wells Premier Mandatory, defeating No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova en route to the quarterfinals where she lost to No. 1 Serena Williams, thereby ending her win streak at a career-best 15 matches.[5]

At the French Open she advanced past the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, once again upsetting Kvitová. She made it all the way to the semifinals and a rematch with No. 1 Williams; Bacsinszky led by a set and a break but lost the last 10 games.[11] Then after making the quarterfinals of Wimbledon her ranking rose to 13.

The U.S. hard court season however saw unstable results of the Swiss, falling in the first round of all four tournament she entered, including losing to Barbora Strýcová in her opening match at the US Open. Entering the China Open in poor form, Bacsinszky beat Italian Camila Giorgi, qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino, and three former top-10 players including Carla Suárez Navarro, Sara Errani and Ana Ivanovic to advance her first ever premier mandatory final where she lost to Garbiñe Muguruza in straight sets. Her run to the final put her in the top 10 in the WTA Rankings for the first time.

She lost out on her run to the 2015 WTA Finals, however, because the last tournament she played (Luxembourg) held its final on Saturday and the points could not count for the race. She withdrew from the 2015 WTA Elite Trophy due to a left knee injury that had already forced her retirement in her first round match in Luxembourg. After the end of the season, Bacsinszky received the WTA's Most Improved Player Award, ending the year No.12 in the ranking.

2016: 4th WTA title; Olympic silver medal in doubles

Bacsinszky's first two tournaments both ended in defeats as she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anna Karolina Scmiedlová at the Brisbane International and at the Sydney International, respectively. Her next tournament was the Australian Open, where she beat Katerina Siniakova but lost to Annika Beck. At the Fed Cup, Bacsinszky lost both of her matches in Switzerland's tie against Germany, but these losses didn't do any harm to Switzerland who beat Germany in the doubles. She then withdrew from the Dubai Tennis Championships. At the Qatar Open, Bacsinszky defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Yulia Putintseva before losing to eventual champion Carla Suárez Navarro. However, Timea was not able to defend her back-to-back title in Acapulco and Monterrey from 2015 as they were set in the same dates as the aforementioned tournaments.

In March, Bacsinszky reached fourth round at Indian Wells beating Tsvetana Pironkova and Eugenie Bouchard respectively, but lost to Daria Kasatkina subsequently. She then made a surprising semifinal run at Miami Open, beating Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, two top 5 players, back-to-back. She lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets in the semifinal.

At the clay season, Bacsinszky won her fourth WTA title in Rabat, losing only 1 set in the tournament. She re-entered top 10 at the week of Monday, May 9. She made the quarter-finals at Rome (losing to Garbine Muguruza) and reached her highest career ranking at No. 9. At French Open, she beat Silvia Soler-Espinosa, Eugenie Bouchard, Pauline Parmentier and Venus Williams en route to her second straight quarterfinal, but lost to the unseeded Kiki Bertens.[12]

Coming to the grass season, Bacsinszky played Eastbourne but knocked out by the in-form Kiki Mladenovic in straight sets. At Wimbledon, she started her campaign by beating qualifier Luksika Kumkhum in the first round and set up a rematch of last year's fourth round match against Monica Niculescu. Similar to last year, Timea turned the match around with a come back win by winning 6 games in a row in the last set. However, she lost in straight sets to the eventual quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She then reached the semifinals of the inaugural Ladies Championship Gstaad, losing to Kiki Bertens.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Bacsinszky suffered a shocking first round loss in the hands of China's Zhang Shuai; however, partnering with Martina Hingis for the first time ever in the doubles tournament, Bacsinszky earned her first olympic medal, as they beat Daria Gavrilova/Samantha Stosur of Australia, Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Coco Vandeweghe of the United States, Chan Hao-ching/Chan Yung-jan of Taipei and Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecká of Czech Republic en route to the final where the pair lost to Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina of Russia. They become the first two Swiss female tennis Olympic medalists.

Post-Olympic saw Bacsinszky lack of deep runs in tournaments including round two loss to Varvara Lepchenko in three tight sets in US Open and exited second round of China Open, where she was runner-up the previous year. However due to her strong first half of the season, Timea qualified for Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. At the last event of the season, she lost to Zhang Shuai in straight sets in one of the two round robin matches, but concluded the season with straight win against Timea Babos. She ended the season ranked No.15.

2017

Timea skipped the first two weeks' tournaments of the season in Shenzhen and Sydney due to injury. With no warm up match before Australian Open, she matched her best result at this tournament to 3R, lost to Daria Gavrilova in a gruelling 3-set defeat. Entering Fed Cup as the Swiss No.1, Timea won both of her rubbers against French player Alize Cornet and Kristina Mladenovic.

Sponsors

Bacsinszky uses Babolat racquets and Asics clothes, having her apparel previously supplied by Lacoste and her shoes supplied by Nike. She is also an ambassador for Japanese car manufacturer Honda.[13]

Career statistics

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Current through 2017 Australian Open.

Tournament 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 SR W–L Win %
Australian Open Q1 A Q3 2R A 1R 1R Absent 3R 2R 3R 0 / 6 6–6 50%
French Open Absent 2R 2R 2R 2R Absent Q1 2R SF QF 0 / 7 14–7 67%
Wimbledon Absent 1R 2R 2R 1R Absent Q2 2R QF 3R 0 / 7 9–7 56%
US Open Absent 1R 3R 2R 1R A 1R A 2R 1R 2R 0 / 8 5–8 38%
Win–Loss 0–0 0–0 1–3 5–4 3–3 1–4 0–1 0–1 0–0 3–3 11–4 8–4 2–1 0 / 28 34–28 55%

References

  1. ^ Hungarian: Bacsinszky Tímea
  2. ^ Timea Bacsinszky at the Billie Jean King Cup
  3. ^ a b c "Timea Bacsinszky Biography". 1 March 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Adversar surpriză pentru Simona Halep în finala de la Shenzhen. Va juca contra unei jucătoare pe jumătate româncă" (in Romanian). Adevărul. 9 January 2015.
  5. ^ a b "The Power in Her". tennis.com. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Bacsinszky breaking those percentages". Women's Tennis Association. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  7. ^ "ITF confirms Paszek's Olympic eligibility". International Tennis Federation. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  8. ^ a b Rothenberg, Ben (28 May 2014). "Trying to Keep Peace at Home, While Losing Her Peace of Mind". New York Times. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  9. ^ http://letstalktennis.org/bacsinszky-i-had-given-up-on-tennis/
  10. ^ Thomas, Louisa (1 June 2015). "Clay Courage: The Unlikely Rise of Timea Bacsinszky at the French Open". Grantland. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  11. ^ "Serena Williams beats Timea Bacsinszky to reach French Open final – as it happened". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Bacsinszky: Behind The Mic". Women's Tennis Association. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  13. ^ B., Timea. "Timea Bacsinszky - Official Website". timea-b.com. Retrieved 29 May 2016.

External links

Awards
Preceded by WTA Most Improved Player
2015
Succeeded by