Nicole Vaidišová

Nicole Vaidišová
	Nicole Vaidišová at the 2006 Medibank International in Sydney, Australia
Country (sports)	Czech Republic
Residence	Prague, Czech Republic
Height	1.83m (6 ft)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Prize money	$1,201,050
Official website	Official website
Singles
Career record	122-39
Career titles	6 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 9 (August 7, 2006)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4th (2006)
French Open	SF (2006)
Wimbledon	4th (2006)
US Open	4th (2005)
Doubles
Career record	6-17
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 129 (September 11, 2006)
	Last updated on: November 6, 2006.

Nicole Vaidišová (born April 23, 1989 in Nürnberg, West Germany) is a Czech female tennis player.

Vaidišová is an emerging star in women's tennis who has been playing since she was six-years-old. She is a student of Nick Bollettieri and is said to consider her serve her biggest weapon. Vaidišová is currently ranked #10 in the WTA rankings. On August 9 2006, she moved up in the rankings to #9, becoming the 12th-youngest player in Tour history to crack the Top 10, at 17 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks of age.

Career review

Vaidišová debuted strongly in the 2003 season by reaching three consecutive finals: won $10K ITF/Plzen-CZE, her only event in 2003, without dropping a set.

2004

In 2004, she finished the season as a top 100 player. As a qualifier at only her third Tour main draw at inaugural Vancouver, Vaidisova became the sixth-youngest singles champion in Tour history at 15 years, three months, 23 days of age, and the lowest-ranked player (No. 180) and second qualifier (of three) to win a title in 2004. She won her second title of the year at Tashkent, defeating Virginie Razzano in the final. On October 18, she made her Top 100 debut at No. 74, becoming the youngest player in the top 100 at the time.

Later in the season, she reached the quarterfinals at Tokyo [Japan Open], defeating No. 29 Tatiana Golovin in three sets en route for her career-best win, before losing to Klara Koukalova. Vaidisova made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open losing to defending champion and world No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-1 6-4 in the first round after leading 4-1 second set. She won ITF/Columbus, OH-USA at the start of the season and reached her then career-high No. 72 singles ranking on November 1.

Apart from the success in senior competions, she was also a finalist of a girls' competition in Australian Open that year. She lost to Shahar Pe'er in the final.

Despite being only 14-years-old, she finished the year with two WTA titles and a win-loss record of 31-8.

2005

In early January, she reached her first quarterfinal of the season in Hobart, defeating on her way Perebiynis and Dinara Safina before losing to Iveta Benešová. Vaidisova picked up her first Grand Slam singles victory in her Australian Open debut by reaching the third round with victories against Maria Vento-Kabchi and Jelena Kostanic, falling to top seed Lindsay Davenport. Following the tournament, she jumped in the ranking from No. 70 to No. 57.

In April, at the Family Circle Cup, she made her top 50 debut at No.47 and reached her first career Tier I quarterfinals at Charleston, saving two match points in first round victory against qualifier Shahar Peer. She then posted her first top 10 victory over defending French Open champion Anastasia Myskina before also defeating Shinobu Asagoe in three sets. Vaidisova then fell to Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals, making her top 40 debut at No. 34 on April 18.

In May, Vaidisova reached her first Tier III final in Istanbul, losing to top seed Venus Williams in the championship match. She made her debut at Roland Garros, defeating Safarova in the first round before falling in No.22 seed Francesca Schiavone in the next round.

In June, she won her first career match on grass at Birmingham, defeating qualifier Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro in the first round before falling to Eleni Daniilidou in the next round. She made her top 30 debut on June 13 at No. 30. At Eastbourne, she fell to No.5 seed Vera Zvonareva in the first round and participated at Wimbledon for the first time of her career, defeating Jelena Kostanic and Pastikova before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round.

In July, she set a new career-high ranking at No. 28 on July 4. She went 2-0 in singles play, but lost the decisive doubles rubber (w/Kveta Pescke) in Czech Republic's 3-2 loss to Italy in Fed Cup World Group I Playoffs.

In August, she reached her first career Tier I quarterfinal at Toronto, defeating on her way lucky loser Shenai Perry, Nathalie Dechy and Hana Sromova before losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne. Her ranking continued to improve, jumping from No. 32 to No. 27 on August 22.

In September, at the 2005 US Open, she reached the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam event, defeating Kveta Peschke, Jie Zheng and qualifier Lisjak before losing to Nadia Petrova. In that match, Vaidišová blew a 5-2 lead in the first set. Petrova then won 4 games in a row, and pushed a tie-break, which Vaidisova lost. In the second set, Vaidišová was up a break, but Petrova broke back, beating Vaidisova 7-6, 7-5. After the match, Vaidišová hit a forehand into the crowd out of frustration, nearly hitting someone. A commentator later remarked, "That's the best forehand she's hit in a while."

Her ranking improved following the US Open, going from No. 28 to a career-high No. 23 on September 12. She captured her first title of 2005 (and third of career) at Seoul, defeating top seed Jelena Janković in the final without dropping a set during the week. She moved to career-best No. 21 at the start of October.

In that month, she captured her second straight Tour singles title as at Tokyo [Japan Open], winning when Tatiana Golovin retired while trailing 7/6(4) 3-2 due to a left achilles tendonitis in the final. On October 10, she made her top 20 debut at No. 18 and extended her winning streak to 15 matches by winning her third consecutive Tour singles title and fifth of her career; she beat Conchita Martinez and Gisela Dulko en route to final, then overcame a 4-2 third-set deficit to defeatNadia Petrova for the first time, 6-1 6-7(5) 7-5, in the final.

With the Seoul, Tokyo Japan Open and Bangkok titles, Nicole Vaidisova became the first player since Lindsay Davenport in 2004 to win three titles in three weeks, and also became the sixth woman to win five Tour singles titles before her 17th birthday (after Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis). On October 17, she improved her ranking from No. 18 to No. 17, another career-high.

2006

Vaidisova captured her 6th WTA title at the Tier III event in Strasbourg. In June, Vaidišová made a semifinal run at the French Open, her best Grand Slam performance to date. She defeated world No. 1 and home favourite Amélie Mauresmo 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round and Venus Williams 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinal. However, Vaidisova lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in a tight 7-5, 6-7, 2-6; it has been noted Vaidišová was only two points away from victory several times. At the Wimbledon Championships, Vaidišová got to the fourth round before losing to Li Na. She has now reached at least the last 16 at all four Grand Slams.

In July, Vaidisova went 2-0 during Czech Republic's 3-2 Fed Cup World Group I Play-off loss to France. She reached the semifinal on her debut in Stanford, losing 7-5 6-2 to Kim Clijsters. Vaidisova reached her career-first Tier I semifinal in San Diego losing to Clijsters again. After her success in San Diego, Vaidisova moved from No. 12 to No.9, her career top 10 debut, becoming the 12th-youngest player in Tour history to crack the Top 10, at 17 years, 3 months, and 2weeks of age.

At the US Open, she made it to the third round, but lost to Jelena Jankovic, who later made it to the semifinal. In Beijing, she lost in the second round to Ai Sugiyama after a first round bye.

Vaidisova defeated Amélie Mauresmo for the second time at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, after rallying from 1-6 2-5 down and three match points, in their quarterfinal match. But Vaidisova lost to Petrova for a third time in their four meetings in the semifinal afterwards.

Nicole finished the year ranked #10, the first time she has ended the year in the top 10.

WTA Tour titles (8)

Legend (Singles)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (0)
Tier III (3)
Tier IV & V (3)
Grand Slam Title (0)
WTA Tour Championship (0)
ITF Titles(2)

Singles (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	October 19, 2003	Plzen, Czech Republic	Carpet	Andrea Hlavackova (Czech Republic)	7-6 6-4*
2.	February 22, 2004	Columbus, USA	Hard Indoors	Peng Shuai (P.R. China)	7-6 7-5
3.	August 15, 2004	Vancouver, Canada	Hard	Laura Granville (USA)	2-6 6-4 6-2*
4.	October 17, 2004	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Virginie Razzano (France)	5-7 6-3 6-2
5.	October 2, 2005	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Jelena Janković (Serbia and Montenegro)	7-5 6-3
6.	October 9, 2005	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Tatiana Golovin (France)	7-6⁴ 3-2 retired
7.	October 16, 2005	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Nadia Petrova (Russia)	6-1 6-7⁵ 7-5
8.	27 May, 2006	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Peng Shuai (P.R. China)	7-6⁷ 6-3