Ally Baker

Ally Baker
Full name	Allison Baker
Country (sports)	United States
Born	April 10, 1986 (age 38); Raleigh, North Carolina
Plays	Left-handed
Prize money	$58,775
Singles
Career titles	1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 264 (February 2, 2004)
Grand Slam singles results
US Open	1R (2002)
Doubles
Career titles	2 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 170 (February 23, 2004)
Grand Slam doubles results
US Open	1R (2002, 2003)

Last updated August 13, 2024

Allison Baker (born April 10, 1986), also known as Ally Baker, is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Biography

Baker was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of two daughters of Bill and Leigh.^[1] A left-handed player, she was coached by John Evert at the Evert Tennis Academy in Florida from the age of 14.^[2]

When she was 15 she won an ITF singles title in Greenville and also competed successfully on the international junior circuit. She and German Anna-Lena Groenefeld narrowly lost the girls' doubles final at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships, 6–8 in the third set. In girls' singles events she made the quarter-finals of the 2002 US Open, the semi-finals of the 2002 Orange Bowl, won the title at Roehampton in 2003 and was a quarter-finalist at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.^[1]^[3] While still a junior she received an Adidas sponsorship and featured beside Andy Roddick in a commercial for French sports company Babolat.^[3]

Midway through 2002, at the age of 16, Baker turned professional and by the end of the year had signed up with a sports management company.^[2]^[3] She was granted a wildcard to compete in the main draw of the 2002 US Open and took world number 38 Elena Likhovtseva to a match deciding tie-break, in a first round loss.^[2]^[3] In addition to her singles appearance she also featured in the women's doubles draw, with Bethanie Mattek. She made her WTA Tour main draw debut as a wildcard at the 2003 Miami Open and was beaten in the opening round 6–0, 6–0, by qualifier Marion Bartoli. At the 2003 US Open she had to go through qualifying and fell in the second round, but did feature in the main draw of the doubles, with Angela Haynes. After the US Open she won the doubles event at the $50,000 Columbus ITF tournament, with Teryn Ashley, which was the biggest title of her professional career. She made her second and last WTA Tour appearance in the doubles at the 2003 Challenge Bell held in Quebec, but didn't get to complete the first set in the opening round, with her partner Sarah Taylor spraining her ankle and having to retire hurt.

An injury to her left foot resulted in a premature retirement from tennis in 2004, aged only 18.^[4] She later unsuccessfully sued Adidas for negligence over the injury, which she claimed was caused by the company's shoes that she had been supplied through their sponsorship arrangement since her junior career.^[4] The shoes were sent without any examination of the size required and it was later revealed that the shoes she had been competing in were three sizes too wide.^[4] To rectify this she was flown by Adidas to Oregon to have a custom-fitted shoe designed, but she ended up requiring surgery for the torn ligament in 2004, after which she lost the ability to run.^[3] The suit, which was filed locally, was dismissed for improper venue as the contract she had signed with Adidas stated that any contractual issues would need to be adjudicated in Amsterdam, where the company had their head office.^[3]

Baker, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, now works at PWC in Nashville.

ITF finals

Legend
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments

Singles (1–1)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1.	Sep 2001	Greenville, United States	Clay	Julie De Roo	6–3 RET
Loss	2.	Sep 2001	Raleigh, United States	Clay	Melinda Czink	3–6, 2–6

Doubles (2–2)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	Sep 2001	Raleigh, United States	Clay	Melinda Czink	Leanne Baker Tracey O'Connor	6–4, 1–6, 6–4
Loss	2.	Sep 2002	Peachtree City, United States	Hard	Kristina Brandi	Jennifer Russell Christina Wheeler	2–6, 6–7⁽³⁾
Win	3.	Sep 2003	Columbus, United States	Hard	Teryn Ashley	María Emilia Salerni Andreea Vanc	6–3, 6–7⁽⁴⁾, 6–2
Loss	4.	Feb 2004	Midland, United States	Hard (i)	Tara Snyder	Sofia Arvidsson Åsa Svensson	6–7⁽⁵⁾, 2–6

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelique Widjaja</span> Indonesian tennis player

Angelique Widjaja is a retired Indonesian professional tennis player. She won the junior championships at Wimbledon in 2001, defeating Dinara Safina, and the 2002 junior French Open defeating Ashley Harkelroad. She reached a peak of No. 55 in the WTA singles rankings in March 2003, and a peak of No. 15 in the doubles rankings in February 2004.

Melanie Jayne South is a former English tennis player. She won six singles and 24 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 2 February 2009, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 99. On 9 March 2009, she peaked at No. 120 in the doubles rankings.

Marta Domachowska is a former tennis player from Poland.

Noppawan "Nok" Lertcheewakarn is a former professional Thai tennis player. At 2009 Wimbledon Championships, she won the junior singles title. She reached career-high WTA rankings of 149 in singles and 97 in doubles.

Laura Robson is a British former professional tennis player. She debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2007, and a year later won the Junior Wimbledon championships at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the girls' singles tournament at the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her first tournament on the ITF Women's Circuit in November 2008.

Misaki Doi is a Japanese former professional tennis player. Her highest WTA rankings are No. 30 in singles and No. 77 in doubles.

Tímea Babos is a Hungarian professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.

Taylor Townsend is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 57 in singles by the WTA, achieved on 8 April 2024, and attained a career-high doubles ranking of No. 5 on 12 June 2023. Townsend won her first major title at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships with partner Kateřina Siniaková. In addition, she has won six WTA Tour doubles titles and also reached two other Grand Slam finals, the 2022 US Open and the 2023 French Open.

Rebecca Peterson is a Swedish professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 43 in singles and No. 87 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Peterson has reached three singles finals on the WTA Tour, winning two of them. She has also reached one WTA Tour doubles final in 2015, in which she also succeeded to win the title. She also owns a doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. On the ITF Women's Circuit, she won twelve singles and six doubles titles.

Kimberly Birrell is an Australian professional tennis player. Birrell reached a career-high WTA ranking of 100 on 18 September 2023. She has won six singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Nina Stojanović is a Serbian professional tennis player. On 2 March 2020, Stojanović reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 81. On 17 January 2022, she peaked at No. 37 in the WTA doubles rankings. She won two doubles titles on the WTA Tour with ten titles in singles and 24 in doubles on the ITF Circuit. As a junior, Stojanović reached three major semifinals in doubles, each on a different surface, the French Open and Wimbledon in 2013, and the Australian Open in 2014. As a professional, she made her debut on the WTA Tour in 2016. In 2019, Stojanović reached her first WTA Tour semifinal in singles at the Jiangxi International and also won her first doubles title at the Baltic Open. That year, she also debuted in the top 100 in singles, while in doubles, she made her top-100 debut in 2017, when she reached three WTA Tour finals.

Katy Dunne is a British tennis player.

Priscilla Hon is an Australian tennis player.

Erin Hope Routliffe is a New Zealand professional tennis player who previously represented Canada. She became world No. 1 in doubles on 15 July 2024. Routliffe won a major doubles title at the 2023 US Open partnering Gabriela Dabrowski. She became the second New Zealand woman to win a major in the Open Era, after Judy Connor won the women's doubles title at the 1979 Australian Open. Routliffe was a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Maya Jansen for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Claire Liu is an American professional tennis player. On 30 January 2023, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 52 by the WTA.

Carson Branstine is a Canadian-American tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 314 on July 22, 2024. Branstine also reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 203 on September 18, 2017, and a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 4 on July 17, 2017. She won the 2017 Australian Open and French Open junior doubles titles with Bianca Andreescu. Branstine represented the United States from 2014 to February 2017, but started representing Canada, the birth country of her mother, in March 2017.

Diane Parry is a French professional tennis player. On 8 April 2024, she achieved a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 49. On 4 December 2023, she peaked at No. 74 in the doubles rankings. She was the junior world No. 1 in 2019.

Clara Tauson is a Danish professional tennis player. In 2016, at age 13, she became the youngest Danish champion in tennis history. Her career-high rankings are world No. 33 in singles and No. 432 in doubles, reached in February 2022. She has won two career titles both on hardcourt indoors.

Lisa Pigato is an Italian tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 369 by the WTA, reached on 19 September 2022. She also has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 187, achieved on 18 July 2022. Pigato has won four women's singles titles and seven in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

The 2022 WTA Tour was the global elite women's professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2022 tennis season. The 2022 WTA Tour calendar comprised the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA 1000 tournaments, the WTA 500 tournaments, the WTA 250 tournaments, the Billie Jean King Cup, and the year-end championships.

References

1 2 Bricker, Charles (December 15, 2002). "Baker Not Immune To Off-court Ills". Sun-Sentinel . Archived from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
1 2 3 Chen, Albert (November 25, 2002). "School's Out For up-and-comer Ally Baker, there's no room in a hectic tournament and training schedule for classes". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved 2 February 2018.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Former prodigy sues adidas". Montreal Gazette . November 9, 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
1 2 3 Huffman, Dane (May 21, 2008). "Ally Baker, once a rising tennis star, blames shoes for career-ending injury". WRALSportsFan.com. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

External links

Ally Baker at the Women's Tennis Association
Ally Baker at the International Tennis Federation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Bricker-1] 1 2 Bricker, Charles (December 15, 2002). "Baker Not Immune To Off-court Ills". Sun-Sentinel . Archived from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

[Chen-2] 1 2 3 Chen, Albert (November 25, 2002). "School's Out For up-and-comer Ally Baker, there's no room in a hectic tournament and training schedule for classes". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved 2 February 2018.

[Montreal-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Former prodigy sues adidas". Montreal Gazette . November 9, 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

[Huffman-4] 1 2 3 Huffman, Dane (May 21, 2008). "Ally Baker, once a rising tennis star, blames shoes for career-ending injury". WRALSportsFan.com. Retrieved 2 February 2018.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]