Ginger Helgeson-Nielsen

Ginger Helgeson
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Carlsbad, California, U.S.
Born	September 14, 1968 (age 56); St. Cloud, Minnesota, U.S.
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Turned pro	1987
Retired	1998
Plays	Right-handed (two handed backhand)
Prize money	$724,792
Singles
Career record	183–144
Career titles	1 WTA
Highest ranking	No. 29 (January 2, 1995)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (1994)
French Open	2R (1992, 1993, 1994)
Wimbledon	3R (1994)
US Open	4R (1994)
Doubles
Career record	98–108
Career titles	0 WTA, 1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 38 (January 9, 1995)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (1992, 1993, 1997)
French Open	QF (1994)
Wimbledon	QF (1997)
US Open	3R (1994)

Last updated November 08, 2024

Ginger Helgeson (born September 14, 1968) is an American former professional tennis player, who is considered to be perhaps the greatest player ever to come out of Minnesota.^[1] She reached her highest singles ranking on January 2, 1995, when she became the No. 29 in the world. In doubles, she reached No. 38 in the same year, on January 9.

Tennis career

Helgeson-Nielsen was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, before moving to Edina after seventh grade. She was coached by her brother, Brace, throughout juniors and high school.^[1] She attended Edina High School and became a three-time consecutive Minnesota state singles champion,^[2] and was ranked No. 1 by the USTA Northern at all levels.^[3]

Helgeson-Nielsen then received a scholarship to attend Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Whilst there, she was a four-year letter winner and a three-time All American, and holds the all-time best career winning percentage.^[3]

She played professionally from 1987, spending her first few years on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her best season was in 1994, winning her first WTA title in Auckland and reaching the fourth round of the Australian and U.S. Opens. At the latter event, she beat reigning Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez for her biggest career victory.^[4] Her ranking hit the top 30 as a result of her breakthrough season. She reached the final of Auckland again in 1995, but a serious wrist injury at a tournament in Amelia Island put her out for the rest of the 1995 season.^[4] She returned in March 1996, but wasn't able to make it back into the top 100 in singles. She played her last match at the US Open qualifying tournament in 1998, where she reached the second round.

In addition to her win over Martínez, she also recorded victories over Helena Suková, Mary Joe Fernández, Gigi Fernández, Anke Huber, Lori McNeil, Sabine Appelmans, Sabine Hack and Natasha Zvereva.^[4]

In 2009, she was inducted into the USTA Northern Hall of Fame,^[3] having already been inducted into the Pepperdine Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.^[5] Helgeson-Nielsen now lives in Alpine, California,^[1] with her two boys. She runs her own professional tennis instruction business.^[1]

WTA career finals

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments
Virginia Slims
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
Tier IV & V

Singles: 1 title, 1 runner-up

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Category	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Feb 1994	Auckland, New Zealand	Tier IV	Hard	Inés Gorrochategui	7–6^(7–4), 6–3
Loss	1–1	Feb 1995	Auckland, New Zealand	Tier IV	Hard	Nicole Bradtke	6–3, 2–6, 1–6

Doubles: 2 runner-ups

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Category	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 1992	Schenectady, U.S.	Tier V	Hard	Shannan McCarthy	Alexia Dechaume Florencia Labat	3–6, 6–1, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Aug 1994	San Diego Open, U.S.	Tier II	Hard	Rachel McQuillan	Jana Novotná Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	3–6, 3–6

Best Grand Slam results details

	Australian Open
1994 Australian Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Veronika Martinek	6–3, 6–2
2R	Kristie Boogert	6–2, 6–0
3R	Anke Huber (7)	3–6, 7–6^(12–10), 6–4
4R	Kimiko Date (10)	5–7, 1–6

	French Open
1992 French Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Sophie Amiach	6–4, 5–7, 6–4
2R	Nathalie Tauziat (12)	6–3, 1–6, 3–6

1993 French Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Silke Meier	6–1, 4–6, 6–2
2R	Conchita Martínez (4)	5–7, 2–6

1994 French Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Elna Reinach	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
2R	Conchita Martínez (3)	2–6, 3–6

	Wimbledon Championships
1994 Wimbledon
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Veronika Martinek	6–3, 6–2
2R	Claire Wegink (LL)	6–4, 6–0
3R	Amanda Coetzer (14)	0–6, 3–6

	US Open
1994 US Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Karin Kschwendt	6–2, 6–1
2R	Åsa Carlsson	6–1, 6–1
3R	Conchita Martínez (3)	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
4R	Gigi Fernández	3–6, 4–6

Related Research Articles

Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur. She now shares her knowledge of doubles with tennis enthusiasts throughout the US by conducting Master Doubles with Gigi Clinics and Doubles Boot Camps. Fernández is the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Conchita Martínez Bernat is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. She was the first Spaniard to win the women's singles title at Wimbledon, doing so in 1994. Martínez also was the runner-up at the 1998 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 2 in October 1995, and was in the year-end top 10 for nine years. Martínez won 33 singles and 13 doubles titles during her 18-year career, as well as three Olympic medals. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2020.

Chanda Rubin is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world No. 1s Serena Williams and Martina Hingis. In doubles, she won the 1996 Australian Open with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and alongside Sandrine Testud, were runners-up at the 1999 US Open.

Brad Gilbert is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1990, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 18 four years prior. He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, and both a gold medal and a silver medal at the 1981 Maccabiah Games.

Kerry Melville Reid is a former professional tennis player from Australia. During her 17-year career, Reid won one Grand Slam singles title and 26 other singles titles and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments. Reid was included in the year-end world top-ten rankings for 12 consecutive years (1968–1979). She won at least one tournament annually from 1966 through 1979, except for 1975. Her career-high ranking was world No. 5 in 1971, behind Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, and Rosie Casals.

Amy Frazier is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, while on March 29, 1993, she achieved a career-high doubles ranking of No. 24.

Harold Solomon is an American former professional tennis player who played during the 1970s and 1980s. He achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 5 in singles in 1980, and of No. 4 in doubles in 1976. Over the course of his career, he won 22 singles titles.

Marjorie Katherine "Midge" Gladman Van Ryn was an American amateur tennis player in the early part of the 20th century.

Eliot Teltscher is a retired professional American tennis player. He won the 1983 French Open Mixed Doubles. His highest ranking in singles was No. 6 in the world and in doubles was No. 38 in the world.

Lori McNeil is an American tennis coach and former top 10 player. McNeil was a singles semifinalist at the US Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1994, a women's doubles finalist at the Australian Open in 1987 with Zina Garrison and French Open mixed-doubles winner in 1988 with Jorge Lozano.

Inés Gorrochategui is a former professional female tennis player from Argentina. She reached her career-high singles ranking world No. 19 on October 17, 1994. Her best performance at a Grand Slam championship came when she got to the quarterfinals of the 1994 French Open, defeating Michelle Jaggard-Lai, Naoko Sawamatsu, Helena Suková and Iva Majoli before losing to Steffi Graf. Inés Gorrochategui represented her country regularly in the Fed Cup from 1990 to 1999, reaching the semi-finals in 1993 with Labat and Tarabini.

Michael E. Leach is a former collegiate and ATP Tour professional tennis player who won the NCAA singles championship in 1982 while attending the University of Michigan.

The 1994 WTA Tour was the elite tour for professional women's tennis organised by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The WTA Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the year-ending WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV events. ITF tournaments are not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.

Meredith McGrath is a former professional tennis player.

Mareen "Peanut" Louie-Harper is a retired American tennis player, born in San Francisco, California to Ron and Alice Louie.

The WTA Tour is the elite tour for women's professional tennis organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The 2011 WTA Tour includes the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Premier tournaments, the WTA International tournaments, the Fed Cup, the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions and the WTA Championships.

Taylor Townsend is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 46 in singles by the WTA on 19 August 2024, and in doubles as No. 5 on 12 June 2023. Townsend won her first Grand Slam title at the 2024 Wimbledon with Kateřina Siniaková. In addition, she has won six WTA Tour doubles titles and also reached two other major finals, the 2022 US Open and the 2023 French Open.

Edith Cross Jensen was an American tennis player who achieved a No. 3 national ranking in 1928, 1929 and 1930.

Stacy Margolin is an American former professional tennis player in the WTA tour and the ITF world tour from 1979 to 1987 whose career-high world singles ranking is No. 18. In her eight professional seasons, Margolin competed in a total of twenty-five grand slam championships, which includes several appearances at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open. She won a gold medal at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

Cecilia Martinez is an American former professional tennis player.

References

1 2 3 4 "Six Inducted In USTA Northern Hall of Fame".
↑ "MSHSL Records". Archived from the original on August 14, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
1 2 3 "Helgeson Named to 2009 USTA Northern Hall of Fame".^{[ permanent dead link ]}
1 2 3 Wolf, Bob (July 13, 1995). "This Ginger Is Ailing After Big 1994 Season". The Los Angeles Times.
↑ "Pepperdine Announces New Hall of Fame Class".^{[ permanent dead link ]}

External links

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.

[Helgeson_Induction_2-1] 1 2 3 4 "Six Inducted In USTA Northern Hall of Fame".

[2] "MSHSL Records". Archived from the original on August 14, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2010.

[Helgeson_Induction-3] 1 2 3 "Helgeson Named to 2009 USTA Northern Hall of Fame".^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[Helgeson_Info_2-4] 1 2 3 Wolf, Bob (July 13, 1995). "This Ginger Is Ailing After Big 1994 Season". The Los Angeles Times.

[Helgeson_Induction_3-5] "Pepperdine Announces New Hall of Fame Class".^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]