| Full name | Kimberly Lynn Kessaris |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |  United States |
| Born | March 27, 1973 |
| Prize money | $41,101 |
| Singles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 124 (July 17, 1989) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | 3R (1989) |
| Wimbledon | 2R (1989) |
| US Open | 1R (1989) |
| Doubles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 381 (October 24, 1988) |
Kimberly Lynn Kessaris (born March 27, 1973) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Kessaris grew up in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the daughter of Jim and Peggy. Her father, a dentist by profession, got her started in tennis when she was five. She attended the local Heritage Hall school. [1]
Considered a tennis prodigy, she was a top ranked junior and trained at Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Florida. [2]
Kessaris made her WTA Tour debut at Charleston in 1987, just days after her 14th birthday.
In 1988 she was beaten by Steffi Graf in only 32-minutes at a tournament in Mahwah. [3]
At the 1989 Australian Open she defeated Andrea Farley in the girls' singles final to become the first American to win an Australian Open junior title. [4] [5] She also qualified for the main draw of the women's singles and made the third round.
Her best performance on the WTA Tour was a quarter-final appearance at the 1989 Virginia Slims of Houston as a lucky loser and that July she reached her highest ranking of 124 in the world. [6]
Following the 1990 Australian Open she left professional tennis, aged 16.
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian former professional tennis player and American television personality. Her appearance and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name one of the most common search strings on Google Search.
Monica Seles is a former world No. 1 tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. She won nine major singles titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final one while representing the United States. In 1990, Seles became the youngest-ever French Open champion at the age of 16. She went on to win eight major singles titles before her 20th birthday and was the year-end No. 1 in 1991 and 1992. However, on April 30, 1993, while playing a match, she was the victim of an on-court attack when an obsessed fan of Seles' rival Steffi Graf stabbed Seles in the back with a 9-inch (23 cm) knife as she was sitting down between games. Seles did not return to tennis for over two years after the stabbing. Though she enjoyed some success after returning in 1995, including victory at the 1996 Australian Open, she was unable to consistently produce her best tennis. She played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open but did not officially retire until February 2008. Regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Seles was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time. Several players and historians have stated that Seles had the potential to become the most accomplished female player of all time had she not been stabbed. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009.
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is an Argentine-Italian former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles. In singles, Sabatini won the 1990 US Open, the Tour Finals in 1988 and 1994, and was runner-up at Wimbledon 1991, the 1988 US Open, and the silver medalist at the 1988 Olympics. In doubles, Sabatini won Wimbledon in 1988 partnering Steffi Graf, and reached three French Open finals. Among Open era players who did not reach the world No. 1 ranking, Sabatini has the most wins over reigning world No. 1 ranked players. In 2006, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and in 2018 Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 20th-greatest female player of the preceding 50 years.
Jamea Jackson is an American former Women's Tennis Association (WTA) player and current United States Tennis Association (USTA) coach. She reached a singles ranking of 45 in the world at the end of 2006.
Alina Vladimirovna Jidkova is a former professional tennis player from Russia. In her career, she won one WTA doubles title, at the 2005 Mexican Open and reached the finals three other times, at the Memphis Open 2003, Québec 2006 and Cincinnati Masters 2007. She also won nine singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. In March 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 51, while in August 2003, she peaked at No. 50 in the doubles rankings.
Heather Miriam Watson is a professional tennis player. A former British No. 1, Watson has won nine titles over her career, including the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, partnering Henri Kontinen, making her the first British woman to win a major title since Jo Durie in 1991, and the first to win a Wimbledon title since Durie in 1987. In October 2012, Watson won her first WTA Tour singles title at the Japan Women's Open, becoming the first British woman to win a WTA tournament singles title since Sara Gomer in 1988.
Julia Cohen is an American former professional tennis player. In 2001, she won the USTA National Spring Championships 12-Under Division Championship. In her career, Cohen won five singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. On July 30, 2012, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 97. On May 13, 2013, she peaked at No. 121 in the doubles rankings.
Ashleigh Jacinta Barty is an Australian former professional tennis player and cricketer. She was the second Australian tennis player to be ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), holding the ranking for 121 weeks overall. She was also a top-10 player in doubles, having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world. Barty is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, claiming titles at the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2022 Australian Open. She is also a major doubles champion, having won the 2018 US Open with CoCo Vandeweghe. Barty won 15 singles titles and 12 doubles titles on the WTA Tour.
Taylor Townsend is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 61 in singles by the WTA, which she first achieved in July 2018, and she attained her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 5 in June 2023. A four-time doubles title holder on the WTA Tour, Townsend has also reached two major finals: the 2022 US Open and the 2023 French Open.
Belinda Bencic is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 4 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won eight career singles titles, including a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour.
Kimberly Birrell is an Australian professional tennis player. Birrell reached a career-high WTA ranking of 100 on 18 September 2023. She has won five singles titles and one doubles title on the ITF Circuit.
Jil Belén Teichmann is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as high as world No. 21 in singles and No. 73 in doubles. She has won two singles titles and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour, along with one WTA 125 doubles title. In addition, she won six singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
Priscilla Hon is an Australian tennis player.
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.
Amanda Anisimova is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA ranking of No. 21 in the world, and has been ranked in the top 100 since shortly after turning 17 years old. Anisimova has won two WTA Tour titles and reached three WTA finals in total.
Caroline Dolehide is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 41 on 2 October 2023 and a doubles ranking of No. 21 in May 2022. She has won one WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles titles as well as 18 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, eight in singles and ten in doubles. Her best performances on the WTA Tour came in singles when she reached the WTA 1000 final in Guadalajara and in doubles at the 2019 and the 2022 US Open events where she reached the semifinals with Vania King and Storm Sanders, respectively, and also at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff is an American professional tennis player. She has won six WTA Tour singles titles, including a Major at the 2023 US Open, and eight doubles titles. Gauff has career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and of world No. 1 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).
Dora Krstulović is a former professional tennis player from Croatia.
Mallory Anne Cecil is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Julie Spalding-Steven is an American former professional tennis player,
coach, and businesswoman.
