Катарина Среботник: Путь к вершинам большого тенниса

Slovenian tennis player

Katarina Srebotnik (born 12 March 1981) is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. She reached her career high singles ranking of world No. 20 on 7 August 2006. On 4 July 2011, she reached No. 1 of the WTA doubles rankings, holding this ranking for 10 weeks. Srebotnik won four singles titles on the WTA Tour and was ranked inside the top 30 for several years. However, her best results have been on the doubles circuit, where she has won 39 WTA titles, including one Grand Slam title, at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships alongside Květa Peschke. She has also won five Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles, at the French Open in 1999, 2006 and 2010, the US Open in 2003 and the Australian Open in 2011. In September 2021, Srebotnik was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the first (and youngest) tennis player men or women to win their first main draw tournament across all three disciplines
singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Srebotnik won her debut in singles (1999 Oeiras), in doubles (1998 Makarska, with Tina Križan) and mixed doubles (1999 Roland Garros, with Piet Norval).

As a junior, she won the 1998 Wimbledon singles title and was runner up at the US Open. Srebotnik was ranked No. 2 in the junior rankings in 1997 and 1998. She was mentored by Gabriela Sabatini.

Srebotnik made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in 1995, winning the singles tournaments in Ismailia in 1996, Zadar in 1997 and Šibenik in 1998. In 1998, Srebotnik won the doubles title on her WTA Tour debut at the Makarska Open (with Tina Križan), and later that year reached the doubles final at the Austrian Open, also with Tina Križan. In 1999, her win at the ITF tournament in Dubai gave her direct entry into her first tour level singles event in Estoril, where she became the fourth player to win on her tour debut, defeating Rita Kuti Kis in the final. She broke into the top 100 on April 12, 1999 at No. 88. In May 1999, Srebotnik played in her first Grand Slam singles main draw at Roland Garros, losing to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the second round. She won her first Grand Slam title in the mixed doubles with Piet Norval, becoming the first woman ever to win her first tour event in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Only Mirjana Lučić had previously won on debut in both singles and doubles.

Srebotnik reached her first Tier I semifinal in Tokyo at the Pan Pacific Open, which she lost to Sandrine Testud. On 7 February 2000, Srebotnik broke into the top 50 at No. 49. She won her fourth career doubles title at Estoril (with Tina Križan). Srebotnik and Križan won their only doubles title of 2001 at Hawaii. They reached their biggest doubles final of their career in Toronto at the Canadian Open by defeating Martina Navratilova and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the semifinals, and they were doubles finalists at Estoril. They qualified for their debut doubles season ending championships. Srebotnik reached a career high doubles of No. 19 on 8 October. In 2002, Srebotnik reached the finals at Bogotá (losing to Fabiola Zuluaga) and Acapulco (defeating Paola Suárez) in the final. She reached the fourth round at Roland Garros, which is her career best Grand Slam. Srebotnik later achieved her then best win at Los Angeles by defeating world No. 6, Kim Clijsters. She reached the semifinals in Luxembourg. She achieved her second appearance at the doubles season ending championships with Krizan. 2003 saw Srebotnik reaching her fourth tour final at Palermo. She won the Bogotá doubles title with Asa Svensson, and reached her second Tier I quarterfinals in Toronto at the Canadian Open. She won her second Grand Slam mixed doubles title at the US Open, this time with Bob Bryan. Her 2004 season was highlighted by reaching the semifinals at Palermo and the quarterfinals at Strasbourg and Forest Hills. Srebotnik won her seventh doubles title in Tokyo at the Japan Open (with Shinobu Asagoe).

Her best season to date was highlighted by two singles and four doubles titles as well as a career best victory over Amélie Mauresmo. Srebotnik captured her third and fourth career WTA Tour singles titles at Auckland (defeating Shinobu Asagoe in the final, and she teamed with Asagoe for the doubles title) and in Stockholm (defeating world No. 14 Anastasia Myskina in the final and teaming with Émilie Loit for the doubles title). She was the only player in 2005 to sweep singles and doubles titles twice. She also finished runner up at Portorož, losing to Klára Zakopalová (now Koukalová) in three sets in the final. She also became runner up in doubles with Jelena Kostanic. Srebotnik reached the quarterfinals five times: at Tier II at Antwerp (lost to Anastasia Myskina), Tier I Charleston (losing to Elena Dementieva in three sets), Budapest (losing to Laura Pous Tió in a third set tie break), Tier I Zurich (losing to Ana Ivanovic), and Hasselt (losing to Dinara Safina in a third set tie break). Her best finish in a major was a third round loss at Wimbledon to Maria Sharapova. A new career high singles ranking of No. 28 came on 7 November. In addition to Auckland and Stockholm, Srebotnik won doubles titles at Budapest and Hasselt (both with Émilie Loit). She reached the US Open mixed doubles final (with Nenad Zimonjić, losing to Daniela Hantuchová and Mahesh Bhupathi).

Srebotnik opened the 2006 season with an early exit at the Auckland Open. Two weeks later at the Australian Open, with partner Shinobu Asagoe, she made it to the semifinals in doubles, losing to Yan Zi and Zheng Jie. She won doubles titles in Antwerp (with Dinara Safina) and Amelia Island (with Shinobu Asagoe). At the French Open, she won the mixed doubles championship with Nenad Zimonjić. At the US Open, she reached the doubles final partnering Dinara Safina. In Stuttgart, she reached the semifinals in doubles with Dinara Safina. At the Zurich Open, Srebotnik reached the semifinals of a Tier I tournament for the first time in six years (Pan Pacific Open, Japan). Also, Srebotnik and Liezel Huber reached the doubles final. In her final event of the season at the Linz Open, Srebotnik reached the doubles final with Corina Morariu.

At the French Open, Srebotnik caused an upset when she defeated Serena Williams, whom she had never beaten in four previous attempts, in the third round. At the US Open in the same year, she upset former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round. On both occasions, she lost to Patty Schnyder in the next round.

In that year, Srebotnik teamed with Květa Peschke, and won the WTA tournaments of Indian Wells (defeating Nadia Petrova and Sam Stosur in the final) and New Haven (defeating Bethanie Mattek Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy), and reached the final of the WTA Championships in Doha. Srebotnik had an excellent doubles outing at the French Open. In the ladies' doubles, she and Peschke defeated the second seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez in the semifinals, but lost to Serena and Venus Williams in the final. She also partnered with Nenad Zimonjić to win the mixed doubles title with a thrilling tiebreak win against Yaroslava Shvedova and Julian Knowle. Srebotnik and Peschke reached the Rogers Cup doubles final. It was the second time this year that Srebotnik and Peschke reached a final of a Premier 5 tournament after Dubai in February. At the end of the 2010 season, Srebotnik announced that she would focus on doubles for the remainder of her career.

Although she played her last match at Rolland Garos in 2020, she was officially honored for her career in Portoroz in September 2022.

ResultNo. DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1. 17 November 1996 Cairo, Egypt Hard Jessica Steck Maaike Koutstaal Andrea van den Hurk w/oWin 1. 24 November 1996 Ismailia, Egypt Clay Teodora Nedeva Shiri Burstein Debby Haak 6–4, 6–4Loss 2. 3 August 1997 Lexington, United States Hard Kaoru Shibata Elly Hakami Danielle Jones 2–6, 5–7Win 2. 21 April 1997 Biograd na Moru, Croatia Clay Jelena Kostanić Tošić Katia Altilia Charlotte Aagaard 6–4, 6–2Win 3. 29 April 1997 Zadar, Croatia Clay Jelena Kostanić Tošić Yvette Basting Susanne Trik 7–5, 7–5Loss 3. 27 October 1997 Ramat Hasharon, Israel Hard Petra Rampre Kirstin Freye Hila Rosen 1–6, 1–6Win 4. 15 February 1998 Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia Hard (i) Tina Križan Tina Pisnik Miriam Schnitzer 6–0, 6–3Win 5. 23 March 1998 Makarska, Croatia Clay Jelena Kostanić Tošić Ľudmila Cervanová Zuzana Váleková 6–3, 6–1Win 6. 5 April 1998 Hvar, Croatia Clay Jelena Kostanić Tošić Helena Vildová Antoaneta Pandjerova 7–5, 6–3Win 7. 10 May 1998 Cardiff, United Kingdom Clay Liezel Horn Petra Langrová Nancy Feber 6–4, 6–3Win 8. 17 May 1998 Porto, Portugal Clay Nancy Feber Surina De Beer Rebecca Jensen 5–7, 6–1, 6–4Win 9. 20 September 1998 Otočec, Slovenia Clay Jasmin Wöhr Nóra Köves Dragana Zarić 6–2, 6–3Win 10. 27 September 1998 Šibenik, Croatia Hard (i) Marijana Kovačević Blanka Kumbárová Olga Vymetálková 6–3, 6–1Win 11. 22 November 1998 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Seda Noorlander Eva Bes María Fernanda Landa 7–6(7–5), 6–3Win 12. 23 November 1998 Lima, Peru Clay Zuzana Váleková Alice Canepa Conchita Martínez Granados 6–7(4–7), 7–5, 6–4Win 13. 30 November 1998 Bogotá, Colombia Clay Zuzana Váleková Mariana Mesa Fabiola Zuluaga 6–3, 6–4Win 14. 30 November 1998 Cali, Colombia Clay Zuzana Váleková Laura Montalvo Alicia Ortuño 2–6, 6–3, 6–2Win 15. 11 January 1999 Miami, United States Hard Zuzana Váleková Olga Vymetálková Gabriela Chmelinová 4–6, 6–4, 7–5Win 16. 18 January 1999 Boca Raton, United States Hard Zuzana Váleková Dawn Buth Rebecca Jensen 4–6, 6–4, 6–1Win 17. 25 January 1999 Clearwater, United States Hard Zuzana Váleková Karin Miller Jean Okada 6–2, 6–0Win 18. 8 February 1999 Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia Carpet (i) Tina Križan Eva Martincová Svetlana Krivencheva 7–5, 6–2Win 19. 9 May 1999 Bratislava, Slovakia Clay Tina Križan Lenka Němečková Radka Zrubáková 6–1, 6–3

#PlayerRankEventSurfaceRoundScore20001. Amanda CoetzerNo. 10French OpenClay1st round 6–2, 4–6, 6–320012. Nathalie TauziatNo. 9US OpenHard 2nd round 7–5, 1–6, 6–320023. Arantxa Sánchez VicarioNo. 9Indian Wells MastersHard 2nd round 6–4, 4–6, 6–14. Jelena DokićNo. 7French OpenClay3rd round 7–6(7–3), 6–25. Kim ClijstersNo. 6LA ChampionshipsHard2nd round 6–4, 2–6, 6–46. Magdalena MaleevaNo. 10Linz OpenHard (i) 2nd round 7–5, 4–6, 6–320037. Chanda RubinNo. 10Miami OpenHard 3rd round 6–2, 6–28. Daniela HantuchováNo. 9San Diego OpenHard2nd round 3–6, 7–5, 7–6(8–6)20059. Anastasia MyskinaNo. 8 Nordic Light OpenHardFinal 7–5, 6–210. Ai SugiyamaNo. 10Charleston OpenClay3rd round 6–1, 4–6, 6–111. Amélie MauresmoNo. 4Zurich OpenHard (i)2nd round 6–2, 6–0200612. Francesca SchiavoneNo. 8Antwerp OpenCarpet (i)1st round 6–4, 6–213. Patty SchnyderNo. 8 Cincinnati MastersHardSemifinals 4–6, 6–3, 7–6(8–6)14. Lindsay DavenportNo. 7Connecticut OpenHard1st round 6–3, 6–315. Mary PierceNo. 10Stuttgart OpenHard (i)1st round 6–3, 7–516. Elena DementievaNo. 7Zurich OpenHard (i)2nd round 6–1, 6–4200717. Svetlana KuznetsovaNo. 4Sydney InternationalHard 2nd round 6–2, ret.18. Nadia PetrovaNo. 9LA ChampionshipsHard3rd round 6–3, 7–6(12–10)19. Dinara SafinaNo. 8Stuttgart OpenHard (i)1st round 5–7, 6–4, 6–220. Nicole VaidišováNo. 10Zurich OpenHard (i)1st round 6–4, 6–2200821. Anna ChakvetadzeNo. 6Sydney InternationalHard 1st round 7–5, 6–122. Vera ZvonarevaNo. 9 Prague OpenClay2nd round 6–2, 6–423. Serena WilliamsNo. 5French OpenClay3rd round 6–4, 6–424. Svetlana KuznetsovaNo. 4US OpenHard 3rd round 6–3, 6–7(1–7), 6–325. Caroline WozniackiNo. 10Pan Pacific OpenHard1st round 6–1, 6–226. Elena DementievaNo. 4Pan Pacific OpenHardQuarterfinals 6–3, 6–427. Agnieszka RadwańskaNo. 10Zurich OpenHard (i)2nd round 2–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–3

In 2011, Srebotnik won seven titles (six in doubles, one in mixed doubles), more than any other player on the WTA Tour.