Tag: Grand Slam

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Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka is a professional tennis player who represents Japan. Osaka has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association, and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles.

She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, including two titles at both the Grand Slam and Premier Mandatory levels.

Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, and is the first player to achieve this feat since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

  • Full name: Naomi Osaka
  • Profession: Japanese tennis player
  • Born: 16 October 1997 (age 22 years), Chuo Ward, Osaka, Japan
  • Height: 1.8 m
  • Current ranking: No. 10 (March 16, 2020)
  • Country (sports): Japan
  • Coach: Wim Fissette (2020–)
  • Parents: Leonard Francois, Tamaki Osaka
  • Siblings: Mari osaka
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Venus Williams

Venus Williams

Venus Williams is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1, Williams is generally credited with ushering in a new era of power on the women’s professional tennis tour.

Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks.

  • Full name: Venus Ebony Starr Williams
  • Profession: American tennis player
  • Born: 17 June 1980 (age 39 years), Lynwood, California, United States
  • Height: 1.85 m
  • Grand slams won (singles): 7
  • Grand Slam Cup: W (1998)
  • Current ranking: No. 67 (March 9, 2020)
  • Siblings: Serena Williams, Yetunde Price, Lyndrea Price
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Simona Halep

Simona Halep

Simona Halep is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019.

In total, she has been No. 1 for 64 weeks, which ranks tenth in the history of the Women’s Tennis Association rankings. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018.

She has finished each year ranked no lower than No. 4 since 2014 and has the longest active streak of being ranked in the top 10.

She has won 20 WTA singles titles and has finished runner-up 17 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

  • Full name: Simona Halep
  • Profession: Romanian tennis player
  • Born: 27 September 1991 (age 28 years), Constanța, Romania
  • Height: 1.68 m
  • Grand slams won (singles): 2
  • Tour Finals: F (2014)
  • Country (sports): Romania
  • Coach: Darren Cahill
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Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, his professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating rival Andre Agassi in the final.

Sampras won 14 Grand Slam singles titles during his career, which was an Open Era record at the time of his retirement: seven Wimbledon, two Australian Open and a joint Open Era record five US Open titles. He won 64 singles titles in total.

He first reached world No. 1 in 1993, and held that position for a total of 286 weeks (second of all time), including an Open Era record of six consecutive year-end No. 1 rankings from 1993 to 1998.

A right-handed player with a single-handed backhand, his precise and powerful serve earned him the nickname “Pistol Pete”. In 2007, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

  • Full name: Petros “Pete” Sampras
  • Profession: American tennis player
  • Born: 12 August 1971 (age 48 years), Potomac, Maryland, United States
  • Grand Slam Cup: W (1990, 1997)
  • Int. Tennis HoF: 2007 (member page)
  • Retired: September 8, 2002 (last match); August 25, 2003 (official)
  • Spouse: Bridgette Wilson (m. 2000)
  • Tour Finals: W (1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999)
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Gaël Monfils

Gaël Monfils

Gaël Sébastien Monfils is a French professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 6 singles ranking on 7 November 2016.

His career highlights include reaching two Grand Slam singles semifinals at the 2008 French Open and 2016 US Open and three ATP Tour Masters 1000 singles finals – two at the Paris Masters (2009, 2010) and the other at the Monte Carlo Masters (2016).

Monfils was named the ATP Newcomer of the Year in 2005. Monfils has won ten ATP World Tour singles titles and been runner-up twenty-one times in ATP Tour tournaments.

He has reached at least one ATP World Tour singles final and scored at least one singles win against a Top 10 player every year since 2005.

  • Full name: Gaël Sébastien Monfils
  • Profession: French tennis player
  • Born: 1 September 1986 (age 33 years), Paris, France
  • Height: 1.93 m
  • Current ranking: No. 9 (2 March 2020)
  • Tour Finals: RR (2016)
  • Prize money: US$ 19,076,271: 26th all-time leader in earnings
  • Wimbledon: 4R (2018)
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Dominic Thiem

Dominic Thiem

Dominic Thiem is an Austrian professional tennis player. His career-high ATP ranking is world No. 3, which he first achieved on 2 March 2020.

He is the second highest-ranked Austrian player in history, behind Thomas Muster. He has won 16 ATP Tour singles titles and reached three Grand Slam finals.

As a junior, Thiem was ranked world No. 2. He qualified for the 2011 French Open Boys’ final, and won the 2011 Orange Bowl.

As a professional, he made it to the finals of the 2018 and 2019 French Open, losing to Rafael Nadal on both occasions, and the 2020 Australian Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. In 2019, he beat Roger Federer to win his first ATP Tour Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.

Thiem is primarily an aggressive baseline player, and uses a single-handed backhand. The Roland Garros website described him as an “heir to the throne.”

  • Full name: Dominic Thiem
  • Profession: Austrian tennis player
  • Born: 3 September 1993 (age 26 years), Wiener Neustadt, Austria
  • Nationality: Austrian
  • Height: 1.85 m
  • Country (sports): Austria
  • Tour Finals: F (2019)
  • Coaches: Nicolás Massú (2019–), Günter Bresnik (2002–2019)
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Stan Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals world No. 3 singles ranking for the first time on 27 January 2014.

His career highlights include three Grand Slam titles at the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open, where he defeated the No. 1 player in the final on all three occasions, reaching the final of the 2017 French Open, winning an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Monte-Carlo

Masters in 2014, and reaching three other finals at 2008 Rome, 2013 Madrid and 2017 Indian Wells. As a competitor for Switzerland, Wawrinka won gold in doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with teammate Roger Federer, and was also pivotal in the Swiss team’s victory at the 2014 Davis Cup.

Wawrinka considers clay his best and favorite surface and his serve and backhand his best shots. John McEnroe once said that Wawrinka has one of the most powerful backhands ever, and in 2009 described him as having “the best one-handed backhand in the game.”

He has been described by The Economist as “Tennis’s great latecomer”, owing to finding success late in his career.

Prior to the 2014 French Open, he requested and the ATP granted a formal change in his name from “Stanislas Wawrinka” to “Stan Wawrinka”, stating that he plans to use the abbreviated name in tournament draws and press conferences.

  • Full name: Stanislas Wawrinka
  • Profession: Tennis player
  • Born: 28 March 1985 (age 35 years), Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Grand slams won (singles): 3
  • Height: 1.83 m
  • Tour Finals: SF (2013, 2014, 2015)
  • Spouse: Ilham Vuilloud (m. 2009–2015)
  • Olympic Games: 2R (2008)
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Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev is a German professional tennis player. He is the second-youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals, and was a permanent fixture in the top 5 throughout 2018.

Zverev was the champion at the 2018 ATP Finals, which had made him the youngest winner at the year-end championship in a decade.

He is the only active player outside of the Big Four with three ATP Masters 1000 titles. Zverev has been praised by members of the Big Four as one of their potential successors.

Rafael Nadal has called him a “clear possible future No. 1,” while Novak Djokovic has said, “Hopefully, he can surpass me.” Zverev has won 11 ATP titles in singles and two in doubles.

Zverev is a former world No. 1 junior, and won a junior Grand Slam singles title at the 2014 Australian Open.

He had an early breakthrough on the professional tour as well, becoming one of the youngest Challenger title winners in history at the age of 17.

As a teenager, Zverev won two ATP titles and also upset then world No. 3 Roger Federer on grass. At 20 years old, he was the youngest player to debut in the top 20 since Djokovic.

  • Full name: Alexander “Sascha” Zverev
  • Profession: German tennis player
  • Born: 20 April 1997 (age 22 years), Hamburg, Germany
  • Height: 1.98 m
  • Prize money: US$21,012,015: 24th all-time in earnings;
  • Coach: Alexander Zverev Sr.
  • Australian Open: SF (2020)
  • US Open: 4R (2019)
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Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Sir Andrew Barron Murray OBE is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. Murray represents Great Britain in his sporting activities and is a three-time Grand Slam tournament winner, two-time Olympic champion, Davis Cup champion, winner of the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals, and former world No. 1.

Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final, becoming the first British player since 1977, and the first British man since 1936, to win a Grand Slam singles tournament.

Murray is also the first British man to win multiple Wimbledon singles titles since Fred Perry in 1936, winning the tournament in 2013 and 2016.

Murray is the men’s singles 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medallist, making him the only tennis player, male or female, to have won two Olympic singles titles.

He featured in Great Britain’s Davis Cup-winning team in 2015, going 11–0 in his matches (8 singles and 3 doubles) as they secured their first Davis Cup title since 1936.

  • Full name: Sir Andrew Barron Murray OBE
  • Profession: British tennis player
  • Born: 15 May 1987 (age 32 years), Glasgow
  • Grand slams won (singles): 3
  • Height: 1.9 m
  • Spouse: Kim Sears (m. 2015)
  • Coach: Jamie Delgado (2016–)
  • Children: Edie Murray, Sophia Olivia Murray
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Karolína Plíšková

Karolína Plíšková

Karolína Plíšková is a Czech professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 and is currently ranked No. 3 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

Karolína has won sixteen singles and five doubles titles on the WTA tour, as well as 10 singles and six doubles titles on the ITF circuit in her career. On 31 October 2016, she peaked at world No. 11 in the doubles rankings.

She reached her first and, as of today, only Grand Slam final at the 2016 US Open, where she was runner-up to Angelique Kerber in three sets.

As a junior, Plíšková won the girls’ singles event at the 2010 Australian Open, defeating Laura Robson in the final. She has also played for the Czech Republic in Fed Cup competition.

  • Full name: Karolína Plíšková
  • Profession: Czech tennis player
  • Born: 21 March 1992 (age 28 years), Louny, Czechia
  • Height: 1.86 m
  • Spouse: Michal Hrdlička (m. 2018)
  • Country (sports): Czech Republic
  • Tour Finals: SF (2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Coaches: Conchita Martínez (2018–2019), Rennae Stubbs (2018–2019), Daniel Vallverdú (2020–), Olga Savchuk (2020–)
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Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and former world No. 1 in women’s single tennis.

She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any man or woman in the Open Era.

The Women’s Tennis Association ranked her world No. 1 in singles on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017.

She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on July 8, 2002. On her sixth occasion, she held the ranking for 186 consecutive weeks, tying the record set by Steffi Graf.

In total, she has been No. 1 for 319 weeks, which ranks third in the Open Era among female players behind Graf and Martina Navratilova.

  • Full name: Serena Jameka Williams
  • Profession: American tennis player
  • Born: 26 September 1981 (age 38 years), Saginaw, Michigan, United States
  • Height: 1.75 m
  • Grand slams won (singles): 23
  • Weight: 70 kg
  • Spouse: Alexis Ohanian (m. 2017)
  • Children: Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.
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Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals.

He has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, the third-most in history for a male player, five ATP Finals titles, 34 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 14 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for over 280 weeks.

In majors, he has won a record eight Australian Open titles, five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles, and one French Open title.

By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969 and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces.

He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments. Djokovic was also a member of Serbia’s winning Davis Cup team in 2010 and in the 2020 ATP Cup.

  • Full name: Novak Djokovic
  • Born: 22 May 1987 (age 32 years), Belgrade, Serbia
  • Grand slams won (singles): 17
  • Height: 1.88 m
  • Spouse: Jelena Đoković (m. 2014)
  • Tour Finals: W (2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
  • Children: Stefan Đoković, Tara Đoković
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Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals.

Spanish tennis player who emerged in the early 21st century as one of the game’s leading competitors, especially noted for his performance on clay.

He won a record 12 career French Open championships, has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles and has been involved in five Davis Cup titles with Spain.

  • Full name: Rafael Nadal Parera, also known as “Rafa Nadal”
  • Profession: Spanish Tennis Player
  • Born: 3 June 1986, Manacor, Spain
  • Grand slams won (singles): 19
  • Height: 1.85 m
  • French Open: W (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Spouse: Xisca Perelló (m. 2019)
  • Tour Finals: F (2010, 2013)
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