Anett Kontaveit

2011

Kontaveit had success on the junior tour in 2011, her best Grand Slam result of the year being at Roland Garros in May. There she made the quarterfinals with wins over world number six Danka Kovinić and future-Wimbledon junior champion Ashleigh Barty. At the quarterfinal stage she lost to Irina Khromacheva, the Wimbledon junior runner-up.

Kontaveit won her first ITF title in SEB Tallink Open 2011, beating Zuzana Luknárová in the final. She was also a member of Estonia Fed Cup team. Kontaveit has also had surprising success on the professional tour as she has won three professional titles. Besides these successes she has also had a semifinal singles result at a tennis tournament in Almere on clay and a quarterfinal result in another tournament in Tallinn. She also made the finals of the SEB Tallink Open in doubles with Maret Ani. She lost in the quarterfinals of the Tampere Open to Piia Suomalainen. Kontaveit won her second ITF title at the 2011 Savitaipale Open, where she beat Lisanne van Riet in the final.

Kontaveit continued her success with a third title win at the Djursholm Tennis Club Stockholm Open. She won the tournament by defeating number one seed Marion Gaud and then Syna Kayser in the final.

On 11 December, Kontaveit won the Orange Bowl, a Grade A tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit. During the tournament, she beat Eugenie Bouchard and Yulia Putintseva, both having top 300 WTA Tour rankings. Her junior ranking skyrocketted to her career high of number nine.

She won the European Under-16 Junior Championships with 14-year-old Tatjana Vorobjova in girls' doubles, where they beat first seeded Czechs Barbora Krejčíková and Petra Rohanová.

2012: US Open junior finals

Kontaveit began her year at the Loy Yang Power Traralgon International, an under-18 girls tournament in Traralgon, Australia. Seeded second, she reached the third round where she lost to future junior Australian Open champion Taylor Townsend.

Next, Kontaveit headed to Melbourne for the junior Australian Open. She defeated Miho Kowase and Lee So-ra to advance to the third round, where she lost once more to eventual champion Taylor Townsend.

Kontaveit played the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone I, where she posted the biggest wins of her career. She started the event disappointingly, losing to Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, but in her next two matches she had record breaking wins. She became the lowest ranked person to beat a top-50 player in seven years, with her straight-sets victory over Tamira Paszek of Austria. She then backed up her result with a win over Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands. Despite Kontaveit's solid performances, Estonia was relegated to the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone II.

In February 2012, Kontaveit won the $10,000 ITF tournament in her hometown of Tallinn as an unseeded player. After this, she flew to the United Kingdom for a $25,000 tournament in Bath, Somerset. In the first round, Kontaveit defeated Frenchwoman Alizé Lim, backed up by another win over qualifier Patrysja Sanduska. However, she lost in the third round to another qualifier, Diāna Marcinkēviča.

Kontaveit was awarded a wildcard for the qualifying draw of her first WTA tournament, the e-Boks Danish Open in Copenhagen. In the first round of qualifying, she defeated Lenka Wienerová of Slovakia to advance to the second qualifying round. Here she overcame fellow teenager Kristina Mladenovic, but was knocked out of the tournament in the final round of qualifying by Annika Beck.

Kontaveit's next tournament was a $25,000 event in Tunis. In the first round she swept aside Lina Stančiūtė but was defeated by Richèl Hogenkamp in the second. Following this loss, Kontaveit played another $25,000 tournament in Chiasso, Switzerland, where she lost in the second round.

Kontaveit then played a girl's under-18 tournament in Milan, losing in the second round. After this, she reached the semifinals of the 2012 French Open – Girls' Singles, losing to eventual champion Annika Beck. Then, to begin her short grass court season, Kontaveit played an under-18 girl's tournament in Roehampton, once more losing in the second round. However, she saw better results at Wimbledon, reaching her second consecutive junior Grand Slam semifinal, where she lost to eventual champion Eugenie Bouchard.

In July, Kontaveit played the President's Cup $100,000 event in Astana, Kazakhstan. However, she lost in the first round of qualifying to top qualifying seed Sun Shengnan.

Kontaveit became the first Estonian to reach the final of the junior draw at the 2012 US Open, but she was defeated in straight sets by Samantha Crawford for the championship.

2013: Last junior year, top-250

Kontaveit began her final year in junior tennis at the Australian Open. After some convincing wins, including over higher ranked opponents including Antonia Lottner and Anna Danilina, she lost in the semifinals to Kateřina Siniaková.

In March, Kontaveit received a main draw wildcard into the Sony Open in Miami courtesy of her management deal with IMG. Playing Christina McHale in the first round's night session, Kontaveit lost in straight sets.

She played the rest of the year at ITF tournaments, summing four titles from the five finals she reached, entering the world's top-250 for the first time at the age of 18.

2014: ITF wins, top-160 and onset of glandular fever

Kontaveit started the year ranked 249 in the WTA rankings. After qualifying for her first WTA Tournament at the 2014 ASB Classic in Auckland, she then went on to play Fed Cup in Tallinn, winning 49 games in a row spanning three Fed Cup matches and two matches in the following week's ITF event in her hometown. After losing in the final to Timea Bacsinszky, she then played another ITF event in Moscow, where she lost in the final to Aliaksandra Sasnovich. After mediocre performances at the Sony Open and a WTA event in Monterrey, she performed well in a series of ITF tournaments on green clay in the United States. She held two match points to make the final of a tournament in Indian Harbour Beach, but lost the match to Taylor Townsend, who went on to win the tournament. Kontaveit lost in the final round of qualifying for the French Open.

Kontaveit qualified for Wimbledon for the first time in 2014. She held match point in the first round against Casey Dellacqua, but lost the match in three sets. She then qualified for the 2014 Swedish Open, beating top seed Alizé Cornet in the first round. She lost in the second round to Jana Čepelová.

Kontaveit travelled to North America and played in an ITF event in Vancouver, receiving a wildcard into the Canadian Open, however did not play again for the remainder of the year after being diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis. At the end of the 2014 season, Kontaveit found a new coach in Australian Paul McNamee, and began training in Istanbul at the KozaWOS academy.

2015: Recovery, Grand Slam breakthrough and top 100

After an extended training block in Australia to end 2014, Kontaveit's first tournament since the Canadian Open was the 2015 ASB Classic, where she lost to Urszula Radwańska in three sets. She then played her first Australian Open, defeating Paula Kania in the first round of qualifying before losing a close match against Evgeniya Rodina.

Kontaveit returned to Estonia to play in the Fed Cup, seemingly still suffering from illness as she put in poor performances and struggled to beat much lower ranked opponents. She made a strong return to the ITF at her training base in Istanbul, where she made the semifinals, her equal best ITF result, where she lost to Shahar Pe'er. She then went to an ITF event in Wiesbaden, Germany, where she was routed by Adrijana Lekaj, winning only three games. Kontaveit then headed to La Marsa in Tunisia where she lost to Romina Oprandi at the semifinal stage. Participating in the French Open qualifying again, she defeated in-form American Katerina Stewart, before losing to French wildcard Clothilde de Bernardi.

Kontaveit transferred to the grass in Eastbourne, and won the $50,000 ITF event, her biggest ITF title to date, without losing a set. She then continued this form in Surbiton, making the semifinals before losing a three-set match to Naomi Osaka. She then qualified and made the semifinals in Ilkley, beating players including Zhu Lin, Jeļena Ostapenko and Wang Yafan. However, she lost to Magda Linette after leading 5-1 in the third set and holding a match point. Despite this loss, Kontaveit had the most wins of any player on grass, and this form granted her a main draw wildcard to the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. She drew Victoria Azarenka in the first round, but lost to the former world number one.

Kontaveit played three WTA tournaments after Wimbledon, the 2015 Swedish Open, 2015 İstanbul Cup and 2015 Baku Cup. Despite disappointing showings in the singles including losses to Olga Govortsova, Melis Sezer and Karin Knapp, Kontaveit made her first WTA semifinal in doubles in Istanbul, partnering Elizaveta Kulichkova after being offered a wildcard. At the Vancouver Open, Kontaveit qualified and beat Shuai Zhang and Patricia Maria Țig before losing to Alla Kudryavtseva in the quarterfinals.

Kontaveit had her first slam break through at the 2015 US Open. Starting as an unseeded player in qualifying, she beat Stephanie Vogt, María Teresa Torró Flor and Naomi Broady to qualify for the main draw. There, Kontaveit then beat Casey Dellacqua, 31st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and American Madison Brengle to reach the fourth round proper, where she lost to 23rd seed Venus Williams in straight sets. With this result Kontaveit broke into the top-100 of the world rankings for the first time, moving up over 60 places.

Kontaveit finished the year by participating in WTA tournaments in Guangzhou, Tashkent and Luxembourg. However, a thigh injury hindered her performance at the latter events and she ended her season with a retirement in qualifying in Luxembourg.

2016: Out of the top 100

Kontaveit started her year with a quarterfinal run at the Shenzhen Open before losing in the first round of the Australian Open to Garbiñe Muguruza. After losing in the first round of the Mexican Open to No. 4 seed Johanna Konta, Kontaveit reached the semis in Monterrey, losing there to Kirsten Flipkens; however, she failed to qualify for both Indian Wells and Miami. She also lost in the first round of the French Open to Venus Williams.

During her grass season, Kontaveit reached the quarterfinals at the Nottingham Open (losing to Alison Riske) and qualified for the Eastbourne International (losing in the first round to Anna-Lena Friedsam) before losing in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships to Barbora Strycova. Her next six tournaments (including the US Open) also ended in early exits; therefore, her ranking plummeted and she fell from the top 100. Her best year-end performance was a semifinal run in Guangzhou.

2017: First WTA title and top 30

Kontaveit started her season ranked 121. Her first tournament was the Australian Open and was named one of the seven alternates through on the entry list, but a number of withdrawals that did not qualify to the main draw. She lost to Maria Sakkari in the first round. She then won the Andrézieux-Bouthéon ITF tournament, beating Ivana Jorović in the final. After that, she entered the Hungarian Ladies Open's main draw as a qualifer, losing to eventual semifinalist Julia Görges in the first round.

In the BNP Paribas Open, Kontaveit entered the main draw as a qualifier and beat World No. 47 Misaki Doi in the first round before falling to No. 19 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Her next tournament was the Miami Open, where, once again as a qualifer, she beat Kurumi Nara and recorded an upset over No. 32 seed and world No. 35 Ekaterina Makarova before losing to No. 3 seed Simona Halep in straight sets. Ranked No. 99 in the world, Kontaveit reached her first WTA level final at her next tournament, the Ladies Open Biel Bienne, beating former World No. 38 Heather Watson, Evgeniya Rodina, Elise Mertens and Aliaksandra Sasnovich en route. She then lost to fellow first time finalist Markéta Vondrousová. Good results followed as she qualified for Stuttgart and reached the quarterfinals there. As a qualifier she also entered into Madrid and Rome, reaching the quarterfinals in the latter, which was her first Premier 5 quarterfinal. She lost to Simona Halep but beat World No. 1 Angelique Kerber en route. She followed that with a second round appearance at the French Open, beating Monica Niculescu before losing to Garbiñe Muguruza.

At her first grass tournament of 2017, the Ricoh Open, Kontaveit reached her second final of the year. En route she scored wins over sixth seed Kristýna Plíšková, former Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens, Carina Witthöft and seventh seed Lesia Tsurenko. In the final she got past Natalia Vikhlyantseva to clinch her maiden WTA title and ensure a Top 40 debut.

Playing style

In 2017, Geoff MacDonald of The New York Times called Kontaveit "a superb competitor on all surfaces." The same year, she beat French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza on clay and won her first career title on grass.

Kontaveit utilizes a variety of strokes that generally force opponents to hit awkward returns—enabling her to strike fast winners or draw quick errors. While seeking a short ball from her opponent, she will typically attack with a high kick serve, alter pace with a backhand slice, or change direction amidst a prolonged rally. During their 2017 meeting in Rome, she hit 32 winners against Angelique Kerber. She also forced 33 errors from Natalia Vikhlyantseva in the final of the 2017 Ricoh Open. Along with her kicker, Kontaveit employs a wide slice serve as well. In addition, she is noted for her speed around the baseline, allowing her to reach most shots and hit running forehands.