Katarina Srebotnik

Career

In juniors, she won the 1998 Wimbledon singles title and was singles runner-up at the US Open. Srebotnik attained the second spot on the junior rankings in 1997 and 1998. She was mentored by the Argentinian top3 Gabriela Sabatini.

Tour debut (1995–1999)

Srebotnik made her ITF Debut in 1995. She won the ITF singles tournament in Ismailia (1996), Zadar (1997); Šibenik (1998) and in Dubai (1999). In 1998, Srebotnik won her first Tour doubles title at the Makarska Open (with Tina Križan), and became later that year doubles runner-up at Maria Lankowitz (also with Križan). In 1999, her win at the ITF tournament in Dubai, gave her ‘feed up’ direct entry into her first-ever singles Tour event at Estoril, where she became the fourth player ever to win her Tour debut event by defeating Kuti Kis in the final. She broke into the Top 100 on April 12, 1999 at No.88. Srebotnik reached the semifinal at Palermo, and played in her first Grand Slam main draw at Roland Garros, losing in the second round; but winning the mixed doubles tournament with Norval.

2000–2004

Srebotnik reached her first Tier I semifinal in Tokyo at the Pan Pacific, which she lost to Sandrine Testud. Afterwards, on February 7, 2000, Srebotnik broke into the Top 50 at No.49. She won her fourth career doubles title at Estoril (with Križan). Srebotnik lost in the first round at the 2000 Olympics.

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/Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the semifinal, and they also became doubles runner-up at Estoril. They qualified for their debut doubles season-ending Championships. Srebotnik reached a career-high doubles of No.19 on October 8.

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. She defeated Gala León García in the first round, Conchita Martínez Granados in the second and Émilie Loit in the third, before falling to No. 9 Jelena Dokić. Srebotnik later achieved her then-best win at Los Angeles by defeating No.6 Kim Clijsters. She reached the semifinal in Luxembourg. First doubles alternate at season-ending Championships with Krizan, losing in the first round.

2003 saw Srebotnik reaching her fourth Tour final at Palermo. She won the Bogotá doubles title with Svensson. Srebotnik reached her second Tier I quarter final in Toronto at the Canadian Open. She won her second Grand Slam mixed doubles title at the US Open, this time with Bob Bryan.

Srebotnik's 2004 season was highlighted by reaching the semifinal at Palermo and the quarterfinal at Strasbourg (losing to Lindsay Davenport) and Forest Hills. She was a member of the Slovenian Fed Cup Team, which suffered from a first round loss against the USA (0–3). Srebotnik was seeded third in Fes, but was upset by homecrowd favourite wildcard Bahia Mouhtassine, who was ranked 183 spots below Srebotnik, in the first round.

At the 2004 Olympics, Srebotnik lost in the second round in singles and in the first round in doubles (with Krizan). She won her seventh doubles title in Tokyo at the Japan Open (with Shinobu Asagoe) Srebotnik withdrew from the Pan Pacific (Tokyo), Bogotá, Acapulco and Indian Wells with a right elbow injury.

2005

Her best season to date, highlighted by two singles and four doubles titles, and her career-best victory over Amélie Mauresmo.

Srebotnik captured her third and fourth career Tour singles titles at Auckland (defeating Shinobu Asagoe in the final, while she also 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 doubles title).

Srebotnik was the only player in 2005 to sweep singles and doubles titles twice. She also finished runner-up at Portorož, losing to Koukalová (now Zakopalová ) in three sets in the final. She also became runner-up in doubles with Kostanić.

Srebotnik reached the quarterfinal five times, at Tier II 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 Zürich (upset No.4 Amélie Mauresmo for her career-best victory en route; losing to Ana Ivanovic) and Hasselt (losing to Safina in a third set tie-break).

Her best finish in a major was a third round loss at Wimbledon to Maria Sharapova, but she was the only player to break the defending champion's serve before Sharapova's semifinal loss to Venus Williams.

A new career-high singles ranking of No.28 came on November 7.

In addition to Auckland and Stockholm, Srebotnik also won doubles titles at Budapest and Hasselt (both with Émilie Loit). She reached the US Open mixed doubles final (with Zimonjić; losing to Daniela Hantuchová/Mahesh Bhupathi). Srebotnik withdrew from Canberra with a left adductor strain.

2006

Srebotnik opened the 2006 season with an early exit at the Auckland Open. Two weeks later at the Australian Open she suffered a second round loss in singles but, with partner Shinobu Asagoe, she made it to the semifinals in doubles, losing to Zi Yan and Jie Zheng. Srebotnik's best singles showing until the French Open was a third round, straight set, loss at the Italian Open to Jelena Jankovic. Doubles was a different situation with titles won in Antwerp (with Dinara Safina) and Amelia Island (with Shinobu Asagoe). At the French Open she lost in the third round of singles to Dinara Safina but made up for it with a Mixed Doubles championship partnered with Nenad Zimonjić. It was a straight set victory over Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor.

At Wimbledon, Srebotnik had straight set wins over Martina Sucha and Alicia Molik, but lost in round three to Daniela Hantuchová in a second set tiebreak. Her best discipline at Wimbledon was a quarterfinal loss in Mixed Doubles.

During the summer hard court season, Srebotnik's best singles result came at the Cincinnati Open. She had early round wins over Rossana de los Ríos, Meng Yuan and Marion Bartoli, before gaining a tough-fought upset win over No. 1 seeded Schnyder. It was decided in a third set tiebreak. In the final she lost to Russian Vera Zvonareva in straight sets. In doubles her best early summer result was a semifinal loss at the Southern California Open, partnered with Dinara Safina, to eventual champions Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs.

At the 2006 US Open Srebotnik defeated Akiko Morigami and Ekaterina Bychkova, before falling to Lindsay Davenport in the third round. She held match points in the third set, but finally lost in a third set tie-break thriller. Some consider this match as one of the best matches Srebotnik's career and a major breakthrough in her singles play. Also at the US Open, she reached the doubles final partnering Dinara Safina, but they lost to Nathalie Dechy and Vera Zvonareva in two sets. Two weeks later and seeded No. 1, Srebotnik suffered her biggest disappointment of the year, losing in the first round to Martina Sucha in her home country at the Slovenia Open.

In Stuttgart she beat Nathalie Dechy in straight sets in the first round. In the second round, Srebotnik led 6–4 and 4–2 against number 4 seed Elena Dementieva. In the latter stages of the third set, Dementieva suffered from cramp in her thigh and she had to take an injury break. While Dementieva could barely run, Srebotnik was again few points from victory. But Dementieva fought back and gained the victory at the very last moment. Also in Stuttgart, she reached the semi-finals in doubles with Dinara Safina, losing to Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs. At the Zurich Open, Srebotnik reached the semifinal of a Tier I tournament for the first time in six years (Pan Pacific Open, Japan). In the first round, she stunned two-time Grand Slam champion and No. 29 Mary Pierce in straight sets, and in the second round, she won again, beating two-time Grand Slam finalist and World No. 7 Elena Dementieva in straight sets. This was Srebotnik's first win over Dementieva. In the quarterfinal, Srebotnik beat Maria Kirilenko in two easy sets, but lost in the semifinals Maria Sharapova in straight sets. Also in Zurich, Srebotnik and Liezel Huber lost the doubles final, once again to Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs.

In her final event of the season at the Linz Open, Srebotnik lost in the first round to Russian Anna Chakvetadze, but she reached the doubles final with Corina Morariu, losing to nemesis doubles duo Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur once again. Srebotnik withdrew from the Gaz de France Stars tournament in Hasselt due to a hip strain. Her season high ranking was No. 20 on August 7.

2008

At the 2008 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 time, Williams was the only former champion remaining in the draw and was touted as the warm favourite for the title that year; Srebotnik's victory was an important one, as it eventually cleared the way for Ana Ivanovic to capture the title. 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.

2010

Srebotnik teamed up with Květa Peschke in 2010 and won the WTA tournaments of Indian Wells (defeating Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur in the finals) and New Haven (defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy), and reached the final of the WTA Championships in Doha, where they lost to Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.

Srebotnik had an excellent doubles outing at the 2010 French Open. In the Ladies' Doubles, she and Peschke defeated the #2 seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez in the semifinals, but lost to the Williams sisters in the final. She also partnered with Serb Nenad Zimonjić to win the Mixed Doubles title with a thrilling tiebreak win against Yaroslava Shvedova and Julian Knowle.

She lost in the Rogers Cup doubles final to Dulko and Pennetta. It was the second time this year that Srebotnik and Peschke reached a Premier 5 tournament final, 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.

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded.

Doubles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded.

Records