Lucie Hradecká

2002–2011: Career beginnings, first pro tour titles, 2011 French Open doubles champion

She won her first doubles title on the WTA Tour in 2006 at Portorož with partner Renata Voráčová, as the fourth-seeded team. In the final, the Czech team defeated Eva Birnerová and Émilie Loit, the second seeds, by walkover. They also had a victory over the top seeds Maria Elena Camerin and Emmanuelle Gagliardi in the semifinal.

As qualifiers, she reached the third round of doubles competition with Hana Šromová at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships before going down to fifth seeds Meghann Shaughnessy and Anna-Lena Grönefeld. En route they defeated twelfth seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amélie Mauresmo, both Grand Slam singles champions at the time and the previous year's Wimbledon doubles runner-ups by walkover.

In 2007, she made the doubles semifinals of the 2007 Indian Wells Masters tournament with Voráčová. En route, the team defeated Janette Husárová and Meghann Shaughnessy, the seventh seeds, in the first round, and legendary team and third-seeded Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez in three sets in the quarterfinals, before losing to top seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.

Later that year, Hradecká and Voráčová won at Bad Gastein beating Ágnes Szávay and Vladimíra Uhlířová. She again won the 2007 Portorož title with Voráčová beating Elena Likhovtseva and Andreja Klepač in the final.

Hradecká reached her very first singles final at Bad Gastein in July 2008, where, as a qualifier, she defeated players such as Patricia Mayr of Austria to get to the final, where she lost to the fourth seed Pauline Parmentier 4–6, 4–6, after leading 4–1 in the first set. She also reached the doubles final. As a result of the singles final, Hradecká rose from her ranking of 237 to about 150 in the world.

At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Hradecká held two match points over 13th seeded Ana Ivanovic in the first round. However, she was unable to close it out, losing 5–7, 6–2, 8–6.

At her home tournament, the 2010 ECM Prague Open, Hradecká pleased her fans with a dramatic comeback to defeat Stefanie Vögele in the first round. Hradecká came back from 1–5 down in the first set to win 7–6, 6–2. In the second round she crushed fellow double-hander Monica Niculescu 6–2, 6–1 and reached the semifinals before losing to Ágnes Szávay. A year later at the same tournament, Hradecká was the winner, defeating qualifier Paula Ormaechea in the final.

Lucie paired-up with Andrea Hlaváčková to win her first Grand Slam title at the 2011 French Open, defeating the Indian-Russian duo of Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina in the final.

2012: Wimbledon doubles final, Olympic silver medal

Lucie kicked-off the 2012 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She defeated Alberta Brianti and upset second seed Peng Shuai to book a place in the quarterfinals, where she fell to eventual champion Zheng Jie. Then, Lucie went to Hobart for the Moorilla International, where she was overpowered by Shahar Pe'er in round one.

Going into the Australian Open, Hradecká crushed Evgeniya Rodina in the first round. She lost to Vera Zvonareva in the second. Next, at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, she made it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Jamie Hampton. At the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Hradecká defeated Anna Tatishvili before falling to Lesia Tsurenko.

She then suffered two-first round defeats at the Premier Mandatory events BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open, falling to Zheng Jie and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively. Then, at the Oaks Club Challenger in Osprey, Lucie made it to the quarterfinals, with wins over Melinda Czink and Eugenie Bouchard, where she was beaten by Edina Gallovits-Hall. Next, Hardecká went on to beat Urszula Radwańska in the first round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, before losing to Stefanie Vögele.

After losing early in Estoril, Hradecká qualified for Madrid. She caused the two biggest upsets in the tournament by beating both the world no.4, Petra Kvitová (who also was the defending champion) and the world no.5, Samantha Stosur, on the way to her first ever semifinals appearance at the Premier level. In the semifinals, she lost to Serena Williams in straight sets, 6–7^(5–7), 0–6, where she won just six points in the second set.

Lucie and Andrea Hlaváčková reached their second Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, losing to the Williams sisters. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she and Radek Štěpánek lost in the first round of the mixed doubles, but she and Andrea Hlaváčková were much more successful, winning the silver medal.

2015: Singles success

Hradecká started 2015 ranked 141st in the world, and thus had to qualify for the main draw of the Australian Open, which she successfully did with three wins in the qualifying rounds. The first round saw her pitted against world number five Ana Ivanovic. After losing the first set winning only one game, Hradecká would come back to win this match in three sets, marking the biggest victory of her career thus far.

Doubles performance timeline

Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam Tournaments and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records. This table is current through the 2016 Wimbledon Championships.

Notes

Singles performance timeline

This table is current through the 2016 Australian Open.