Luksika Kumkhum

Career

In 2010, Kumkhum had won one ITF event in singles but three ITF events in doubles. The next year she won five singles ITF events all 10ks and two in doubles. In 2012, she won two singles ITF events and two doubles ITF events. In 2013, she cracked the top 200 and started to play on the WTA Tour as well as the ITF circuit. Kumkhum qualified for the 2013 Australian Open where she defeated Sofia Arvidsson in the first round. She was beaten in the 2nd round by Jamie Hampton. She played the 2013 Malaysian Open where she qualified for the tournament and reached the quarterfinals defeating Olivia Rogowska and Eleni Daniilidou en route before falling to Ayumi Morita in the quarters, she also reached the semifinals of the tournament where she partnered with Erika Sema, falling to Janette Husárová and Zhang Shuai in the semis. In April she won the 25K ITF event in Phuket defeating Lisa Whybourn in the finals. She then played the 2013 Roland Garros qualifying event where she defeating Zarina Diyas in the first round before falling to Sandra Záhlavová in the second qualifying round. She then suffered first round losses at the 2013 Aegon Trophy, 2013 Aegon Classic and 2013 Wimbledon Championships. Kumkhum's next event was the 100k ITF event, 2013 President's Cup where she defeated Eugeniya Pashkova in the first round, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn in the second round and Ekaterina Bychkova in the quarterfinals before she lost to Nadiya Kichenok in the semifinals. In the doubles event she and Tamarine Tanasugarn reached the final before falling to first seeds Nina Bratchikova and Valeria Solovyeva.

At the 2014 Australian Open, Kumkhum, ranked 87 in the world, caused a major upset when she defeated former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the first round, in three sets. This was the first time ever that Kumkhum had ever faced a top ten opponent in her career. She then suffered first round loss at the PTT Pattaya Open from Julia Görges 6-4, 6-4.