Nicole Vaidišová

2003–2004: Instant success

Vaidišová debuted in 2003 by reaching three consecutive finals: won $10K ITF/Plzeň-CZE, her only event in 2003, without dropping a set.

In 2004, her first full year as a professional, Vaidišová finished the year as a top 100 player. As a qualifier at only her third WTA Tour main draw at inaugural Vancouver, Vaidišová became the sixth-youngest singles champion in tour history at an age of 15 years, three months, and 23 days. She also became the lowest-ranked player (World No. 180) and second qualifier (of three) to win a title in 2004. Vaidišová won her second title of the year at Tashkent, defeating Virginie Razzano in the final. On 18 October, she made her top 100 debut at World No. 74, becoming the youngest player in the top 100 at the time.

Later in the year, Vaidišová reached the quarterfinals at the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. Vaidišová made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, losing to defending champion and World No. 1 Justine Henin in the first round.

Vaidišová finished the year with two WTA titles and a win-loss record of 31–8.

2005–2007: Consistency and top 10 debut

In early January, Vaidišová reached her first quarterfinal of the season in Hobart. Vaidišová picked up her first Grand Slam singles victory in her Australian Open debut, by reaching the third round before falling to top seed Lindsay Davenport.

In April, Vaidišová made her top 50 debut at World No. 47 and reached her first career Tier I quarterfinal at the Family Circle Cup. She posted her first top 10 victory over defending French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, before eventually losing to Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals, and making her top 40 debut as a result at World No. 34 on 18 April. In May, Vaidišová reached her first Tier III final in Istanbul, losing to top seed Venus Williams in the championship match. She made her debut at the French Open where she fell to 22nd-seeded Francesca Schiavone in the second round.

In August, Vaidišová reached the quarterfinals at Toronto, losing to Justine Henin. At the US Open, Vaidišová reached the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam event before her run was ended by Nadia Petrova.

Vaidišová's captured her first title of 2005 (and third of her career) in Seoul, defeating top seed Jelena Janković in the final without dropping a set during the week. She followed by winning her second straight tour singles title in Tokyo, winning when Tatiana Golovin retired in the final. On 10 October, Vaidišová made her top 20 debut at World No. 18 and extended her winning streak to 15 matches, by winning her third consecutive tour singles title and fifth of her career; she defeated Nadia Petrova for the first time in the final of the Bangkok. With her three consecutive titles, Vaidišová became the first player since Lindsay Davenport in 2004 to win three titles in three weeks, and also became the sixth woman to win five Tour singles titles before her 17th birthday (after Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis).

Vaidišová captured her sixth WTA title at the Tier III event in Strasbourg in May 2006. In June, she made a semifinal run at the French Open, her best Grand Slam performance to date. She defeated world No. 1 and home favourite Amélie Mauresmo in the fourth round and Venus Williams in the quarterfinal. However, she lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the next round, despite being only two points away from victory several times. At the Wimbledon Championships, she got to the fourth round before losing to Li Na. Vaidišová's fourth round appearance meant that she has advanced to the Round of 16 or better in each of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

In July, Vaidišová went 2–0 during the Czech Republic's 3–2 Fed Cup World Group Play-offs loss to France. She reached the semifinal on her debut in Stanford, losing to Kim Clijsters. Vaidišová reached her career-first Tier I semifinal in San Diego, losing to Clijsters again. After her success in San Diego, Vaidišová moved from No. 12 to 9, her first career top 10 debut, becoming the 12th-youngest player in Tour history to crack the top 10, at an age of 17 years, three months and two weeks.

At the US Open, Vaidišová made it to the third round, but lost to Jelena Janković, who later made it to the semifinal. Vaidišová defeated Mauresmo for the second time at the Kremlin Cup, after rallying from 1–6, 2–5 down and three match points, in their quarterfinal match. However, she lost to Nadia Petrova for a third time in their four meetings in the semifinal afterwards. She managed to finish 2006 among the top ten in the world, at No. 10, making it her most successful season.

Beginning 2007, Vaidišová reached the semifinals of the Medibank International, beating rival Ana Ivanovic for the first time, before falling to Jelena Janković. She went on to reach her second Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, losing at that stage to the eventual champion Serena Williams.

At the Open Gaz de France, Vaidišová was the fifth seed. She lost in the second round to Šafářová. In March, she had a successful run in Pacific Life Open, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. She then skipped a large majority of the clay season with a right wrist injury. Her lack of preparation did not stop her from reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open, however, where she was defeated by Jelena Janković.

In her first grass tournament of the season, International Women's Open, Vaidišová lost in the quarterfinals to World No. 1 Justine Henin. At Wimbledon, Vaidišová lost to Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals after failing to convert three match points. She had earlier dismissed the reigning champion Amélie Mauresmo in the fourth round, and future world number one Victoria Azarenka in the third.

Vaidišová was out for two months after Wimbledon due to glandular fever and signed up for several tournaments before withdrawing. She returned at the US Open, where she lost to Shahar Pe'er in a third round match. Moving into the indoor season, Vaidišová played the Kremlin Cup, losing there to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. The next week in Zürich, Vaidišová reached the semifinals, achieving a notable victory over World No. 3 Jelena Janković. In the semifinals, she faced world No. 1 Justine Henin and lost in three sets. She finished the year by making another semifinal in Linz.

2008–2010: Struggles and retirement

Vaidišová played three hard court tournaments in Australia to start the year. She lost to Li Na of China in the quarterfinals of the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts. She then reached the semifinals of the Medibank International, defeating Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. At the Australian Open, Vaidišová lost to defending champion Serena Williams in the fourth round.

The week after the Australian Open, Vaidišová won both of her Fed Cup singles matches in the tie against Slovakia. Following that, she suffered a heavy defeat to World No. 2 Ana Ivanovic at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. The loss was the first of six consecutive losses for Vaidišová, with losses to Casey Dellacqua, Alisa Kleybanova, Gisela Dulko, Ekaterina Makarova and Iveta Benešová, who knocked her out in the first round of the French Open, following.

Vaidišová ended her losing streak at the DFS Classic, winning two matches before losing to Bethanie Mattek. As the 18th seed at Wimbledon she enjoyed an unexpected run to the quarterfinals, before losing to Zheng Jie at the last eight stage.

Vaidišová won just one match in the run-up to the US Open, and underperformed at the year's final Grand Slam, too, when she suffered a second round exit against Séverine Brémond. She finished the year with another pair of consecutive losses, and had tumbled to No. 41 in the world over the course of the season.

2009 began for Vaidišová at the ASB Classic, in which she lost to Elena Vesnina in the second round. She followed that with three consecutive opening round losses, including at the Australian Open where she once again lost to Brémond. However, she seemed to be taking a step in the right direction in March, when she made the third round of consecutive Premier Mandatory events: the BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open.

For the clay season, Vaidišová entered two International tournaments but failed to build on her performances in March, losing in the second round of both. She followed with two consecutive Grand Slam first round exits, losing to Virginia Ruano Pascual at the French Open, and to Rossana de los Ríos at Wimbledon.

Her ranking now out of the top 100, Vaidišová's situation reached a dire state with a loss to World No. 578 Stacey Tan in the qualification rounds of the Bank of the West Classic, the lowest-ranked player she had ever lost to. She lost in the first round of U.S. Open qualifying shortly afterwards.

After much speculation that her year in the WTA circuit had ended in September at the US Open due to the fact that she was constantly spotted watching numerous matches of her boyfriend Radek Štěpánek, in the ATP circuit and lacked motivation to play, she entered the $75,000 ITF tournament in Dubai, that started on 14 December 2009. Coming from six losses in a row, Vaidišová went on to reach the quarterfinals before losing to Sandra Záhlavová. During her participation in this tournament, it was reported that she had hired top coach Eric van Harpen. At the end of the year, Vaidišová was ranked No. 187.

Vaidišová started 2010 by playing consecutive ITF Women's Circuit events, but suffered a first round defeat in both. She was then given a main draw wildcard to the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup, defeating Laura Granville in the first round before losing to Kaia Kanepi in the second.

She played another ITF event in Hammond, Louisiana following that, losing to Heather Watson in the first round in what would turn out to be her last professional match; later in March, Vaidišová's stepfather and former coach Ales Kodat announced her decision to retire from her professional career, at the age of 20, to the Czech daily Sport newspaper due to a lack of interest in tennis. "Her agent told me last week... she's fed up with tennis and that's understandable. She started very young", Kodat said. Kodat said she had turned down a wild card to play in Miami starting on 23 March.

2014: Comeback

Vaidišová received a wildcard to compete in the 2014 Coleman Vision Tennis Championships, an ITF $75,000 event, starting on 15 September. This marked her return to professional tennis in 4-and-a-half years. She won her first match in straight sets against Kazakh Sesil Karatantcheva, before losing in the second round to Johanna Konta 6–1, 1–6, 4–6.

Next she reached the quarterfinals of the 2014 Red Rock Pro Open, after win over Alexa Glatch and Veronica Cepede. She lost to Madison Brengle in straight sets.

She lost in qualification to 2014 USTA Tennis Classic of Macon. She fall at 2014 John Newcombe Women's Pro Challenge qualification, but she moved to main draw as lucky loser. She fell to Irina Falconi at second round.

2015

Vaidišová started season at Plantation, when she fell in first qualification round to Anna Bondar.

At Daytona Beach, she defeated Petra Rampre and Katarina Jokic. She was defeated by Natalia Vikhlyantseva.

At Sunrise, she defeated Daniela Ciobanu and Marina Shamayko, but she was defeated by Tena Lukas.

She won a qualification for the first time at 2015 Dow Corning Tennis Classic. After wins over Nao Hibino, Anna Tatishvili and Caitlin Whoriskey, she made her first semifinal since her 2014 comeback. She lost to Tatjana Maria in the semifinal.

At the Monterrey Open in March, Vaidišová qualified for her first WTA main draw since 2010 but she drew top seed and defending champion Ana Ivanovic in the first round. Vaidišová lost in straight sets 1-6, 6-7; she had qualified for the main draw only seven hours before her match against Ivanovic.

She played at Miami Open as wildcard. She won her first round match against Tímea Babos at straight sets 6-1, 7-6. She lost in second round to No.3 seed Simona Halep in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 1-6.

She won three qualification rounds to enter in the main draw at the 2015 Tianjin Open. In the first round she lost to Ying-Ying Duan.

2016 Second Retirement

İn January at Wesley Chapel, she defeated Nicole Frenkel and Marina Melnikova. She was defeated by Shelby Rogers.

İn July She announced her second and permanent retirement from professional tennis.

Personal life

She was introduced to tennis by her mother, Riana. She has two younger brothers, Oliver and Toby. Vaidišová follows the NHL, primarily supporting the Tampa Bay Lightning and enjoys reading, watching movies, yoga and bike riding. She likes pop music and is a fan of Madonna. She lists New York City as her favourite city because of its constant activity. Vaidišová speaks Czech, English, German and is studying French.

She became engaged to fellow Czech tennis player Radek Štěpánek, who is eleven years her senior, in late 2007. It has been suggested that the relationship was the cause of Vaidišová's decline in tennis. The two married on 17 July 2010 at Prague Castle. In June 2013, Vaidišová and Štěpánek announced they had filed for divorce.

Endorsements

Vaidišová was the face of Reebok and has been featured in their "I Am What I Am" and "Run Easy" campaigns. She also endorsed Citizen Watches and its Eco-Drive design. She is represented by Olivier van Lindonk of IMG. During her career she had been using Yonex racquets.

Interests

An avid reader, Vaidišová is part of the "Get Caught Reading Campaign" to encourage people to read more. She has taken part in other philanthropic causes, such as becoming an ambassador for PlayPumps International, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing clean drinking water to African children.

Singles: 7 (6-1)

Singles performance timeline

Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam Tournaments and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.

Head-to-head record against other players

Vaidišová's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.