Urszula Radwańska

Tennis career

As a junior player, Radwańska won Grand Slam titles, including the 2007 Wimbledon girls' singles, culminating in the junior year-ending world No. 1 ranking. This was the launching pad into her professional career, where she has been getting into WTA main draws via qualifying and wildcards.

In 2007, Radwańska played in the main draw of three WTA tour tournaments. She lost in the first round of the Tier II J&S Cup in Warsaw, the second round of the Tier III Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, and the quarterfinals of the Tier III PTT Bangkok Open after defeating fourth-seeded Virginie Razzano in the third round. Urszula and Agnieszka won a doubles title together at the 2007 İstanbul Cup.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, Radwańska made her Grand Slam singles debut, losing in the second round to two-time champion Serena Williams 6–4, 6–4. Having seen the fight she put up in this match, the commentator Andrew Castle observed, "She is sound in just about all areas, and she knows what to do with the ball, she seems to have an understanding, a little like Martina Hingis."

2009: Breaking into the Top 100

On 16 February 2009, the Radwańska sisters played their first official tour match against each other in the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Urszula won the match in straight sets 6–4, 6–3 hitting six aces and 25 winners.

At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Radwańska defeated sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets, the highest ranked player she had ever defeated. She then lost to ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in her first ever WTA fourth round match. Her results at this tournament caused her singles ranking to break into the top 100 for the first time.

In the second grand slam of the year, the French Open, Radwańska lost in the first round to Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. She advanced to the second round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, falling to No.14 Dominika Cibulková. Radwańska then competed in the 2009 US Open, losing to Kristina Barrois in the opening round.

2010–2011: First WTA Semifinal

Radwańska lost in the first round of 2010 Australian Open to eventual champion Serena Williams. She was then forced to take a break to undergo lumbar spine surgery in Miami, Florida. Following a six-month break, she returned to action in August. At the US Open she scored her first main draw win of the year by defeating Anna Chakvetadze, but lost her next round to Lourdes Domínguez Lino.

Radwańska then lost in the qualifying draw at the 2011 Australian Open. She advanced to the third round at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open before falling to Victoria Azarenka. However, she was unable to qualify for the 2011 French Open or the 2011 Wimbledon Championships. Subsequently, she won three qualifying matches at the 2011 U.S. Open to make the main draw. She lost to her sister Agnieszka Radwańska in the first round. Radwańska reached her first WTA semifinal at the 2011 Tashkent Open, eventually losing to number 1 seed Ksenia Pervak.

2012: Breaking into the Top 30

At the 2012 Australian Open Radwańska lost in the second round to Sorana Cîrstea. She reached the second round French Open losing to fourth seed Petra Kvitová. Radwańska started the grass season playing the 75K tournament in Nottingham. She saved three match points in her opening round against Misaki Doi and went on to win the title. Weather forced the semifinals and final to be played on the same day. Radwańska won both matches in three sets, defeating Irina Falconi in the semis and Coco Vandeweghe in the final. This result granted her qualification into the main draw for the Olympic Games in London. She reached her first career final at the 2012 UNICEF Open where she lost to Nadia Petrova.

At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Radwańska lost her first round to Marina Erakovic. She teamed up with her sister Agnieszka in doubles; they advanced to the third round before withdrawing due to Agnieszka's illness.

She started out the summer hard court season at the Bank of the West Classic and Mercury Insurance Open where she reached the quarterfinals of both events. In London Olympics Radwańska lost to eventual champion Serena Williams (6–2, 6–3). She partnered with her sister in doubles. They lost in the second round to the top seeded team Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond.

Returning to hard courts she qualified for the main draw at Rogers Cup and Western & Southern Open where she lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Serena Williams respectively. At the US Open she lost in the first round to 20th seed Roberta Vinci, who subsequently eliminated her older sister in the fourth round.

She reached back to back semifinal at the 2012 Tashkent Open and at Guangzhou but fell to Irina-Camelia Begu and Hsieh Su-wei respectively. Both went on to win the title. At the Toray Pan Pacific Open she defeated Ana Ivanovic in the second round but lost to Angelique Kerber in the third round. She lost in the first round of the China Open to Romina Oprandi. She defeated Francesca Schiavone at the first round of the Kremlin Cup. Her season ended with a loss to Caroline Wozniacki in round 2. Urszula finished the season with a 47–29 record.

2013: Fed Cup success

Urszula began the season in Brisbane where she scored a 3 set win over Tamira Paszek in the first round. She then lost a tight match against Ksenia Pervak, losing 6 points to 8 in a final set tie-break. She lost in the first round at the Apia International to Caroline Wozniacki. Urszula was seeded for the first time of her career at a Slam at the Australian Open but fell in the first round to Jamie Hampton. She suffered another first round lost to Mona Barthel at the Open GDF Suez. She won her first tour match of 2013 at the Qatar Total Open defeating Nadiia Kichenok in the first round. She then defeated Roberta Vinci in the next round but was taken out by Serena Williams in the third round. Urszula won three qualifying rounds at the Dubai Tennis Championships to make the main draw. However she lost in round one to Zheng Jie. As an unseeded player at the French Open, she upset seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams 7–6, 6–7, 6–4 in the first round. At Wimbledon, she reached the second round before being defeated by Alison Riske in three sets. She played at the 2013 Bank of the West Classic in which she reached the quarter-finals, following an easy victory over Christina McHale and a difficult match against former no. 5 Daniela Hantuchová, which she won 7–6(3), 7–6(3). She then lost to eventual winner Dominika Cibulková. She next played at the 2013 Southern California Open, taking out Marina Erakovic and former world no. 1 Jelena Janković before falling to top seed and eventual runner-up Victoria Azarenka. Ula then fell in the first round of the next tournament 2013 Rogers Cup to the feisty Italian Flavia Pennetta. In the next tournament, she was the top seed in the qualifying tournament for the 2013 Western & Southern Open. Sadly, she crashed out in the first round of qualifying to Croatia's Petra Martić in three tight sets. She was scheduled to play in the 2013 New Haven Open at Yale, but withdrew due to illness. At the 2013 US Open, Urszula defeated Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets in the opening round. However, she fell to the No. 15 seed, American Sloane Stephens, in the second round.

2014: Shoulder injury and fall from Top 200

Urszula pulled out of the 2014 Australian Open due to a shoulder injury. She began the 2014 season in February, when she played at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic at Midland, Michigan. Here she defeated Sachia Vickery in the first round and Siniakova in the second round. She then played in Acapulco, Mexico, where she lost to Dominika Cibulková in the first round.

Following Acapulco, she played at the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, where she lost to Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round. The following week she took part in the Sony Open Tennis in Miami, where she lost to Nadia Petrova 5–7, 6–1, 4–6. Ula then played at Monterrey Open, where she lost to Ana Ivanovic, who ended up winning the tournament.

Ula next competed at Marrakech Grand Prix, Morocco where she lost to Lara Arruabarrena in the first round. The string of early exits continued with losses at the Portugal Open ( lost to Yanina Wickmayer 4–6, 5–7), Mutua Madrid Open (lost to Laura Pous Tió), French Open (lost to Magdaléna Rybáriková 6–4, 4–6, 0–3, Retired), Aegon Classic (lost to Casey Dellacqua 1–6, 3–6), Topshelf Open (lost to Mona Barthel 6–3, 6–2), and Wimbledon (lost to Angelique Kerber 2–6, 4–6). Her first main draw win since February would come at the Baku Cup, where she defeated Alison Van Uytvanck 6–1, 0–0, by retirement; the success though was short lived, as Ula experienced a disappointing loss in the next round to Japanese qualifier Misa Eguchi 2–6, 1–6. Most likely one of the most shocking losses of Ula's career came about in her next tournament, The Rogers Cup, with a loss to American Asia Muhammad in the first round. Ula lost in the second round of qualifying at the US Open. She next played in Tashkent, where she picked up elusive back to back wins, one over Vesna Dolonc 6–2, 6–2, and the other against the number five seed Donna Vekić 6–3,6–3. She lost in the quarterfinals to the number one seed Bojana Jovanovski 6–4, 4–6, 3–6.

2015: New coach and getting back to form

Urszula started the season with the hiring of her new coach, Maciej Domka, a former tennis player. She reached three WTA quarterfinals at Auckland Open, 2015 Monterrey Open and 2015 İstanbul Cup. In July, she took out the last seed standing, Tsvetana Pironkova, to reach her first WTA semifinal in almost three years at the TEB BNP Paribas İstanbul Cup. She defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková for a place in the final. The final match effectively hinged on a tight first set in which Radwańska, held three set points on the Lesia Tsurenko serve at 5-4. It was a disappointing outcome for Radwańska, who was also defeated on her only previous appearance in a WTA Tour final, in Rosmalen three years ago. In August Urszula participated in the US Open (tennis), but fell to Magda Linette in the first round. Magda Linette then lost to Urszula's sister Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round. Urszula ended the season ranked No. 95.

2016: Ankle injury and fall from Top 100

Urszula began her season at the 2016 Australian Open where she lost to Ana Konjuh in three sets. She continued at Taiwan Open, where she defeated Ching-Wen Hsu but lost to Venus Williams in the second round. Next Urszula qualified for the Acapulco Mexican Open main draw where she faced Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. However, she was forced to retire during the match with an ankle injury.

Urszula returned to the ITF circuit in July when she reached the quarterfinal at the Stockton Challenger tournament in California. She continued at another California tournament, the Stanford Classic where she defeated Kateryna Bondarenko but lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the second round.

She ended the year with a ranking of No. 261.

Singles performance timeline

Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour are considered. This table is current through the 2013 US Open.

Doubles performance timeline

Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour are considered. This table is current through the 2013 US Open.

Head-to-head vs. top 10 ranked players

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