Timea Bacsinszky

Timea Bacsinszky[1] (born 8 June 1989) is a Swiss professional tennis player who has reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 and won three singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. 2015 was a breakthrough year for her in singles, winning a career-best 15 consecutive matches spanning two titles then reaching the semifinals of the French Open, the first time she advanced past the third round of a major. She also reached her first Premier Mandatory final at the China Open.

Playing for Switzerland in the Fed Cup, Bacsinszky has a career match record of 23–16.[2] She also has won 12 singles and 14 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Career 2.1 2004–10 2.2 2011–14 2.3 2015: Breakthrough season, first Premier Mandatory final, Top 10 debut and First Major SF 2.4 2016: 4th WTA title 3 Sponsors 4 WTA career finals 4.1 Singles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runners-up) 4.2 Doubles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups) 5 Performance timelines 5.1 Singles 5.2 Doubles 6 Wins over top 10 players 7 References 8 External links

Personal life
Bacsinszky, who first picked up a racket at age 3, was pushed hard to succeed in youth tennis by her father Igor, a Hungarian tennis coach born in Romania.[3][4] She has stated that she resented him for this and remains estranged from him after her parents divorced, though she still developed a passion for competitive tennis.[5] Her mother, Suzanne, is a dentist from Hungary.[3] She has one brother, Daniel, a music teacher and member of The Evpatoria Report, and two sisters, Sophie (musician and student) and Melinda.[3] While growing up, Bacsinszky idolized Monica Seles.

Career

2004–10

Bacsinszky's early tennis highlights included reaching the semifinals of three junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2004–05. Her breakthrough professional tournament was the 2006 Zurich Open, where she qualified then defeated Anastasia Myskina and Francesca Schiavone before losing to former No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Her early years on tour were a learning experience, and she finished both 2006 and 2007 ranked in the 120s.

Her singles ranking climbed in 2008, and she finished in the top 60 three straight years. The breakthrough was reaching the semifinals of the Diamond Games in February, winning three qualifying and several main draw matches before losing to world No. 1 Justine Henin in three sets. She won her first WTA singles title at the 2009 Luxembourg Open then won her first three doubles titles the following year.

2011–14

Bacsinszky suffered a serious foot injury in the spring of 2011, requiring surgery and a long recovery.[6] She returned at the Fed Cup the following February then used her protected ranking to play several WTA tournaments. She also played a number of ITF Women's Circuit events. However, she decided to skip the Olympics for personal reasons[7] and soon took a hiatus from tennis altogether. She ended up working in restaurants and bars while preparing to attend hotel management school.[8]

In May 2013 Bacsinszky received an email stating she was eligible to compete in that month's French Open qualifier. With no practice and having to take time off work, she drove from Lausanne to Paris; she lost her first match but felt her passion for the game reignited. Thus she hired Dimitri Zavialoff, former coach of compatriot Stan Wawrinka, and committed herself to reviving her tennis career.[8][9][10] Her gradual return to the WTA Tour reached a big milestone at the 2014 Wuhan Open when she upset No. 4 Maria Sharapova in the third round. A few weeks later she won her fourth career doubles title.

2015: Breakthrough season, first Premier Mandatory final, Top 10 debut and First Major SF

Bacsinszky began the year in Shenzhen, upsetting No. 4 Petra Kvitová in the semifinal before losing to No. 3 Simona Halep in her first WTA final in five years. She then reached the third round of the Australian Open followed by back-to-back titles in Mexico at Acapulco and Monterrey, beating Caroline Garcia in both finals. As a result, her ranking rose into the top 30 for the first time. She continued this good form at the Indian Wells Premier Mandatory, defeating No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova en route to the quarterfinals where she lost to No. 1 Serena Williams, thereby ending her win streak at a career-best 15 matches.[5]

At the French Open she advanced past the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, once again upsetting Kvitová. She made it all the way to the semifinals and a rematch with No. 1 Williams; Bacsinszky led by a set and a break but lost the last 10 games.[11] Then after making the quarterfinals of Wimbledon her ranking rose to 13.

The U.S. hard court season however saw unstable results of the Swiss, falling in the first round of all four tournament she entered, including losing to Barbora Strýcová in her opening match at the US Open. Entering the China Open in poor form, Bacsinszky beat Italian Camila Giorgi, qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino, and three former top-10 players including Carla Suárez Navarro, Sara Errani and Ana Ivanovic to advance her first ever premier mandatory final where she lost to Garbiñe Muguruza in straight sets. Her run to the final put her in the top 10 in the WTA Rankings for the first time.

She lost out on her run to the 2015 WTA Finals, however, because the last tournament she played (Luxembourg) held its final on Saturday and the points could not count for the race. She withdrew from the 2015 WTA Elite Trophy due to a left knee injury that had already forced her retirement in her first round match in Luxembourg. After the end of the season, Bacsinszky received the WTA's Most Improved Player Award.

2016: 4th WTA title

Bacsinszky's first two tournaments both ended in defeats as she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anna Karolina Scmiedlová at the Brisbane International and at the Sydney International, respectively. Her next tournament was the Australian Open, where she beat Katerina Siniakova but lost to Annika Beck. At the Fed Cup, Bacsinszky lost both of her matches in Switzerland's tie against Germany, but these losses didn't do any harm to Switzerland who beat Germany in the doubles. She then withdrew from the Dubai Tennis Championships. At the Qatar Open, Bacsinszky defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Yulia Putintseva before losing to eventual champion Carla Suárez Navarro. However, Timea was not able to defend her back-to-back title in Acapulco and Monterrey from 2015 as they were set in the same dates as the aforementioned tournaments.

In March, Bacsinszky reached fourth round at Indian Wells beating Tsvetana Pironkova and Eugenie Bouchard respectively, but lost to Daria Kasatkina subsequently. She then made a surprising semifinal run at Miami Open, beating Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, two top 5 players, back-to-back. She lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets in the semifinal.

At the beginning of the clay season, Bacsinszky won the fourth WTA title of her career in Rabat, losing only 1 set in the tournament. Due to her impressive run in Morocco and Madrid, she re-entered the top ten as of Monday, May 9. She made the quarter-finals in her next tournament, Rome (losing to Garbine Muguruza).As a result,she reached her highest ever ranking position of No. 9.

Her current tournament is French Open where she beat Silvia Soler-Espinosa, Eugenie Bouchard, Pauline Parmentier and Venus Williams en route to her second straight quarterfinal. She will play Kiki Bertens next.[12]

Sponsors
Bacsinszky uses Babolat racquets and Asics clothes, having her apparel previously supplied by Lacoste and her shoes supplied by Nike. She is also an ambassador for Japanese car manufacturer Honda.[13]

WTA career finals
Singles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runners-up)

Legend

Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–1) Premier (0–0) International (4–2)

Finals by surface

Hard (3–2) Clay (1–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Outcome

Date

Tournament

Surface

Opponent

Score

Winner 25 October 2009 Luxembourg Open, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Hard (i) Germany Sabine Lisicki 6–2, 7–5 Runner-up 25 July 2010 Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria Clay Germany Julia Görges 1–6, 4–6 Runner-up 10 January 2015 Shenzhen Open, Shenzhen, China Hard Romania Simona Halep 2–6, 2–6 Winner 28 February 2015 Mexican Open, Acapulco, Mexico Hard France Caroline Garcia 6–3, 6–0 Winner 9 March 2015 Monterrey Open, Monterrey, Mexico Hard France Caroline Garcia 4–6, 6–2, 6–4 Runner-up 11 October 2015 China Open, Beijing, China Hard Spain Garbiñe Muguruza 5–7, 4–6 Winner 30 April 2016 Morocco Open, Rabat, Morocco Clay New Zealand Marina Erakovic 6–2, 6–1

Doubles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups)[edit]

Legend

Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0) Premier (0–0) International (4–2)

Finals by surface

Hard (2–0) Clay (2–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Outcome

Date

Tournament

Surface

Partner

Opponents

Score

Runner-up 17 April 2010 Barcelona Ladies Open, Barcelona, Spain Clay Italy Tathiana Garbin Italy Sara Errani Italy Roberta Vinci 1–6, 6–3, [2–10] Winner 11 July 2010 Budapest Grand Prix, Budapest, Hungary Clay Italy Tathiana Garbin Romania Sorana Cîrstea Spain Anabel Medina Garrigues 6–3, 6–3 Winner 18 July 2010 Prague Open, Prague, Czech Republic Clay Italy Tathiana Garbin Romania Monica Niculescu Hungary Ágnes Szávay 7–5, 7–6(7–4) Runner-up 25 July 2010 Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria Clay Italy Tathiana Garbin Czech Republic Lucie Hradecká Spain Anabel Medina Garrigues 7–6(7–2), 1–6, [5–10] Winner 24 October 2010 Luxembourg Open, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Hard (i) Italy Tathiana Garbin Czech Republic Iveta Benešová Czech Republic Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová 6–4, 6–4 Winner 19 October 2014 Luxembourg Open, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Hard (i) Germany Kristina Barrois Czech Republic Lucie Hradecká Czech Republic Barbora Krejčíková 3–6, 6–4, [10–4]

Performance timelines
Bacsinszky at the 2014 Wimbledon qualifying tournament Singles

Current through the 2015 China Open (tennis)

Tournament

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

SR

W–L

Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open A Q1 A Q3 2R A 1R 1R A A A 3R 2R 0 / 5 4–5 French Open A A A 2R 2R 2R 2R A A Q1 2R SF QF 0 / 7 14–7 Wimbledon A A A 1R 2R 2R 1R A A Q2 2R QF 0 / 6 7–6 US Open A A A 1R 3R 2R 1R A 1R A 2R 1R 0 / 7 4–7

Win–Loss

0–0

0–0

0–0

1–3

5–4

3–3

1–4

0–1

0–1

0–0

3–3

11–4

5–2

0 / 25

29–25

WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments Indian Wells A A A A A 2R 1R 2R 2R A A QF 4R 0 / 6 8–6 Miami A A A A Q1 1R 4R 2R A A A A SF 0 / 4 8–4 Madrid Not Held A Q1 A A A A 1R 3R 0 / 2 2–2 Beijing Not Tier I A QF A 1R A A F 0 / 3 8–3 WTA Premier 5 Tournaments Dubai / Doha[1] Not Tier I A A 1R 2R A A A A 3R 0 / 3 3–3 Rome A A A A Q1 A 2R A 1R A A 3R QF 0 / 4 6–4 Montréal / Toronto A A A A A A 2R A A A 1R 1R 0 / 3 1–3 Cincinnati Not Tier I A A A A A Q1 1R 0 / 1 0–1 Tokyo / Wuhan[2] A A A A A A 1R A A A QF A 0 / 2 3–2 Career statistics Played 2 0 3 6 16 11 21 6 6 1 10 15 Titles 0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

3

Finals 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 4 6 Overall Win–Loss 0–2

0–0

3–3

2–6

13–16

17–10

19–21

3–6

2–6

0–1

11–10

37–13

107–94

Year-end ranking 247 392 121 123 53 54 51 242 185 285 48 12 9

Doubles

Tournament

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

W–L

Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open A A 2R 2R A A A 1R 2–3 French Open 2R A 1R A A A A 2R 2–3 Wimbledon 1R A 2R A A A Q2 1R 1–3 US Open 1R 1R 3R A A A 1R 2R 3–5

Win–Loss

1–3

0–1

4–4

1–1

0–0

0–0

0–1

2–4

8–14

Year-end ranking

180

107

37

347

125

531

138

Wins over top 10 players


Player

Rank

Event

Surface

Round

Score

2008 1. Slovakia Daniela Hantuchová No. 8 Antwerp, Belgium Hard (i) Quarterfinals 6–2, 4–6, 4–1, retired 2010 2. Belarus Victoria Azarenka No. 10 Beijing, China Hard 2nd Round 4–6, 3–2, retired 2014 3. Russia Maria Sharapova No. 4 Wuhan, China Hard 3rd Round 7–6(7–3), 7–5 2015 4. Czech Republic Petra Kvitová No. 4 Shenzhen, China Hard Semifinals 6–4, 6–4 5. Russia Ekaterina Makarova No. 8 Indian Wells, United States Hard 3rd Round 3–6, 7–5, 6–4 6. Poland Agnieszka Radwańska No. 9 Fed Cup, Zielona Góra, Poland Hard (i) RR (WG PO) 6–1, 6–1 7. Czech Republic Petra Kvitová No. 4 French Open, Paris, France Clay 4th Round 2–6, 6–0, 6–3 2016 8. Poland Agnieszka Radwańska No. 2 Miami Open, Miami, United States Hard 4th Round 2–6, 6–4, 6–2 9. Romania Simona Halep No. 5 Miami Open, Miami, United States Hard Quarterfinals 4–6, 6–3, 6–2