Nicole Vaidišová

Nicole Vaidišová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈnɪkol ˈvajɟɪʃovaː]; born 23 April 1989) is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic.

Nicole Vaidišová

Country (sports)	Czech Republic
Residence	Prague, Czech Republic
Born	23 April 1989 Nuremberg, West Germany
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	2003
Retired	2016
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,778,619
Singles
Career record	225–116
Career titles	6 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 7 (14 May 2007)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (2007)
French Open	SF (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2007, 2008)
US Open	4R (2005)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	13–31
Highest ranking	128 (2 October 2006)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	3R (2008)
French Open	1R (2006, 2009)
Wimbledon	2R (2006, 2007)
US Open	1R (2005)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2008)
Mixed doubles
Career record	4–3
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open	2R (2005)
Wimbledon	3R (2008)
US Open	2R (2005)

Vaidišová is an Australian Open and French Open semifinalist as well as a two-time quarterfinalist at Wimbledon. She started playing tennis when she was six years old, enrolling to train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida. Her serve was considered her biggest weapon.[1] Her powerful groundstrokes, with her serve, collaborated well together to produce an aggressive, all-round game. On 9 August 2006, at the age of 17 years, she became the 12th-youngest player in WTA Tour history to be ranked in the top 10. She achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 7 on 14 May 2007. Her form dipped shortly after, and at the time her retirement was announced in 2010, she was ranked at No. 177.

Her stepfather announced that she had retired in March 2010, citing "lack of interest in tennis" as the primary reason,[2] but she returned to the sport in September 2014.[3] However, in July 2016, she retired once more due to injuries.[4]

Career

2003–2004: Instant success

Vaidišová debuted in 2003 by reaching three consecutive finals and winning the $10K ITF tournament in Plzeň, Czech Republic.

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, she 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 (No. 180) and second qualifier (of three) to win a title in 2004. During the summer, she played World TeamTennis for the Sacramento Capitals and was named the league's Female MVP and Female Rookie of the Year.[5][6] Vaidišová won her second title of the year at the Tashkent Open, defeating Virginie Razzano in the final. On 18 October, she made her top 100 debut at 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. She made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, losing to defending champion and 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

Vaidišová – 2006 Medibank International

In early January, Vaidišová reached her first quarterfinal of the season in Hobart. She 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, she made her top 50 debut at 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 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, she reached the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam event before losing to 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 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 No. 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, she 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 at No. 10, making it her most successful season.

Beginning 2007, Vaidišová reached the semifinals of the Medibank International, beating 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 to eventual champion Serena Williams.

Vaidišová at the 2007 US Open

She skipped a large majority of the clay season with a right wrist injury. However, she reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, 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 Justine Henin. At Wimbledon, she lost to Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals after failing to convert three match points. She earlier had defeated defending champion Amélie Mauresmo in the fourth round and Victoria Azarenka in the third round.

Vaidišová was out for two months after Wimbledon due to glandular fever. She returned at the US Open, where she lost to Shahar Pe'er in the third round. Moving into the indoor season, she played the Kremlin Cup, losing to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. The next week in Zürich, Vaidišová reached the semifinals, achieving a notable victory over Jelena Janković. In the semifinals, she lost to Justine Henin in three sets. She finished the year by making another semifinal in Linz.

2008–2010: Struggles and retirement

Vaidišová at the US Open 2009

Vaidišová played three hard-court tournaments in Australia to start the year. She reached the semifinals of the Medibank International, defeating Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals.

The week after the Australian Open, Vaidišová won both of her Fed Cup singles matches in the tie against Slovakia. Following that, she lost six consecutive matches.

As the 18th seed at Wimbledon, she had an unexpected run to the quarterfinals, losing to Zheng Jie.

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.

In 2009, Vaidišová's ranking fell out of the top 100. She often was spotted watching numerous matches of her boyfriend Radek Štěpánek. At the end of the year, Vaidišová was ranked No. 187.

Vaidišová started 2010 by playing ITF Women's Circuit events. Later in March, her stepfather and former coach Ales Kodat announced her decision to retire from her professional career at the age of 20 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 wildcard to play in Miami starting on 23 March.[2]

2014: Comeback

Vaidišová received a wildcard to compete in the Coleman Vision Tennis Championships, a $75,000 event, starting on 15 September. This marked her return to professional tennis in over four years. She won her first match in straight sets against Sesil Karatantcheva, before losing in the second round to Johanna Konta 6–1, 1–6, 4–6.[7]

2015

At the Monterrey Open in March, she 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 1–6, 6–7; she had qualified for the main draw only seven hours before her match against Ivanovic.[8]

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

2016: Second retirement

In July, Vaidišová announced her second and permanent retirement from professional tennis.

Personal life

Vaidišová was introduced to tennis by her mother Riana. She has two younger brothers, Oliver and Toby. She speaks Czech, English, and German.

Vaidišová became engaged to fellow Czech tennis player Radek Štěpánek, who is 11 years older, in late 2007.[9][10][11] It has been suggested that the relationship was the cause of Vaidišová's decline in tennis.[12] The two married on 17 July 2010 at Prague Castle.[13] In June 2013, Vaidišová and Štěpánek announced that they had filed for divorce.[14] In 2018, they remarried and became parents of a daughter, Stella.[15]

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 used Yonex racquets.

In 2007, Vaidišová was featured in Virtua Tennis 3, a videogame developed by Sega and released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation Portable.[16]

WTA career finals

Singles: 7 (6–1)

Winner – Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (6–1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	Aug 2004	Vancouver, Canada	Hard	Laura Granville	2–6, 6–4, 6–2*
Winner	2.	Oct 2004	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Virginie Razzano	5–7, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	1.	May 2005	İstanbul, Turkey	Clay	Venus Williams	3–6, 2–6
Winner	3.	Oct 2005	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Jelena Janković	7–5, 6–3
Winner	4.	Oct 2005	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Tatiana Golovin	7–6^(7–4), 3–2 ret.
Winner	5.	Oct 2005	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Nadia Petrova	6–1, 6–7^(5–7), 7–5
Winner	6.	May 2006	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Peng Shuai	7–6^(9–7), 6–3

• * won the event as a qualifier.

ITF finals

Singles (2-1)

Legend $100,000 tournaments $75,000 tournaments $50,000 tournaments $25,000 tournaments $10,000 tournaments

Finals by surface Hard (1–1) Clay (0–0) Grass (0–0) Carpet (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	14 October 2003	Plzeň, Czech Republic	Carpet (i)	Andrea Hlaváčková	7–6^(7–5), 6–4
Runner-up	1.	10 February 2004	Midland, United States	Hard (i)	Jill Craybas	6–2, 6–4
Winner	2.	22 February 2004	Columbus, United States	Hard (i)	Peng Shuai	7–6^(7–5), 7–5

Singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

A

P

Z#

PO

G

F-S

SF-B

NMS

NH

(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (P) postponed; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)

To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	SR	W–L	W%
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	3R	4R	SF	4R	1R	A	0 / 5	13–5	72%
French Open	Q3	2R	SF	QF	1R	1R	A	0 / 5	10–5	67%
Wimbledon	Q1	3R	4R	QF	QF	1R	A	0 / 5	13–5	72%
US Open	1R	4R	3R	3R	2R	Q1	A	0 / 5	8–5	62%
Win–Loss	0–1	8–4	13–4	15–4	8–4	0–3	0–0	0 / 20	44–20	69%
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	A	Not Held			1R	Not Held		0 / 1	0–1	0%
WTA Premier Mandatory tournaments
Indian Wells	A	3R	A	QF	2R	3R	A	0 / 4	7–4	64%
Miami	1R	3R	A	QF	2R	3R	A	0 / 5	7–5	58%
Madrid	Not Held					A	A	0 / 0	0–0	0%
Beijing	Tier II					A	A	0 / 0	0–0	0%
WTA Premier 5 tournaments
Dubai	Tier II					A	A	0 / 0	0–0	0%
Rome	A	A	2R	A	1R	Q2	A	0 / 2	1–2	33%
Montréal / Toronto	A	QF	3R	A	1R	A	A	0 / 3	4–3	57%
Cincinnati	Tier III					A	A	0 / 0	0–0	0%
Tokyo	A	A	QF	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	2–1	67%
Tier I tournaments
Charleston	A	QF	2R	2R	A	Premier		0 / 3	3–3	50%
Berlin	A	A	A	A	1R	Not Held		0 / 1	0–1	0%
San Diego	A	A	SF	A	Not Held		P	0 / 1	3–1	75%
Moscow	A	A	SF	QF	1R	Premier		0 / 3	5–3	63%
Zürich	A	A	1R	SF	T II	Not Held		0 / 2	3–2	60%
Career statistics	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	No.
Titles–Finals
Tournaments played	7	17	18	14	19	12	1	88
Titles	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	6
Finals reached	2	4	1	0	0	0	0	7
Win–Loss
Hard	12–4	35–8	16–8	19–6	11–13	5–7	1–1	5 / 53	99–47	68%
Clay	2–1	7–3	11–4	4–2	0–3	2–4	0–0	1 / 18	26–17	60%
Grass	N/A	3–3	3–1	6–2	6–3	0–1	0–0	0 / 10	18–10	64%
Carpet	N/A	N/A	5–3	6–4	0–0	0–0	0–0	0 / 7	11–7	61%
Overall	14–5	45–14	35–16	35–14	17–19	7–12	1–1	6 / 88	154–81	65%
Win%	74%	76%	69%	71%	47%	37%	50%	65.11%
Year-end ranking
Ranking	77	15	10	12	41	188	495	No. 7 (14 May 2007)

WTA Tour career earnings

Year	WTA singles titles won	Earnings ($)	Money list rank
2003	0	1,568	879
2004	2	87,753	130
2005	3	391,316	32
2006	1	737,913	15
2007	0	875,623	13
2008	0	509,762	33
2009	0	130,948	124
2010*	0	294	374
Career	6	2,735,177	76

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.

• Dinara Safina 2–0
• Elena Vesnina 1–1
• Nadia Petrova 1–3
• Samantha Stosur 6–0
• Jelena Janković 6–3
• Daniela Hantuchová 5–1
• Anna Chakvetadze 3–0
• Flavia Pennetta 3–1
• Amélie Mauresmo 3–2
• Victoria Azarenka 2–1
• Anastasia Myskina 1–0
• Venus Williams 1–1
• Ana Ivanovic 1–4
• Lindsay Davenport 0–1
• Martina Hingis 0–1
• Kim Clijsters 0–2
• Li Na 0–3
• Serena Williams 0–4
• Justine Henin 0–4

References

1. "The Latest Top 20 WTA Rankings as of December 2013 - Sony Ericsson WTA Tour". sonyericssonwtatour.com.
2. AFP (18 March 2010). "Vaidisova hangs up racket at 20". ABC Grandstand Sport.
3. AFP (3 September 2014). "Ex-Czech star Nicole Vaidisova prepares comeback". The Times of India.
4. Kamakshi Tandon (21 July 2016). "One-time phenom Vaidisova retires from tennis—again". Tennis Magazine.
5. Ed McGrogan (24 July 2009). "Practising with Nicole Vaidosova". Tennis.com.
6. "Sacramento sweeps WTT postseason honors". OurSports Central. 29 July 2004.
7. Lisanti, Jamie (16 September 2014). "Former prodigy Nicole Vaidisova is back on the pro-tennis circuit". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
8. "IVANOVIC OUTDOES VAIDISOVA IN OPENER". Women's Tennis Association. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
9. Downtime: Players Enjoy Vacations Archived 22 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine Tennis.com, 12 December 2008
10. Djokovic charms crowd, crushes Stepanek to reach quarterfinals Archived 10 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
11. Love changes everything for Vaidisova, ontennis.com, 05-26-2008
12. The calamitous fall of Nicole Vaidisova Archived 16 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Gazette, 3 September 2009
13. "Stepanek, Vaidisova wed in love match". Retrieved 24 April 2019.
14. "Nicole Vaidisova and Radek Stepanek ending their marriage". Women's Tennis Blog.
15. "Radek Stepanek and wife Nicole Vaidisova have become parents". Tennis World USA. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
16. "Virtua Tennis 3, lista de jugadores" (in Spanish). Vida Extra. 12 September 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2020. And now, the list of players in VT3: [...] * Nicole Vaidisova

External links

• Nicole Vaidišová at the Women's Tennis Association
• Nicole Vaidišová at the International Tennis Federation
• Nicole Vaidišová at the Billie Jean King Cup