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Commandites | Aleksandra Wozniak, IRIS Mundial | IRIS iris.ca | Aleksandra Simic Sander, MD - Hematology Oncology Associates in Medford hemoncassoc.com | A Tribute For Norma Jo Wozniak homtribute.org |
Aleksandra Wozniak (born September 7, 1987, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a professional Canadian tennis player of Polish descent. Wozniak is Canada's highest-ranked women's singles player at #32 in the world (September 21, 2009), and the 4th-highest ranked Canadian singles player of all time.[1] She has won one WTA and seven ITF tournaments, and is the only Québécoise ever to have won a WTA tournament.
[edit] Early lifeWozniak speaks six languages, having learned Polish first.[2][3] She has been coached since she was 3 years old by her Polish-born father,[4], Antoni, a former pro soccer player[5] whose "day" job is that of a truck inspector.[6] Her older sister, Dorota, was the No. 1 player in Canada in the 14-and-unders and the 16-and-unders,[7] and 2-time NCAA champion for San Diego State.[5] [edit] Tennis career[edit] 2002–05In 2002, as a 14-year-old, Wozniak won the Canadian Indoors Under-16 and Under-18 championships.[8] Aleksandra won the Kentucky International Junior Tennis Derby in 2004.[9] In 2005, Wozniak reached #3 in the juniors.[6] She also won the Tevlin Challenger 25K tournament in Toronto, the Hamilton Challenger 25K in Canada, the Victoria Challenger 25K and the Junior Casablanca Cup (as well as the doubles) in Mexico, and the Junior Del Cafe Cup (as well as the doubles) in Costa Rica.[9] [edit] 2006Wozniak won the Pittsburgh Challenger (defeating Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the final, 6–1, ret.),[10] Ashland Challenger (defeating Hungarian Ágnes Szávay 6–1, 7–6 (2) in the final),[11] and Hamilton Challenger tournaments.[12] In February she beat her first top 100 player, world #63 Na Li of China, 6–3, 6–1 in Thailand. In November she defeated her first top 50 player, world #40 Olga Poutchkova of Russia, 3–6, 7–5, 7–5 in Pittsburgh. [edit] 2008In the first round of the French Open in June, Wozniak routed world #20 Sybille Bammer of Austria 6–0, 6–2, and in the second round she upset world #50 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 1–6, 6–1, 6–3, but she lost to 11th seed Vera Zvonareva 6–2, 6–2. It was by far her best performance at any of the Grand Slams, and she became the first Québécoise to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since 2002.[13] In July, Wozniak won the first WTA singles title of her career at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, California. During the tournament she beat world #20 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, 2–6, 6–3, 6–2, world #29 Sybille Bammer, and world #5 Serena Williams of the US, 6–2, 3–1, ret., before finally defeating sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France 7–5, 6–3 in the final. She was a qualifier to the tournament, so she had to win 3 qualifying matches and then 5 main draw matches in nine days. Wozniak became the first Canadian in 20 years to win a WTA singles title.[14] The victory vaulted her WTA singles ranking from #85 to #45 in the world. In August 2008, she was presented with key to the city in Blainville, Québec, by the mayor; they renamed it "Wozniakville" for 24 hours because for the first time a woman from Québec won a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title (when she won Stanford in July).[15] In September she beat world #36 Virginie Razzano of France, 6–7 (3), 7–5, 6–4 in China. She received an award from the National Assembly of Québec in October 2008 for her career-high ranking of #37 and first Tour singles title.[15] Wozniak signed in November with Mamba International, a sports management company based in Charlottesville, Virginia.[16] [edit] 2009Wozniak was defeated in the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland by Ayumi Morita; she had defeated Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round 6–3, 6–7, 7–5. Wozniak lost German Sabine Lisicki, also of Polish Heritage, in the first round of the 2009 Australian Open where she was the 30th seed. Wozniak joined up with compatriot Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles. In the first round they defeated Australian juniors Bernard Tomic and Monika Wejnert 6–3. 6–2. In the second round they pulled off a surprise to defeat Mark Knowles and Yan Zi 7–6, 6–4. They played Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India in the quarter-finals but they lost 6-3, 4-6, 5-10. In March she defeated world #48 Lucie Safarova 6–3, 6–3 in Indian Wells. That month she moved up to a career-best world #29. She reached her third single final in April in Ponte Vedra Beach, beating world #10 Nadia Petrova 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 in the semi-finals, but was defeated by world #12 Caroline Wozniacki 1–6, 2–6. In May she upset world #13 Marion Bartoli of France, 7–6 (2), 6–2, at the Madrid Open.[17] Wozniak as the No. 24 seed became the first Québécoise to ever be seeded at Roland-Garros.[13] At the French Open, Wozniak made the second round after a three-set victory. She then reached the third round at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year by beating Croatian Petra Martic 6–3, 6–3.[18] In the third round, Wozniak defeated world #87 Spaniard clay-court specialist Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, with some rallies lasting 25 shots.[19] Wozniak next faced Serena Williams, whom she had beaten on their only previous meeting in July 2008.[20] However, Williams prevailed, 6–1, 6–2.[21][22] She became Canada's first representative in the fourth round of the French Open women's draw in 17 years, and the first Canadian woman to survive into the second week at the French Open since Patricia Hy-Boulais in 1992. Wozniak was also the first Canadian to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since Maureen Drake qualified for the round of 16 at the 1999 Australian Open. "That's awesome for Canada and I hope to keep going," said Wozniak.[23] Wozniak was named Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years at the 24th edition of the Tennis Quebec Excellence Awards. Her father Antoni and fitness trainer André Parent were joint winners of the International Coach of the Year Award for Quebec athletes.[24] In June, at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, she dominated newly crowned French Open champion and world #5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6–0, 6–3 in the first round. She then defeated world #16 Zheng Jie of China in the second round, 7–6 (4), 6–3, and Russian Vera Dushevina in 45 minutes in the quarterfinals, 6–1, 6–0, winning 51 of the 69 points in the match, and breaking every one of Dushevina's service games.[25] With the win she rose two spots, to a new high of No. 21.[26] Wozniak then lost to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in the semis. In the first round of Wimbledon, where she was the first Canadian to be seeded in singles in 20 years at #23, Wozniak fell to Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6–4, 4–6, 4–6.[27] At the 2009 US Open, she advanced to the third round. In the second round she defeated the 17th seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-0, before losing to the 10th seed Flavia Pennetta 1-6, 1-6 in the following round. This has been her best US Open appearance to date. Wozniak entered the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and caused an upset in the first round where she defeated Kimiko Date Krumm 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4. Kimiko was 5-2 up in the second set but could not hold her lead. In the second round, Wozniak was up against 4th seed Caroline Wozniacki and won by default as Wozniacki retired at 0-5 complaining of a viral illness. In the third round Wozniak fell to Magdaléna Rybáriková after winning the first set 6-1 but lost the next two sets 3-6, 3-6. [edit] Fed CupWozniak won her first Fed Cup match in 2004, defeating Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6–0, 6–4, and had a 28–6 record through May 2009.[28] In 2006 she beat Argentine world #33 Gisela Dulko, 7–6, 6–3.[12] [edit] Style of playWozniak has a huge, looping backswing, matched by a fast whip-through in the hitting area, and an over-the shoulder follow-through. It gives her plenty of pace and spin on her forehand. She has a strong serve as well, and a good overhead.[29] [edit] WTA Tour singles finals
[edit] Win (1)
[edit] Runner-ups (2)
[edit] Singles performance timelineTo help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.
To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2009 US Open in New York City, which ended September 13, 2009.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
Categories: 21st-century Canadian people | 21st-century female tennis players | Canadian expatriate student athletes in the United States | Canadian female tennis players | Canadians of Polish descent | People from Montreal | Racket sportspeople from Quebec | San Diego State University alumni | Tennis players at the 2007 Pan American Games | 1987 births | Living people | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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