Nicole Vaidisova Biography

Nicole Vaidisova (born April 23, 1989 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a Czech female tennis player.

Vaidišová is an emerging star in women's tennis who has been playing since age 6. She is a student of Nick Bollettieri and is said to consider her serve her biggest weapon.

Vaidišová debuted strongly in the 2003 season by reaching three consecutive finals: won $10K ITF/Plzen-CZE, her only event in 2003, without dropping a set.
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In 2004, she finished the season as a top 100 player; as a qualifier at only third Tour main draw at inaugural Vancouver, defeated four of Top 5 seeds (including No.4-seeded world No.82 Laura Granville) to become sixth-youngest singles champion in Tour history (aged 15 years, three months, 23 days) and the lowest-ranked player (No.180) and second qualifier (of three) to win a title in 2004. She won her second title of year as No.103 at Tashkent (she beat No.80 Virginie Razzano in 3 sets in the final. On October 18, she made her Top 100 debut at No.74 (also became youngest player in Top 100); debuted on WTA Rankings on March 1 and in the same week, she reached the quarterfinals at Acapulco in Tour debut and only fourth pro event (l. to Pennetta); gained entry into Acapulco after reaching final at $75,000 ITF/Midland, MI-USA and winner Craybas turned down 'feed up' entry into the Tour event.

Later in the season, she reached the quarterfinals at Tokyo [Japan Open] (defeating No.29 Tatiana Golovin in 3 sets en route for her career-best win, before losing to Klara Koukalova. She made Grand Slam debut at the US Open losing to defending champion and world No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne 6/1 6/4 in the first round after leading 4-1 second set. She won ITF/Columbus, OH-USA at the start of the season and reached her then career-high No.72 singles ranking on November 1.

Apart from the success in senior competions, she was also a finalist of a girls competition on Australian Open that year. She lost to Shahar Peer in the final.

Despite being only 14 years old she finished the year with two WTA titles and a win-loss record of 31-8.

Nicole Vaidišová at the 2006 Medibank International in Sydney, AustraliaIn early January, she reached her first quartfinals of the season in Hobart defeating on her way Perebiynis and No.7 seed Dinara Safina before suffering loss to No.3 seed Iveta Benešová. She picked up her first Grand Slam singles victory in her Australian Open debut by reaching the third round with victories against Maria Vento-Kabchi and Jelena Kostanic before falling to top seed Lindsay Davenport. Following the tournament, she jumped in the ranking from No.70 to No.57.

In February, as No.7 seed at Memphis, she reached her third career semifinal by defeating Lindsay Lee-Waters, Kristina Brandi and Jamea Jackson before falling to No.3 seed Meghann Shaughnessy in a pair of tie-breaks.

In March, she reached the third round at Indian Wells by defeating Mashona Washington and No.11 seed Karolina Sprem before losing in straight sets No.20 seed Mary Pierce. She also made it to third round at Miami with victories against Katarina Srebotnik and No.18 seed Jelena Jankovic before her straight sets loss to Ana Ivanovic.

In April,4 at the Family Circle Cup she made her top 50 debut at No.47 and reached her first career Tier I quarterfinals at Charleston, saving two match points in first round victory against qualifier Shahar Peer. She then posted her first top 10 victory, and first win over a top-10 player, over No.3 seed Russian French Open champion Anastasia Myskina before also defeating No.14 seed Shinobu Asagoe in three sets. She then fell to No.8 seed Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals and yet made her top 40 debut at No.34 on April 18.

In May, she reached her first Tier III final as No.2 seed at Istanbul, losing to top seed Venus Williams in championship match thanks to victories over qualifier Abramovic, No.5 seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld and No.3 seed Anna Smashnova to reach the final.She made her debut at Roland Garros, defeating Safarova in the first round before falling in No.22 seed Francesca Schiavone in the next round.)

In June, she won her first career match on grass at Birmingham, defeating qualifier Stépahnie Cohen-Aloro in the first round before falling to Eleni Daniilidou in the next round. She made her Top 30 debut on June 13 at No.30. At Eastbourne, she fell to No.5 seed Vera Zvonareva in the first round and participated at Wimbledon for the first time of her career as No.27 seed, defeating Jelena Kostanic in the first round and also Pastikova before losing to No.5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in round three.

In July, she set a new career-high ranking at No.28 on July, 4. She went 2-0 in singles play, but lost the decisive doubles rubber (w/Kveta Pescke) in Czech Republic's 3-2 loss to Italy in Fed Cup World Group I Playoffs.

In August, she reached her first career Tier I quarterfinal at Toronto, defeating on her way lucky loser Shenai Perry, No.10 seed Nathalie Dechy and lucky loser Sromova before losing to No.4 seed Justine Henin-Hardenne. She continued to improve her ranking, this time jumping from No.32 to No.27 on August 22.

In September, as No.26 seed at the 2005 US Open, she reached the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam event, defeating Kveta Peschke, Jie Zheng and qualifier Lisjak before falling to No.9 seed Nadia Petrova. In that match, against Petrova, Nicole blew a 5-0 lead. Petrova then won 6 games in a row, and pushed a tie-break, which Vaidisova lost. In the second set, Vaidišová again had a large lead, before Petrova came firing back, eventually beating the youngster 7-6, 7-5. After the match, Vaidišová hit a forehand into the crowd out of frustration, nearly hitting someone. A commentator later remarked, "That's the best forehand she's hit in a while."

She improved her ranking after the US Open from No.28 to a career-high No.23 on September 12. She captured her first title of 2005 (and third of career) as No.2 seed at Seoul, defeating top seed Jelena Janković in the final (7/5 6/3) without dropping a set during the week, which included victories vs. lucky loser Laine, Akiko Morigami, No.8 seed Marion Bartoli and Catalina Castano. She moved to career-best No.21 on October 3.

In October, she captured her second straight Tour singles title (and fourth of career) as No.2 seed at Tokyo [Japan Open], winning when No.3 seed Tatiana Golovin retired while trailing 7/6(4) 3-2 due to a left achilles tendonitis in the final. On October 10, she 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 (as No.2 seed, she beat No.6 seed Conchita Martinez and No.3 seed Gisela Dulko en route to final, then overcame a 4-2 third-set deficit to defeat Russian top seed Nadia Petrova 6/1 6/7(5) 7/5 in the final.

With the Seoul, Tokyo Japan Open and Bangkok titles, Nicole Vaidisova became the first player since Lindsay Davenport in 2004 to win three titles in three weeks (the American won at Stanford, Los Angeles and San Diego) 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). On October 17, she improved her ranking from No.18 to No.17, a new career-high.

The new year has provided Vaidišová with plenty to be happy about. Apart from achieving several goals already this year, in March 2006 Vaidišová rose to a career high ranking of 13. In June 2006, Vaidišová stunningly finished off Amélie Mauresmo 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 and Venus Williams 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 at the French Open, before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-7, 2-6 in the semi-final of the French Open.

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NICOLE VAIDISOVA BIOGRAPHY