Petra Martić

Petra Martić ( born 19 January 1991) is a Croatian professional tennis player.

The best result in her junior career was the quarterfinals in 2006 US Open.

In 2007, she played her first WTA Tour main draw match as a wildcard at Miami Open, losing in first round to Russian Alina Jidkova.

After defeating Michaëlla Krajicek in the first round, she recorded the biggest win of her career in the second round, upsetting world No. 8 and 2007 Wimbledon finalist (as well as home favorite and 2011 French Open semifinalist), Marion Bartoli, in three sets.

In 2008, Martić won the ITF Circuit Zagreb Open, defeating Yvonne Meusburger, and then made it to the quarterfinals of the WTA event Slovenia Open, losing to Julia Görges.

She qualified for the 2009 French Open and lost in the second round to 21-year-old Canadian world No. 24 Aleksandra Wozniak.

She then made it to another Portorož Open quarterfinal, losing to defending champion and fifth seed Sara Errani.

In September 2009, at the age of 18 years and 8 months, Martić entered top 100 for the first time (year-end ranking was No. 82).

Martić began the season by falling in the qualifying stages of the Auckland Open (lost to Chanelle Scheepers) and the Sydney International (lost to Kimiko Date-Krumm).

She lost in the first round of the Australian Open, falling to Sabine Lisicki.

In February, she beat third seed and world No. 15, Yanina Wickmayer, in the first round of the Open GdF Suez in Paris, winning 6–4, 3–6, 7–5.

Martić broke twice and dropped serve once.

She lost in the next round to Ágnes Szávay.

Martić qualified for the Indian Wells Open, where she lost in the second round to Jelena Janković.

She also scored another big win at the Miami Open as she defeated world No. 21, Aravane Rezaï, in the second round in three sets.

She then lost to Yanina Wickmayer.

She lost in the first round of her next three tournaments, Andalucia Tennis Experience (lost to Estrella Cabeza Candela), Morocco Open (to Alizé Cornet ) and Portugal Open (to Kimiko Date-Krumm).

She was forced to retire in her first-round match of the Madrid Open whilst 4–6, 2–1 down.

Her next tournament was the Warsaw Open where she lost in three sets to Gréta Arn, in the first round.

Martić was drawn against world No. 5, Elena Dementieva, in the first round of the French Open in which she was beaten 6–1, 6–1.

She next participated in the ITF tournament in Marseilles where she reached the quarterfinals, losing to Johanna Larsson in three sets.

Martić only played one grass tournament in the 2010 season, Wimbledon.

There, she beat British No. 1, Elena Baltacha in the first round.

She was due to play against Marion Bartoli in the second round; however, she was forced to retire before the match.

At the hardcourt tournaments, she lost in the first round of Slovenia Open to Katarina Srebotnik and in the first round of İstanbul Cup to Vera Dushevina.

Martić was drawn against the top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the first edition of the Danish Open where she lost.

Martić qualified for the Australian Open, where she lost to Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round.

Martić also made it to the semifinals of Bogotá (lost to Domínguez Lino) and Copenhagen (lost to Hradecká) and beat Vesnina and Vickmayer to reach the third round of Cincinnati.

She finished the year ranked inside the top 50 (at No. 49) for the first time in her career.

Martić started the 2012 season losing in the first rounds of several tournaments including the Australian Open, Doha, and Dubai.

She reached her first WTA final at the Malaysian Open where she upset the No. 3 seed Peng Shuai in the quarterfinals and the second-seeded and former world No. 1, Jelena Janković, in the semifinals.

However, she had to retire in the final against Hsieh Su-wei at 4–1 down in the third set due to fatigue and severe cramping, which she was suffering due to having defeated Janković just that morning in a marathon match that lasted over three hours.

After falling in the first rounds of Indian Wells and Miami, Martić made the semifinals of the Danish Open losing to Caroline Wozniacki, and the quarterfinals of the Budapest Grand Prix losing to Elena Vesnina.

Martić achieved a major breakthrough at the French Open.

She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 14, achieved in January 2020.

Martić has won two singles titles on the WTA Tour, one singles and one doubles tournament on WTA Challenger Tour, plus four singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Petra Martić was born in Split, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia to Nenad (father) and Sandra (mother).

She grew up in the suburb of Duće, 30km from Split, and moved to Split at the age of 10.

Her father died in a car accident when Petra was five.

Petra is quoted as saying that her mother is a hero to her for managing to go through all this and raising Petra by herself, and that this motivates her to excel in tennis and bring joy to her family.