Lucie Hradecká
Lucie Hradecká (; born 21 May 1985) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 4 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved in October 2012. She has won 26 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including three at the WTA 1000 level, and has been a three-time Grand Slam doubles champion, having won the 2011 French Open and 2013 US Open alongside compatriot Andrea Hlaváčková, as well as the 2013 French Open in mixed doubles with compatriot František Čermák. Hradecká also finished runner-up  in Grand Slam doubles finals six additional times: the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, 2012 US Open, 2016 Australian Open and 2017 US Open in women's doubles, and the 2013 Australian Open and 2015 French Open in mixed doubles. Hradecká is also a two-time Olympic medalist after winning silver in 2012, alongside Hlaváčková in women's doubles, and bronze in 2016, with Radek Štěpánek in mixed doubles. She has additionally won the Fed Cup on five separate occasions as part of the Czech Republic team. In singles, Hradecká achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 41 in June 2011 , and has reached seven tour-level finals. Her best result at the Grand Slam level was at the 2015 Australian Open, where she defeated former world No. 1, Ana Ivanovic, en route to finishing in the third round. Career. 2002–2008: Career beginnings, first pro tour titles. She won her first doubles title on the WTA Tour in 2006 at Portorož with partner Renata Voráčová, as the fourth-seeded team. In the final, the Czech team defeated Eva Birnerová and Émilie Loit, the second seeds, by walkover. They also had a victory over the top-seeds Maria Elena Camerin and Emmanuelle  Gagliardi in the semifinal. As qualifiers, she reached the third round of doubles competition with Hana Šromová at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships before going down to fifth seeds Meghann Shaughnessy and Anna-Lena Grönefeld. En route they defeated 12th-seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amélie Mauresmo, both Grand Slam singles champions at the time and the previous year's Wimbledon doubles runner-ups by walkover. In 2007, she made the doubles semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters tournament with Voráčová. En route, the team defeated Janette Husárová and Meghann Shaughnessy, the seventh seeds, in the first round, and legendary team and  third-seeded Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez in three sets in the quarterfinals, before losing to top seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur. Later that year, Hradecká and Voráčová won at Bad Gastein beating Ágnes Szávay and Vladimíra Uhlířová. She again won the 2007 Portorož title with Voráčová, beating Elena Likhovtseva and Andreja Klepač in the final. Hradecká reached her very first singles final at Bad Gastein in July 2008, where, as a qualifier, she got to the final, but lost to the fourth-seed Pauline Parmentier 4–6, 4–6, after leading 4–1 in the first set. She also reached  the doubles final. 2009–2011: Grand Slam success: 2011 French Open doubles champion, top 50 singles debut. At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Hradecká held two match points over 13th seeded Ana Ivanovic in the first round. However, she was unable to close it out, losing 7–5, 2–6, 6–8. At her home tournament, the Prague Open, she pleased her fans with a dramatic comeback to defeat Stefanie Vögele in the first round. She came back from 1–5 down in the first set to win 7–6, 6–2. In the second round she crushed fellow double-hander Monica Niculescu, 6–2, 6–1, and reached the  semifinals before losing to Ágnes Szávay. A year later at the same tournament, Hradecká was the winner, defeating qualifier Paula Ormaechea in the final. She paired-up with Andrea Hlaváčková to win her first Grand Slam title at the French Open, defeating Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina in the final. 2012: Wimbledon doubles final, Olympic silver medal, top 5 in doubles. Lucie kicked off the 2012 season at the Auckland Open. She defeated Alberta Brianti and upset second seed Peng Shuai to book a place in the quarterfinals, where she fell to eventual champion Zheng Jie. Then, Lucie went to  the Hobart International, where she was overpowered by Shahar Pe'er in round one. Going into the Australian Open, Hradecká crushed Evgeniya Rodina in the first round. She lost to Vera Zvonareva in the second. Next, at the Tennis Classic in Midland, she made it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Jamie Hampton. At the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Hradecká defeated Anna Tatishvili before falling to Lesia Tsurenko. She then suffered two-first round defeats at the Premier Mandatory events Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open, falling to Zheng Jie and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively. Then, at the  Oaks Club Challenger, she made it to the quarterfinals, with wins over Melinda Czink and Eugenie Bouchard, where she was beaten by Edina Gallovits-Hall. Next, Hradecká went on to beat Urszula Radwańska in the first round of the Charleston Open, before losing to Stefanie Vögele. After losing early in Estoril, Hradecká qualified for Madrid. She caused the two biggest upsets in the tournament by beating both the world No. 4, Petra Kvitová (who also was the defending champion) and the world No. 5, Samantha Stosur, on the way to her first ever semifinals appearance at the Premier level, where  she lost to Serena Williams in straight sets, 6–7, 0–6 and won just six points in the second set. Lucie and Andrea Hlaváčková reached their second Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, losing to the Williams sisters. At the Summer Olympics in London, she and Radek Štěpánek lost in the first round of the mixed doubles, but she and Andrea Hlaváčková were much more successful, winning the silver medal. 2015: Singles success: First Grand Slam third round. Hradecká started 2015 ranked 141st in the world, and thus had to qualify for the main draw of the Australian Open, which she successfully  did with three wins in the qualifying rounds. The first round saw her pitted against world No. 5 Ana Ivanovic. After losing the first set winning only one game, Hradecká would come back to win this match in three sets, marking the biggest victory of her career thus far. She would go on to reach as far as the third round defeating Polona Hercog before falling to Julia Georges as her best career showing in singles at any Grand Slam. 2016: First Australian Open doubles final, top 10 year-end doubles ranking. Hradecká reached the 2016 Australian Open final partnering  Andrea Hlaváčková where they were defeated by Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza in the final. 2017: Third US Open doubles final. Hradecká reached another final at the 2017 US Open (tennis) partnering with Kateřina Siniaková, where the pair was defeated by Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-jan in the final. Performance timelines. "Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records." Singles. "Current through the 2021 Wimbledon." Doubles. "Current through the 2022 Charleston Open."