Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

A wiki (ⁱ/ˈwɪkiː/ WIK-ee) is a website whose users can add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor.^[1][2][3] Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively.

Wikis may serve many different purposes, such as knowledge management and notetaking. Wikis can be community websites and intranets, for example. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed for organizing content.

Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work."^[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [ˈwiti] or [ˈviti]) is an Hawaiian word meaning "fast" or "quick".^[5]

History[link]

Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport

WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki.^[6] Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in Portland, Oregon, in 1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. It was named by Cunningham, who remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter employee telling him to take the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" bus that runs between the airport's terminals. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."^[7][8]

Cunningham was in part inspired by Apple's HyperCard. Apple had designed a system allowing users to create virtual "card stacks" supporting links among the various cards. Cunningham developed Vannevar Bush's ideas by allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text."^[2][9]

In the early 2000s, wikis were increasingly adopted in enterprise as collaborative software. Common uses included project communication, intranets, and documentation, initially for technical users. Today some companies use wikis as their only collaborative software and as a replacement for static intranets, and some schools and universities use wikis to enhance group learning. There may be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on the public Internet.

On March 15, 2007, wiki entered the online Oxford English Dictionary.^[10]

Characteristics[link]

Ward Cunningham and co-author Bo Leuf, in their book The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web, described the essence of the Wiki concept as follows:

• A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons.
• Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
• A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape.

A wiki enables communities to write documents collaboratively, using a simple markup language and a web browser. A single page in a wiki website is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and searching through information. A wiki allows for non-linear, evolving, complex and networked text, argument and interaction.^[11]

A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many wikis are open to alteration by the general public without requiring them to register user accounts. Many edits can be made in real-time and appear almost instantly online. This can facilitate abuse of the system. Private wiki servers require user authentication to edit pages, and sometimes even to read them.

Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Cito Maramba and Steve Wheeler write that it is the "openness of wikis that gives rise to the concept of 'Darwikinism', which is a concept that describes the 'socially Darwinian process' that wiki pages are subject to. Basically, because of the openness of wikis and the rapidity with which wiki pages can be edited, the pages undergo a natural selection process like that which nature subjects to living organisms. 'Unfit' sentences and sections are ruthlessly culled, edited and replaced if they are not considered 'fit', which hopefully results in the evolution of a higher quality and more relevant page. Whilst such openness may invite 'vandalism' and the posting of untrue information, this same openness also makes it possible to rapidly correct or restore a 'quality' wiki page."^[12]

Editing wiki pages[link]

There are many different ways in which wikis have users edit the content. Ordinarily, the structure and formatting of wiki pages are specified with a simplified markup language, sometimes known as wikitext (for example, starting a line of text with an asterisk often sets up a bulleted list). The style and syntax of wikitexts can vary greatly among wiki implementations, some of which also allow HTML tags. Designers of wikis often take this approach because HTML, with its many cryptic tags, is not very legible, making it hard to edit. Wikis therefore favour plain-text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for indicating style and structure. Although limiting access to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of wikis limits user ability to alter the structure and formatting of wiki content, there are some benefits. Limited access to CSS promotes consistency in the look and feel, and having JavaScript disabled prevents a user from implementing code that may limit access for other users.

Increasingly, wikis are making WYSIWYG editing available to users, usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions into the corresponding HTML tags or wikitext. In those implementations, the markup of a newly edited, marked-up version of the page is generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding the user from this technical detail. However, WYSIWYG controls do not always provide all of the features available in wikitext, and some users prefer not to use a WYSIWYG editor. Hence, many of these sites offer some means to edit the wikitext directly.

Most wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often, every version of the page is stored. This means that authors can revert to an older version of the page, should it be necessary because a mistake has been made or the page has been vandalized. Many implementations, like MediaWiki, allow users to supply an edit summary when they edit a page; this is a short piece of text summarising the changes. It is not inserted into the article, but is stored along with that revision of the page, allowing users to explain what has been done and why; this is similar to a log message when making changes to a revision-control system.

Navigation[link]

Within the text of most pages there are usually a large number of hypertext links to other pages. This form of non-linear navigation is more "native" to wiki than structured/formalized navigation schemes. That said, users can also create any number of index or table-of-contents pages, with hierarchical categorization or whatever form of organization they like. These may be challenging to maintain by hand, as multiple authors create and delete pages in an ad hoc manner. Wikis generally provide one or more ways to categorize or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index pages.

Most wikis have a backlink feature, which displays all pages that link to a given page.

It is typical in a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite others to share what they know about a subject new to the wiki.

Linking and creating pages[link]

Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern" (also see CURIE). Originally, most wikis used CamelCase to name pages and create links. These are produced by capitalizing words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself an example). While CamelCase makes linking very easy, it also leads to links which are written in a form that deviates from the standard spelling. To link to a page with a single-word title, one must abnormally capitalize one of the letters in the word (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). CamelCase-based wikis are instantly recognizable because they have many links with names such as "TableOfContents" and "BeginnerQuestions." It is possible for a wiki to render the visible anchor for such links "pretty" by reinserting spaces, and possibly also reverting to lower case. However, this reprocessing of the link to improve the readability of the anchor is limited by the loss of capitalization information caused by CamelCase reversal. For example, "RichardWagner" should be rendered as "Richard Wagner," whereas "PopularMusic" should be rendered as "popular music". There is no easy way to determine which capital letters should remain capitalized. As a result, many wikis now have "free linking" using brackets, and some disable CamelCase by default.

Searching[link]

Most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the search depends on whether the wiki engine uses a database. Some wikis, such as PmWiki, use flat files.^[13] MediaWiki's first versions used flat files, but it was rewritten by Lee Daniel Crocker in the early 2000s to be a database application. Indexed database access is necessary for high speed searches on large wikis. Alternatively, external search engines such as Google Search can sometimes be used on wikis with limited searching functions in order to obtain more precise results. However, a search engine's indexes can be very out of date (days, weeks or months) for many websites.

Implementations[link]

Wiki software is a type of collaborative software that runs a wiki system, allowing web pages to be created and edited using a common web browser. It is usually implemented as an application server^{[citation needed]} that runs on one or more web servers. The content is stored in a file system, and changes to the content are stored in a relational database management system. A commonly implemented software package is MediaWiki, which runs this encyclopedia. See the List of wiki software for further information. Alternatively, personal wikis run as a standalone application on a single computer. WikidPad is an example. Or even single local HTML file with JavaScript inside – like TiddlyWiki.

Wikis can also be created on a "wiki farm", where the server side software is implemented by the wiki farm owner. PBwiki, Socialtext, Wetpaint, and Wikia are popular examples of such services. Some wiki farms can also make private, password-protected wikis. Note that free wiki farms generally contain advertising on every page. For more information, see Comparison of wiki farms.

Trust and security[link]

Controlling changes[link]

History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.

Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages. The most prominent, on almost every wiki, is the "Recent Changes" page—a specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of edits made within a given time frame.^[14] Some wikis can filter the list to remove minor edits and edits made by automatic importing scripts ("bots").^[15]

From the change log, other functions are accessible in most wikis: the revision history shows previous page versions and the diff feature highlights the changes between two revisions. Using the revision history, an editor can view and restore a previous version of the article. The diff feature can be used to decide whether or not this is necessary. A regular wiki user can view the diff of an edit listed on the "Recent Changes" page and, if it is an unacceptable edit, consult the history, restoring a previous revision; this process is more or less streamlined, depending on the wiki software used.^[16]

In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "recent changes" page, some wiki engines provide additional content control. It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of pages, keeps its quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be warned of modifications to the pages, allowing him or her to verify the validity of new editions quickly.^[17] A watchlist is a common implementation of this.

Some wikis also implement "patrolled revisions," in which editors with the requisite credentials can mark some edits as not vandalism. A "flagged revisions" system can prevent edits from going live until they have been reviewed.^[18]

Trustworthiness[link]

Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily tampered with, while proponents argue that the community of users can catch malicious content and correct it.^[2] Lars Aronsson, a data systems specialist, summarizes the controversy as follows:

Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a Web site that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well.^[6]

High editorial standards in medicine have led to the idea of expert-moderated wikis.^[19] Some wikis allow one to link to specific versions of articles, which has been useful to the scientific community, in that expert peer reviewers could analyse articles, improve them and provide links to the trusted version of that article.^[20]

Noveck points out that "participants are accredited by members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest in preserving the quality of the work product, on the basis of their ongoing participation." On controversial topics that have been subject to disruptive editing, a wiki may restrict editing to registered users.^[21]

Security[link]

The open philosophy of most wikis, allowing anyone to edit content, does not ensure that every editor is well-meaning. Virtual vandalism can be a major problem. In larger wiki sites, such as those run by the Wikimedia Foundation, vandalism can go unnoticed for a period of time.^{[citation needed]} Wikis by their very nature^{[citation needed]} are susceptible to intentional disruption, known as "trolling". Wikis tend to take a soft security^[22] approach to the problem of vandalism; making damage easy to undo rather than attempting to prevent damage. Larger wikis often employ sophisticated methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript enhancements that show characters that have been added in each edit. In this way vandalism can be limited to just "minor vandalism" or "sneaky vandalism", where the characters added/eliminated are so few that bots do not identify them and users do not pay much attention to them.^{[citation needed]}

The amount of vandalism a wiki receives depends on how open the wiki is. For instance, some wikis allow unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, whilst others limit this function to just registered users. Most wikis allow anonymous editing without an account,^[23] but give registered users additional editing functions; on most wikis, becoming a registered user is a short and simple process. Some wikis require an additional waiting period before gaining access to certain tools. For example, on the English Wikipedia, registered users can rename pages only if their account is at least four days old. Other wikis such as the Portuguese Wikipedia use an editing requirement instead of a time requirement, granting extra tools after the user has made a certain number of edits to prove their trustworthiness and usefulness as an editor. Basically, "closed up" wikis are more secure and reliable but grow slowly, whilst more open wikis grow at a steady rate but result in being an easy target for vandalism. A clear example of this would be that of Wikipedia and Citizendium. The first is extremely open, allowing anyone with a computer and internet access to edit it, making it grow rapidly, whilst the latter requires the users' real name and a biography of themselves, affecting the growth of the wiki but creating an almost "vandalism-free" ambiance.

Edit wars can also occur as users repetitively revert a page to the version they favor. Some wiki software allows an administrator to stop such edit wars by locking a page from further editing until a decision has been made on what version of the page would be most appropriate.^[11] For example, an article named Dolf was deemed not notable and after debate between several users a new article on a more general topic was created called Dart Golf.^{[clarification needed]}

Some wikis are in a better position than others to control behavior due to governance structures existing outside the wiki. For instance, a college teacher can create incentives for students to behave themselves on a class wiki they administer, by limiting editing to logged-in users and pointing out that all contributions can be traced back to the contributors. Bad behavior can then be dealt with in accordance with university policies.^[13]

Potential malware vector[link]

Malware can also be problem, as users can add links to sites hosting malicious code. For example, a German Wikipedia article about the Blaster Worm was edited to include a hyperlink to a malicious website. Users of vulnerable Microsoft Windows systems who followed the link would be infected.^[11] A countermeasure is the use of software that prevents users from saving an edit that contains a link to a site listed on a blacklist of malware sites.^[24]

Communities[link]

Many wiki communities are private, particularly within enterprises. They are often used as internal documentation for in-house systems and applications. Some companies use wikis to allow customers to help produce software documentation.^[25] A study of corporate wiki users found that they could be divided into "synthesizers" and "adders" of content. Synthesizers' frequency of contribution was affected more by their impact on other wiki users, while adders' contribution frequency was affected more by being able to accomplish their immediate work.^[26] In 2005, the Gartner Group, noting the increasing popularity of wikis, estimated that they would become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009.^[27] Wikis can be used for project management.^[28][29][30]

Wikis have also been used in the academic community for sharing and dissemination of information across institutional and international boundaries.^[31] In those settings, they have been found useful for collaboration on grant writing, strategic planning, departmental documentation, and committee work.^[32] In the mid-2000s, the increasing trend amongst industries toward collaboration was placing a heavier impetus upon educators to make students proficient in collaborative work, inspiring even greater interest in wikis being used in the classroom.^[11]

Wikis have found some use within the legal profession, and within government. Examples include the Central Intelligence Agency's Intellipedia, designed to share and collect intelligence, dKospedia, which was used by the American Civil Liberties Union to assist with review of documents pertaining to internment of detainees in Guantánamo Bay^{[citation needed]}; and the wiki of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, used to post court rules and allow practitioners to comment and ask questions. The United States Patent and Trademark Office uses a wiki to allow the public to collaborate on finding prior art relevant to examination of pending patent applications. Queens, New York has used a wiki to allow citizens to collaborate on the design and planning of a local park. Cornell Law School founded a wiki-based legal dictionary called Wex, whose growth has been hampered by restrictions on who can edit.^[21]

There also exist WikiNodes which are pages on wikis that describe related wikis. They are usually organized as neighbors and delegates. A neighbor wiki is simply a wiki that may discuss similar content or may otherwise be of interest. A delegate wiki is a wiki that agrees to have certain content delegated to that wiki.^{[citation needed]}

One way of finding a wiki on a specific subject is to follow the wiki-node network from wiki to wiki; another is to take a Wiki "bus tour", for example: Wikipedia's Tour Bus Stop. Domain names containing "wiki" are growing in popularity to support specific niches.^{[citation needed]}

The English Wikipedia has the largest user base among wikis on the World Wide Web^[33] and ranks in the top 10 among all Web sites in terms of traffic.^[34] Other large wikis include the WikiWikiWeb, Memory Alpha, Wikitravel, World66^{[citation needed]} and Susning.nu, a Swedish-language knowledge base.

Medical and health-related wiki examples include Ganfyd, an online collaborative medical reference that is edited by medical professionals and invited non-medical experts.^[12]

The four basic types of users who participate in wikis are reader, author, wiki administrator and system administrator. The system administrator is responsible for installation and maintenance of the wiki engine and the container web server. The wiki administrator maintains wiki content and is provided additional functions pertaining to pages (e.g. page protection and deletion), and can adjust users' access rights by, for instance, blocking them from editing.^[35]

Growth factors[link]

A study of several hundred wikis showed that a relatively high number of administrators for a given content size is likely to reduce growth^[36]; that access controls restricting editing to registered users tends to reduce growth; that a lack of such access controls tends to fuel new user registration; and that higher administration ratios (i.e. admins/user) have no significant effect on content or population growth.^[37]

Conferences[link]

Conferences and meetings about wikis in general include:

• The International Symposium on Wikis (WikiSym), a conference dedicated to wiki research and practice in general.
• RecentChangesCamp, an unconference on wiki-related topics

Conferences on specific wiki sites and applications include:

• Atlassian Summit, an annual conference for users of Atlassian software, including Confluence^[38]
• RegioWikiCamp, a semi-annual unconference on "regiowikis", or wikis for cities and other geographic areas.^[39]
• SMWCon, a bi-annual conference for users and developers of Semantic MediaWiki.^[40]
• TikiFest, a frequently held meeting for users and developers of Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.^[41]
• Wikimania, an annual conference dedicated to the research and practice of Wikimedia Foundation projects like Wikipedia.

Rules[link]

Wikis typically have a set of rules governing user behavior. Wikipedia, for instance, has an intricate set of policies and guidelines summed up in its five pillars: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; Wikipedia has a neutral point of view; Wikipedia is free content; Wikipedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner; and Wikipedia does not have firm rules. Many wikis have adopted a set of commandments. For instance, Conservapedia commands, among other things, that its editors use "B.C." rather than "B.C.E." when referring to years prior to the common era and refrain from "unproductive activity."^[42] One teacher instituted a commandment for a class wiki, "Wiki unto others as you would have them wiki unto you."^[13]

Legal environment[link]

Joint authorship of articles, in which different users participate in correcting, editing, and compiling the finished product, can also cause editors to become tenants in common of the copyright, making it impossible to republish without the permission of all co-owners, some of whose identities may be unknown due to pseudonymous or anonymous editing.^[11] However, where persons contribute to a collective work such as an encyclopedia, there is no joint ownership if the contributions are separate and distinguishable.^[43] Despite most wikis' tracking of individual contributions, the action of contributing to a wiki page is still arguably one of jointly correcting, editing, or compiling which would give rise to joint ownership.

Some copyright issues can be alleviated through the use of an open content license. Version 2 of the GNU Free Documentation License includes a specific provision for wiki relicensing; Creative Commons licenses are also popular. When no license is specified, an implied license to read and add content to a wiki may be deemed to exist on the grounds of business necessity and the inherent nature of a wiki, although the legal basis for such an implied license may not exist in all circumstances.

Wikis and their users can be held liable for certain activities that occur on the wiki. If a wiki owner displays indifference and forgoes controls (such as banning copyright infringers) that he could have exercised to stop copyright infringement, he may be deemed to have authorized infringement, especially if the wiki is primarily used to infringe copyrights or obtains direct financial benefit, such as advertising revenue, from infringing activities.^[11] In the United States, wikis may benefit from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects sites that engage in "Good Samaritan" policing of harmful material, with no requirement on the quality or quantity of such self-policing.^[44] However, it has also been argued that a wiki's enforcement of certain rules, such as anti-bias, verifiability, reliable sourcing, and no-original-research policies, could pose legal risks.^[45] When defamation occurs on a wiki, theoretically all users of the wiki can be held liable, because any of them had the ability to remove or amend the defamatory material from the "publication." It remains to be seen whether wikis will be regarded as more akin to an internet service provider, which is generally not held liable due to its lack of control over publications' contents, than a publisher.^[11]

It has been recommended that trademark owners monitor what information is presented about their trademarks on wikis, since courts may use such content as evidence pertaining to public perceptions. Joshua Jarvis notes, "Once misinformation is identified, the trade mark owner can simply edit the entry."^[46]

See also[link]

References[link]

• Ebersbach, Anja (2008), Wiki: Web Collaboration, Springer Science+Business Media, ISBN 3-540-35150-7 

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Wiki" article dated 2007-03-14, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

Learning materials related to Wiki at Wikiversity

Media related to wiki at Wikimedia Commons

• WikiIndex, a directory of wikis
• Exploring with Wiki, an interview with Ward Cunningham by Bill Verners
• WikiMatrix website for comparing wiki software and hosts
• WikiPapers (a wiki about publications about wikis)
• WikiTeam, volunteers group to preserve wikis

Daniela Hantuchová

Country	Slovakia
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born	(1983-04-23) April 23, 1983 (age 29) Poprad, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (now Slovakia)
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	62 kg (140 lb; 9.8 st)[1]
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$8,299,382
Singles
Career record	475–299
Career titles	5 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 5 (January 27, 2003)
Current ranking	No. 18 (May 28, 2012)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (2008)
French Open	4R (2002, 2006, 2010, 2011)
Wimbledon	QF (2002)
US Open	QF (2002)
Other tournaments
Championships	RR (2002, 2007)
Olympic Games	2R (2004, 2008)
Doubles
Career record	243–172
Career titles	9 WTA, 1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 5 (August 26, 2002)
Current ranking	No. 51 (May 28, 2012)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (2002, 2009)
French Open	F (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2005)
US Open	SF (2011)
Mixed Doubles
Career record	40–14 (74%)
Career titles	4
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	W (2002)
French Open	W (2005)
Wimbledon	W (2001)
US Open	W (2005)
Last updated on: May 28, 2012.

Daniela Hantuchová (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈdaɲi̯ɛla ˈɦantuxɔvaː]; born April 23, 1983) is a Slovakian professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top 10.

She is currently coached by Larri Passos.^[2] Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success" program was Martina Navrátilová, who was her doubles partner for a brief period in early 2005. As of May 28, 2012, Hantuchová is ranked World No. 18 in singles.

In 2005, she became the fifth female tennis player to win the mixed doubles title in all four Grand Slam tournaments during her career.

Personal life[link]

Hantuchová was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) to father Igor, a computer scientist, and mother Marianna, a toxicologist.^[1]

When her parents split up in 2003, Hantuchová's performances temporarily worsened.^[3] At Wimbledon that year, she failed to convert several match points and was seen weeping on court.^[4] She also suffered from a weight problem during this period.^[5][6] She was suspected of being anorexic,^[3][7] but denied this.^[8]

Hantuchová speaks three languages (Slovak, English, and German),^[9] and was trained as a classical pianist.^[3] She is thought to be a perfectionist and puts a lot of pressure on herself during her training.^[3] She qualified for university in Slovakia but deferred it to pursue tennis.^[10]

She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.^[11]

Career[link]

2002[link]

Hantuchová started the year as the world no. 38, being known as a new up-and-coming player, in the Gold Coast, where she lost to world no. 7 Justine Henin in the second round in a three setter, 6–1, 0–6, 3–6. After reaching the round of 16, after qualifying, in Sydney, Hantuchová went on to play at the 2002 Australian Open, losing in the third round to second seed Venus Williams, 6–3, 0–6, 4–6.

After climbing the rankings to world no. 26, having competed in Paris and Antwerp (reaching the round of 16 in both), she went into the prestigious Indian Wells event, defeating Justine Henin in the fourth round, 6–3, 6–3, and Martina Hingis in the final, 6–3, 6–4. She was the lowest ranked player (seeded 18th) to ever win the Tier I event.^[12] In Miami and Amelia Island, Hantuchová went on to lose surprisingly in the second round. She then played in Charleston, only to be beaten again in the second round by 1995 Australian Open and 2000 French Open Champion Mary Pierce, 3–6, 4–6, Pierce being ranked no. 232. Playing in the Fed Cup, she won one of her two singles rubbers against Switzerland. Also in the clay season, Hantuchová reached the quarterfinals in Hamburg and Berlin, losing to Martina Hingis in straight sets and Anna Smashnova, 6–1, 2–6, 3–6. Having entered the French Open as the 11th seed and world no. 13 and losing her previous match in Rome in the first round, she beat Cara Black (after losing to her in Miami earlier in the year), only to lose to former champion Monica Seles in straight sets in the fourth round.

Hantuchová progressed to the semifinals of Eastbourne, losing to Myskina. At Wimbledon, she beat no. 7 Jelena Dokić in the round of 16, only to be beaten by the eventual champion, Serena Williams.

Daniela Hantuchová

Her US Open Series season was modest, as she lost in the second rounds of San Diego and Los Angeles, after having first-round byes in both tournaments. She reached the semifinals of the Tier I event in Montreal, losing to Amélie Mauresmo, and New Haven, losing to world no. 2 Venus Williams. At the final Grand Slam of the year, Hantuchová defeated 1997 French Open champion Iva Majoli in round three, and world no. 6 Justine Henin, 6–1, 3–6, 7–6(4), in round four, only to be beaten in her second consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal by Serena Williams (who again went on to win the title).

Later that year, Hantuchová also reached the quarterfinal in Leipzig and the final in Filderstadt, losing to Kim Clijsters, 4–6, 6–3, 4–6. The second set was the only set Hantuchová had taken from Clijsters in their nine meetings. She then went on to reach the quarterfinals of Zurich, losing to eventual champion Patty Schnyder in three tight sets, and the semifinals in Linz, and winning both of her singles rubbers in the Fed Cup final. This impressive season amassed her enough points to compete at the prestigious annual Tour Championships, losing in the first round to 17th ranked Magdalena Maleeva, 2–6, 5–7. Hantuchová's record for the year was 56–25 and 6–10 against top-10 players; 6–2 in singles Fed Cup play; 10–6 on indoor carpet, 6–2 on grass, 11–7 on clay, and 29–10 on hard courts.

2003[link]

Hantuchová started 2003 solidly, reaching the quarterfinals at her first three events in Sydney, losing to Lindsay Davenport, 4–6, 6–3, 6–7(3), Venus Williams, 4–6, 3–6, at the Australian Open (her third Grand Slam quarterfinal in a row), and Elena Dementieva in Paris, 5–7, 3–6. Hantuchová reached her first semifinal of the year at her fourth event in Antwerp, losing to Williams again, 1–6, 4–6. By then, Hantuchová's ranking was at a career-high no. 5. Defending a title for the first time in her career, Hantuchová advanced to the fourth round in Indian Wells, losing to Amanda Coetzer, 4–6, 4–6. Despite a first round-loss to Alicia Molik in Miami, Hantuchová rebounded in the Tier I Charleston event, making her fifth quarterfinal in seven events, losing to Ashley Harkleroad, 2–6, 1–6. She made her sixth quarterfinal at her next event in Amelia Island, losing to eventual champion Dementieva, 0–6, 1–6. Hantuchová went undefeated in first-round Fed Cup play against Germany, winning both of her matches. Following the Fed Cup, she again made it to the quarterfinals for the seventh time of the year at the Tier I Berlin tournament, losing to Kim Clijsters, 0–6, 3–6.

At the French Open, Hantuchová lost in the second round in a marathon match to Harkleroad again, 6–7(2), 6–4, 7–9, making 101 unforced errors, leading to long-time coach Nigel Sears criticising her attitude publicly.^[13] Following the match, her extremely thin physique was noticed for the first time publicly, and some wondered about Hantuchová's health. Kicking off the grass season in Eastbourne, Hantuchová lost in the quarterfinals to Conchita Martínez, but more famously she lost in the second round of Wimbledon to Shinobu Asagoe, 6–0, 4–6, 10–12, with Hantuchová breaking down crying during the latter stages of the match and making 57 unforced errors. Some theorized that the media's continued interest regarding her weight and the pressure of success at 19 years of age, in addition to her on-court breakdown and her parents' divorce, as well as her coach's walked out during the middle of the match, led to this breakdown. Following Wimbledon, Hantuchová went 6–8 for the rest of the year, 0–4 against top-10 players She ended the year with an overall record of 28–23, and she fell to no. 17 in the world. Further signs of the pressure and problems she was facing during this period was that, in July, she made herself unavailable for Slovakia in the Fed Cup, in order to concentrate on her singles career, and in November she parted company with Sears.^[14]

2004[link]

2004 proved to be a continuation of Hantuchová's poor second half of 2003, with many of the same struggles (she briefly hired Harold Soloman, who had previously coached her friend Jennifer Capriati as well as Anna Kournikova, before re-hiring Sears in March),^[15] She reached just three quarterfinals, the first at the first Tier I event in Tokyo was not until halfway through the season. At Tokyo, however, she garnered her thus far only victory over Maria Sharapova in the second round, falling to Davenport, 2–6, 2–6, in the quarterfinals. The tournament that saved her from a poor 2004 was Eastbourne, in which she defeated Ai Sugiyama in the quarterfinals, 6–1 7–6(7), and Amélie Mauresmo in the semifinals, 4–6, 6–4, 6–4, before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third final of her career, 6–2, 6–7(2), 4–6. However, Hantuchová was serving for the championship, up 6–2, 6–5, but was broken.

Hantuchová was ranked no. 54 as she entered Eastbourne, but found herself ranked no. 38 as she went into Wimbledon, losing to eventual champion Sharapova in the third round, 3–6, 1–6. Hantuchová would make one more quarterfinal at New Haven, losing to Lisa Raymond, 4–6, 3–6. At the US Open one week later, Hantuchová lost in three sets to Patty Schnyder in the third round. She finished the year ranked no. 31, with a 24–24 win-loss record. She finished 1–4 against top-10 players overall, the sole victory over Mauresmo.

2005–2006[link]

Hantuchová reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing to Dementieva in a tight three-setter, 5–7, 7–5, 4–6. Following that, she made her first quarterfinal of the year in Tokyo for the second straight year, losing to Kuznetsova, 6–7(4), 6–7(4). At her next event, she reached the semifinals in Doha, losing to Sharapova, 2–6, 4–6. Then, she made another quarterfinal at her next tournament in Dubai, losing to Serena Williams, 4–6, 3–6. At Dubai also, in the first round, she garnered her tenth top-10 victory over no. 8 Alicia Molik, 7–6(8) 6–2. Hantuchová made the third round at the French Open and Wimbledon, losing to Clijsters, 4–6, 2–6, in Paris, and eventual champion Venus Williams, 5–7, 3–6, in England.

Hantuchová had a successful US Open series run, where she reached the semifinals in Cincinnati, getting upset by no. 74 Akiko Morigami, 4–6, 4–6. In Stanford, Hantuchová lost to Clijsters in the quarterfinals, 3–6, 1–6. After a second-round loss in San Diego to Sugiyama, Hantuchová reached her fourth final in Los Angeles, getting a walkover in the quarterfinals over Sharapova, and got revenge against Dementieva in the semifinals, defeating her 6–3, 6–4. In the final, for the seventh time in their head-to-head, Clijsters defeated Hantuchová, 4–6, 1–6. For the third time at the event, Hantuchová made the quarterfinals in New Haven, losing to Davenport, 2–6, 6–7(5).

Hantuchová lost to eventual quarterfinalist Venus Williams in the third round at the US Open. In Luxembourg, Hantuchová made her eighth quarterfinal of the season, losing to Nathalie Dechy, 1–6, 4–6. In Filderstadt the following week, Hantuchová made the semifinals, her third of the year, defeating no. 10 Patty Schnyder in the second round and Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals. She lost to Davenport in the semifinals. At the final Tier I event of the year, Hantuchová pushed Davenport to three sets and had match points in the second set in Zurich before losing, 6–3, 5–7, 2–6. In her final event of the year, in Linz, Hantuchová made her tenth quarterfinal, losing to Schnyder, 2–6, 1–6. Hantuchová finished 2005 with a 3–10 record against the top 10, 37–25 overall record, with 2–1 on indoor carpet, 3–4 on clay, 2–3 on grass, and 30–17 on hard courts, reaching 10 quarterfinals, 3 semifinals, and 1 final.

Daniela Hantuchová at the Zurich Open 2006

Hantuchová reached the quarterfinals of Sydney in 2006 with a win over top-10 player Patty Schnyder and got to the semifinals of Auckland. She continued this form at the Australian Open with her third-round 6–1, 7–6(5) victory over defending champion and seven-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, who had entered the tournament with a lack of match practice and questions over her fitness. This victory (the only over Serena in her career) ensured that Daniela would progress to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in three years. She lost to fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova in straight sets in the fourth round.

Thereafter, she was unable to find a consistent level of form. Prior to the clay-court season, she parted company for a second time (and permanently) with Sears.^[16] He was replaced by Angel Giminez. She then played her first Fed Cup matches for Slovakia in almost three years. It was a successful return, with Hantuchová winning both her singles and her doubles matches against Luxembourg, her singles match against The Netherlands, and the decisive singles rubber in the tie against Great Britain. With the help of Hantuchová's 4–0 record, Slovakia booked a place in the World Group II play-off against Thailand.

Despite disappointing results in the warm-up tournaments, she reached the fourth round of both the French Open and Wimbledon, before extending her 2006 Fed Cup record to 6–0 by winning both her singles matches in Slovakia's 5–0 rout of Thailand, which ensured their promotion to the World Group II. Her fourth-round streak at Grand Slams ended when she was beaten by a resurgent Serena Williams in the second round of the US Open, which was the culmination of a very disappointing American hard-court season (her record was 7–6 including the US Open, failing to get past the round of 16 of any of the tournaments she entered).

Daniela showed what she is capable of producing the week before Stuttgart, beating an in-form Tatiana Golovin in straight sets, before losing to Dinara Safina. The following week, she reached the quarterfinals of Stuttgart with an easy victory over the then top-10 player Safina in the second round. This was both her first victory over a top-10 player and first appearance in a quarterfinal since January. In October 2006, Hantuchová reached the final of the Zurich Open. In the first round, she upset sixth seed Patty Schnyder. In the second round, she defeated her doubles parter Ai Sugiyama. Daniela was then scheduled to play world no. 1 Amélie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals. However, Mauresmo withdrew due to a right shoulder injury. In the semifinals, Daniela upset world no. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6–4, 6–2, to reach the final of the Tier I event. In the final, Daniela lost in a tight three-setter to second seed Maria Sharapova, 1–6, 6–4, 3–6. The results in this tournament were the culmination of Hantuchová's up-turn of form, which kept her in the top 20, as she had arrived in Zurich outside the top group for the first time in over 11 months. The injury she suffered to her right rib^[17] after Mary Pierce hit a shot at her in doubles, caused her the most serious injury of her career and also forced her to retire in her match against Vesnina the following week in Linz. Hantuchová finished the year ranked no. 17 in the world, with a 34–25 record. She went 24–17 on hard courts, 5–4 on clay, 3–2 on grass, and 2–2 on carpet. She was 4–6 against top-10 players, beating Schnyder twice, Safina, and Kuznetsova, with losses to Sharapova (twice), Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne, Dementieva, and Nadia Petrova.

2007[link]

Daniela Hantuchová at the 2007 Fortis Championships in Luxembourg

Hantuchová's first tournament of the year was at the Tier IV ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, where she lost in the second round to Virginie Razzano. Hantuchová then lost to Nicole Vaidišová in the first round of the Tier II New South Wales Open/Medibank International in Sydney and reached her second consecutive Australian Open fourth round, where she lost to world no. 5 Kim Clijsters, 1–6, 5–7.

Hantuchová was then upset in the first round of the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo by Roberta Vinci. Three weeks later at the Tier II Dubai Tennis Championships, Hantuchová defeated Maria Kirilenko in the second round, 2–6, 6–4, 7–6(4), before losing her quarterfinal match against Amélie Mauresmo in three sets. The following week at the Tier II Qatar Total Open in Doha, Hantuchová trailed world no. 6 Martina Hingis in their quarterfinal match 4–1 in the second set, before coming back to win, 1–6, 6–4, 6–4. She then lost her semifinal match against world no. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova. In her seventh tournament of the year, Hantuchová won six matches, the last four of which were upsets of higher seeded players, to win the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California. She upset Hingis in the fourth round, Shahar Pe'er in the quarterfinals, 6–2, 5–7, 7–6(5), Li Na in the semifinals, and Kuznetsova in the final in straight sets.^[3]

Hantuchová, however, struggled in her next four events. She was upset in the third round of the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida by Vera Zvonareva. On clay at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida, Hantuchová lost to Sybille Bammer in the quarterfinals. Two weeks later, Hantuchová lost both of her Fed Cup matches against the Czech Republic in Bratislava on clay, losing to Vaidišová and Lucie Šafářová. Losing her fourth consecutive match, Hantuchová was upset in the first round of the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin by Zuzana Ondrášková. Hantuchová then reached her first career clay-court semifinal at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. She upset seventh-seeded Anna Chakvetadze in the third round, before losing to second-seeded Kuznetsova in the semifinals. At the French Open, Hantuchová was upset in the third round by Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6–4, 6–7(2), 5–7.

After defeating Eleni Daniilidou in the third round of the Tier III grass-court DFS Classic in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Hantuchová returned to the top 10 for the first time since August 2003. She then lost to Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinals, 7–5, 4–6, 5–7. The following week at the Tier III Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, Hantuchová defeated world no. 6 Ana Ivanović in the quarterfinals, before losing to Chakvetadze in the semifinals. This result caused Hantuchová to drop out of the top 10. Hantuchová was the tenth-seeded player at Wimbledon and did not lose a set in her first two matches. She then defeated Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik in the third round, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4, before losing to world no. 8 Serena Williams in the fourth round, 2–6, 7–6(2), 2–6. Immediately after Wimbledon, Hantuchová helped Slovakia win its Fed Cup World Group II play-off against Serbia. On an indoor hard court in Košice, she beat Ana Timotić and Vojislava Łukić.

Daniela Hantuchová at the 2007 Bank of the West Classic

Hantuchová played five tournaments during the North American summer hard-court season. She began the US Open Series by losing to Chakvetadze in the semifinals of the Tier II Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. This result put her back in the top 10. At the Tier I Acura Classic in San Diego, she lost to world no. 16 Venus Williams in the second round. The following week at the Tier II JPMorgan Chase Open in Los Angeles, Hantuchová retired from her third-round match with Elena Dementieva while trailing, 3–6, 1–4. Hantuchová once again fell out of the top 10, after losing in the second round of the Tier II Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut to eventual runner-up Ágnes Szávay. At the US Open, Hantuchová was the ninth-seeded player but lost to Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko in the first round, 4–6, 6–3, 1–6. It was Hantuchová's earliest loss at this tournament since her debut in 2001 and her earliest loss at a Grand Slam tournament since the 2004 French Open.

Hantuchová then played four consecutive tournaments. She reached her second final of the year at the Tier III Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali, losing to Lindsay Davenport in three sets. At the Tier III Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India, Hantuchová lost in the semifinals to Maria Kirilenko, but re-entered the top 10. Traveling back to Europe, Hantuchová played in the Tier II Fortis Championships Luxembourg. She defeated Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals and Bartoli in the semifinals to advance to her third final of the year for the first time in her career. Hantuchová then lost to world no. 6 Ivanović in the final, 6–3, 4–6, 4–6, after leading the match, 6–3, 3–0. At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Hantuchová defeated Šafářová in the first round, but lost in the second round to Dementieva. This loss, however, did not prevent Hantuchová from rising to world no. 9, her highest ranking in over four years.

At the Tier I Zurich Open, Hantuchová defeated Dinara Safina in the first round, 7–6(2), 7–6(4), before losing to Agnieszka Radwańska. One week later, Hantuchová won her third career title at the Tier II Generali Ladies Linz. In the semifinals, she defeated Vaidišová for the first time in her career, 2–6, 6–2, 7–6(3). Hantuchová then defeated Schnyder in the straight-sets final. This title enabled Hantuchová to qualify for the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. But Hantuchová did not advance past the round-robin stage. She lost to Maria Sharapova and Ivanović, before beating Kuznetsova to finish third in her group. Hantuchová's win-loss record for 2007 was 52–28. She was 6–11 versus top-10 players, with two victories against Hingis, two against Kuznetsova, one against Ivanović, and one against Chakvetadze. The losses were to Clijsters, Mauresmo, Chakvetadze (twice), Kuznetsova (twice), Vaidišová, Serena Williams, Ivanović (twice), and Sharapova. Hantuchová finished the year at world no. 9, her first top-10 finish since 2002.

2008[link]

Daniela Hantuchová

She started the year at the Medibank International in Sydney. She defeated Russian Dinara Safina in the first round, before losing to world no. 12 Czech Nicole Vaidišová in the second round. At the Australian Open, Hantuchová reached her first Grand Slam semifinal.^[18] She won her first three matches without losing a set. In the quarterfinals, she beat Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwańska, who had defeated second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova in earlier rounds. Hantuchová then lost to Ana Ivanović in the semifinals, 6–0, 3–6, 4–6, despite Hantuchová's leading the second set 2–0. After the match, Hantuchová claimed that Ivanović had been distracting her by squeaking her shoes on the court before serving, a claim Ivanović disputed.^[19] Hantuchová's performance at this tournament caused her ranking to improve one spot to world no. 8.

Hantuchová then played two indoor tournaments in Europe. At the Open Gaz de France in Paris, she lost to seventh-seeded Ágnes Szávay of Hungary in the quarterfinals. She was the third-seeded player at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, where she again reached the quarterfinals. A blister on her right hand caused Hantuchová to retire during the quarterfinal against Timea Bacsinszky.

Hantuchová in July 2008

Hantuchová was then scheduled to play at the Qatar Total Open, the first Tier I event of the year, and the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, a Tier II event, but withdrew from both because of fatigue. Hantuchová played both of the two-week Tier I events in the United States. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Hantuchová was the defending champion and fifth seed. She lost to fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals. In doubles, Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama lost in the semifinals to Safina and Elena Vesnina, the eventual champions. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Hantuchová failed to reach the fourth round for the ninth consecutive year. She lost to former doubles partner Sugiyama in the third round, 4–6, 7–6(8), 5–7, despite leading 3–0 in the third set. In doubles, Hantuchová partnered with Lindsay Davenport to reach the quarterfinals, where they lost to Sugiyama and Katarina Srebotnik, who went on to win the event.

The following week at the Tier II Bausch & Lomb Championships on clay in Amelia Island, Florida, Hantuchová was the third seed, but lost in the second round to Karolina Šprem. Hantuchová spent the month of May and most of June recovering from a stress fracture in her right foot, which resulted in her withdrawal from the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome,^[20] the Tier III Istanbul Cup,^[21] the French Open,^[22][23] and the Tier III Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch. She recovered in time for Wimbledon, but lost in the second round to unseeded Alisa Kleybanova, 3–6, 6–4, 1–6.

Hantuchová played four hard-court tournaments between Wimbledon and the US Open. She lost in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California and in the second round of the following week's tournament, the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles. Hantuchová was seeded tenth at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. She defeated Sugiyama in the first round, before losing in the second round to Caroline Wozniacki. The following week at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, Hantuchová lost in the quarterfinals to Alizé Cornet. Hantuchová was seeded eleventh at the US Open, where she was upset in the first round by qualifier Anna-Lena Grönefeld.

Hantuchová at the 2008 Fortis Championships

To end the year, Hantuchová played seven tournaments in Asia and Europe. She lost in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali and in the first round of the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo to Francesca Schiavone. In Beijing at the China Open, she lost to world no. 2 Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals. After losing in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, the second round of the Tier I Kremlin Cup in Moscow, and the second round of the Tennis.com Zürich Open, Hantuchová was seeded third at the Fortis Championships Luxembourg. However, she lost to world no. 39 Sorana Cîrstea in the quarterfinals. Because she won only 11 of 26 singles matches after the Indian Wells tournament, Hantuchová finished the year ranked world no. 21, her lowest year-end ranking and first finish out of the top 20 since 2004. She was 0–5 during the year versus players ranked in the top 10 at the time the matches were played, with losses to Ivanović, Sharapova, Janković, and Vera Zvonareva (twice).

2009–2010[link]

Hantuchová began the 2009 tour by participating in the Brisbane International as the tournament's fourth-seeded player. She was upset in the first round by Sara Errani, 7–6(1), 4–6, 2–6. Hantuchová then played the Medibank International in Sydney, where she lost in the second round to sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwańska.

Daniela Hantuchová at the 2009 Brisbane International

At the Australian Open, Hantuchová was seeded 19th and defeated home favourite Casey Dellacqua in their first-round match, 7–6(11), 6–4. She then beat Mathilde Johansson of France in the second round, before losing to 15th-seeded Alizé Cornet in the third round, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6. In the doubles competition, Hantuchová and her partner Ai Sugiyama made it to the final, where they lost to Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

At the Open GDF SUEZ in Paris, Hantuchová beat Ekaterina Makarova in the first round, before losing to Cornet in the second round. This was the third consecutive time she has lost to Cornet. Hantuchová then played in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, where she lost to eventual runner-up Virginie Razzano in the third round. Because of her results at this tournament, Hantuchová's ranking improved five places to world no. 36. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Hantuchová was the only two-time singles champion in the draw. Seeded 30th, Hantuchová fell to Sybille Bammer in the fourth round, 3–6, 2–6. Unseeded for the first time since 2001 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Hantuchová lost to 22nd-seeded Anna Chakvetadze in the second round, 3–6, 1–6.

Starting off the spring clay-court season as a wildcard at the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Hantuchová defeated eighth-seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round, 6–3, 7–5. She then lost to eventual champion and second seed Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, 2–6, 2–6. Playing in the Fed Cup World Group play-offs, Hantuchová defeated Alizé Cornet, 6–7(2), 6–3, 6–4, in the first-round rubber, but lost to Amélie Mauresmo, 5–7, 4–6, in her next match.

Hantuchová played four tournaments before Roland Garros on European clay. She lost in the early rounds of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the Rome Masters and the Madrid Masters to Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Jelena Janković, respectively. In doubles at Rome, Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama defeated first seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the quarterfinals. However, the pair lost to Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuai, 5–7, 6–7(5), in the final. Her fourth event was the Warsaw Open, where she reached her second career clay-court semifinal, but lost to Romanian qualifier and eventual champion Alexandra Dulgheru, 4–6, 7–6(2), 1–6. Hantuchová was unseeded at the French Open and lost to Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in the first round, 3–6, 3–6.

On grass, Hantuchová was seeded sixth at the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch. She fell to top seed Safina, 6–1, 4–6, 3–6, in the quarterfinals. Competing at her ninth Wimbledon, Hantuchová was unseeded in singles for the first time since 2004. She came from behind to defeat local teenager Laura Robson, 3–6, 6–4, 6–2, in the first round. She then upset 16th seed and the previous year's semifinalist Zheng Jie, 6–3, 7–5, and doubles partner Sugiyama, 6–4, 6–3. However, Hantuchová fell to second seed and eventual champion Serena Williams in the fourth round, 3–6, 1–6.

Hantuchová played her first-round match at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, winning in three sets against defending champion Aleksandra Wozniak, 6–4, 4–6, 7–5. She then defeated seventh seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round, 4–6, 7–6(6), 6–1, but fell to third seed Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals, 2–6, 4–6. In the LA Women's Tennis Championships, she lost to Dinara Safina, 2–6, 4–6. In the Western & Southern Financial Women's Open, she lost to Flavia Pennetta, 3–6, 3–6, after upsetting seventh seed Vera Zvonareva, 7–6(6), 0–6, 7–6(5). In the Rogers Cup in Toronto, she fell to qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round, 6–7(1), 6–7(4).

Hantuchová was seeded 22nd at the US Open. She defeated Meghann Shaughnessy, Timea Bacsinszky, and Vania King, but fell in the fourth round to second seed and defending champion Serena Williams, 2–6, 0–6.

At the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, South Korea, Hantuchová was the top seed, but was upset by eventual chmapion Kimiko Date-Krumm in the quarterfinals, 6–7(3), 6–4, 4–6. She then competed in the Toray Pan Pacific Open and the China Open, where she reached the second round in both, before losing in three sets to 11th seed Agnieszka Radwańska and 13th seed Nadia Petrova, respectively.

Hantuchová finished the season in Europe at the BGL Luxembourg Open, where she was upset by unseeded Shahar Pe'er in the quarterfinals, 2–6, 6–7(4).

Hantuchová finished outside the top 20 for the second consecutive year at no. 24, with a win-loss record of 39–25. She went 25–16 on hard courts, 9–7 on clay, and 5–2 on grass. She was 1–9 versus top-10 players, with losses to Radwańska, Kuznetsova, Janković, Dementieva, Serena Williams (twice), and Safina (three times), with the sole victory over Zvonareva.

Hantuchová started the 2010 tour by competing at the Brisbane International. Seeded fourth, Hantuchová was upset by unseeded Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinals, 4–6, 2–6. At the Medibank International in Sydney, Hantuchová fell to fifth seed and eventual champion Elena Dementieva in the second round, 2–6, 6–4, 2–6. Seeded 22nd at the Australian Open, Hantuchová fell to 16th seed and eventual semifinalist Li Na in the third round, 5–7, 6–3, 2–6.

Hantuchová defeated Zhang Shuai, 6–0, 6–1, in the Fed Cup tie against China in Bratislava prior to the Dubai Tennis Championships. In Dubai, Hantuchová upset fifth seed Dementieva through retirement, after winning the first set 6–4. However, she fell to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round, 3–6, 4–6.

Hantuchová was seeded second at the Monterrey Open in Monterrey, Mexico. She became one of the favorites after top seed Jelena Janković fell in the first round. Hantuchová fought from a set down to beat unseeded Vania King, 2–6, 6–2, 6–1, in the quarterfinals, and fourth seed Dominika Cibulková, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, in the semifinals. However she fell to third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the finals, 6–1, 1–6, 0–6. It was Hantuchová's first final since Linz in 2007. Hantuchová was upset at the BNP Paribas Open by Roberta Vinci in the second, after injuring her back during training earlier that day. At the Sony Ericsson Open, she gained a career-best in Miami, reaching the fourth round after recording straight-set victories over Patty Schnyder and 16th seed Nadia Petrova, but lost a very tight three-set match to third seed and eventual finalist Venus Williams, 6–1, 5–7, 4–6, in nearly three hours.

Hantuchová began the clay season by competing at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. She upset second seed and world no. 7 Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals, 1–6, 6–3, 6–3. However, she fell to fourth seed and eventual champion Samantha Stosur in her third career clay-court semifinal, 3–6, 6–7(2). Following Charleston, Hantuchová helped Slovakia earn a place in the World Group I for the 2011 Fed Cup by scoring two singles victories and a doubles victory in the World Group play-offs against Serbia. She again defeated world no. 7 Janković in one of her singles matches for a second week in a row. Despite first-round loses in the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Italy and in the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Hantuchová rebounded at the French Open. Seeded 23rd, she upset 16th seed Yanina Wickmayer in the third round, but fell to fourth seed Jelena Janković in the fourth round.

Hantuchová played two tournaments on grass. She was defeated by Samantha Stosur at the AEGON International in Eastbourne and was then upset by Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová at Wimbledon.

To start off the US Open Series, Daniela suffered a tough opening-round loss to sixth seed Shahar Pe'er, 6–0, 4–6, 3–6, at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. At the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, she upset sixth seed Marion Bartoli, 3–6, 7–6(3), 6–4, in the first round, saving three match points. She then beat Zheng Jie and Alisa Kleybanova to advance to the semifinals, where she fell to Agnieszka Radwańska in straight sets. Hantuchová then fell in the first rounds of the Cincinnati Masters, and the Rogers Cup to eventual semifinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and 15th seed Flavia Pennetta, respectively. At the 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis, she fell to Dinara Safina, 6–7(4), 6–7(2).

As the 24th seed, Hantuchová defeated Dinara Safina and Vania King at the 2010 US Open, before falling to 12th seed Elena Dementieva in the third round.

Hantuchová fell in the early rounds in both the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan and the China Open. At the Generali Ladies Linz, Hantuchová was upset by Patty Schnyder, 4–6, 4–6, in the quarterfinals. At the BGL Luxembourg Open, she lost again in the early rounds to Angelique Kerber in three sets. Hantuchová received a wildcard to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, Indonesia. She upset Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets, but fell to Alisa Kleybanova in the semifinals. She also lost the third-place match to Kimiko Date-Krumm, 5–7, 5–7.

Hantuchová finished outside the top 20 for the third consecutive year at no. 30, with a win-loss record of 35–25. She was 3–5 versus top-10 players, with losses to Dementieva, Venus Williams, Janković, Stosur, and Radwańska, and with victories over Dementieva and Janković (twice).

2011[link]

Hantuchová withdrew from her first tournament of the year at the Brisbane International due to a left Achilles strain.^[24] She competed next at the Medibank International Sydney, but suffered a loss to María José Martínez Sánchez in the first round, 2–6, 4–6. At the Australian Open, she was the 28th seed, but lost in the first round to Regina Kulikova in three sets, 5–7, 6–3, 7–9. This is the first time Hantuchová had lost in the first round of the Australian Open, except her first appearance.

She then played at the PTT Pattaya Open, where she defeated Kurumi Nara, Kimiko Date-Krumm, and Akgul Amanmuradova, all in straight sets to reach the semifinals. There she upset top seed, world no. 3 and defending champion Vera Zvonareva, 7–6(3), 6–4. Hantuchová then won her first title in more than three years by defeating Sara Errani, 6–0, 6–2, in the final. Despite this, she fell to Anna Chakvetadze in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships the following week. However, she rebounded at the Qatar Ladies Open by upsetting sixth seed Victoria Azarenka in the first round, 4–6, 6–1, 6–2, but fell in the quarterfinals to second seed and eventual champion Vera Zvonareva, 7–5, 6–7(5), 7–5, despite serving for the match at 5–4 in the final set.

At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California and the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, Hantuchová lost in the early rounds to Dinara Safina and top seed Caroline Wozniacki, respectively. Partnering Agnieszka Radwańska, she reached the semifinals in Indian Wells, falling to the eventual champions, but won the doubles title in Miami, defeating Nadia Petrova and Liezel Huber.

On clay, Hantuchová was upset in the third round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina by Christina McHale. Hantuchová next competed on European red clay at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open in Madrid, Spain and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Italy. She fell in the early rounds of all three to Samantha Stosur in both Stuttgart and Madrid and to second seed Francesca Schiavone in Rome. However, Hantuchová rebounded at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she upset fourth seed Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals, but fell to second seed Andrea Petkovic in the semifinals, 4–6, 6–3, 4–6. Seeded 28th at the French Open, Hantuchová defeated Zhang Shuai and Sara Errani in the first two rounds, both in straight sets.^[25][26] She then upset top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, 6–1, 6–3 for^[27] her first win over a reigning world no. 1. However, Hantuchová fell to 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round, 7–6(6), 3–6, 2–6.^[28]

Hantuchová reached her second career grass-court final at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, England, upsetting second seed Ana Ivanović in the semifinals, 6–7(2), 6–3, 6–2, before falling to unseeded Sabine Lisicki, 3–6, 2–6. Competing at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, Hantuchová defeated second seed Li Na and Venus Williams, before retiring to fifth seed Petra Kvitová in the semifinals. Seeded 25th at the Wimbledon, Hantuchová fell to fourth seed Victoria Azarenka in the third round, 3–6, 6–3, 2–6.

Hantuchová fell in the early rounds of both the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California and the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada. She reached her sixth and seventh quarterfinals of the season at the Mercury Insurance Open in Carlsbad, California and at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, but fell to third seed Agnieszka Radwańska and second seed Vera Zvonareva, respectively.

After a first-round loss at the US Open to Pauline Parmentier, Hantuchová reached the quarterfinals of the Bell Challenge and the Generali Ladies Linz losing to Marina Erakovic and top seed Petra Kvitova respectively.

Hantuchová finished the year at world no. 24 with a win loss record of 41–29. She went 5–11 against the top-10 with victories over Zvonareva, Azarenka, Wozniacki, Na, and Bartoli.

2012[link]

Hantuchová began the year at the Brisbane International, where she reached her first final of the year, defeating Dominika Cibulková and Vania King, before receiving a walkover in the quarterfinals when Serena Williams pulled out of the event with an ankle sprain. In the semifinals, she lost the first set to Kim Clijsters, before the Belgian retired with a hip injury midway through the second. In the final, Hantuchová was easily defeated by Kaia Kanepi, 6–2, 6–1. In Sydney, Hantuchová upset Francesca Schiavone in the second round, before falling to second seed Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals. Seeded No. 20 at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, Hantuchová fell to eventual semifinalist and defending champion Kim Clijsters in straight sets in the third round.

At Pattaya, she successfully defended her title by defeating No. 4 seed Maria Kirilenko 6–7(4), 6–3, 6–3 in the final. However, Hantuchová was upset in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha, Qatar the following week by Simona Halep 3–6, 6–2, 7–6(4). At the Dubai Tennis Championships, she fell in the quarters to eventual finalist, Julia Görges, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4.

Hantuchová then suffered relatively unsuccessful tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami. She fell in the second round after a bye to Czech Klára Zakopalová 3–6, 7–6(7), 3–6. In Miami, she defeated Kateryna Bondarenko in a third set tiebreaker, before falling to Ana Ivanovic 2–6, 6–7(2).^[29] At the Fed Cup against Spain, she lost to Silvia Soler Espinosa 6–7(5), 4–6, before defeating Lourdes Domínguez Lino 0–6, 7–6(4), 6–4 to clinch the tie 3–2 for Slovakia.^[30]

Career statistics[link]

Endorsements[link]

Product endorsement and equipment[link]

Until the 2009 US Open, Hantuchová endorsed Nike sportswear and had her own line with them for her tournament wear, like players such as Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. From the 2009 US Open onwards, Hantuchová began endorsing Adidas sportswear. As of Wimbledon 2010, she shares the same signature line as Ana Ivanović. In 2006, Hantuchová also appeared on an advertisement for Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phone with Ivanović.

Hantuchová also has endorsed three racquet brands. She first endorsed Babolat from the time she was a junior until late 2003, then Yonex until the 2007 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, when she started using the Prince Ozone Seven Racquets in the 2007 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Photos were released from Prince giving the impression that Hantuchová, from the start of the 2011 season, will be using the Prince EXO3 Tour 100. However, she signed a deal with Volkl Tennis and is currently using the Volkl Power Bridge 9. This means that she has endorsed four brands of racquets so far in her career, more than most players. Starting with the 2011 Fed Cup, she began using the Prince EXO3 Tour Team 100, with which she won her fourth career title.

Video games[link]

Hantuchová has been in many sports/tennis related video games with such players as Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Anna Kournikova. Some of the titles are Top Spin (both Xbox and Play Station 2 versions), Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2, Roland Garros 2005 and Virtua Tennis 3. Hantuchová is currently ranked third behind Serena Williams and Ana Ivanović in a poll for new downloadable players for Top Spin 3. Hantuchová is also a playable character in Virtua Tennis 2009.

Achievements[link]

Team achievements[link]

• 2000 Eurotel Doubles Champion
• 2002 Fed Cup Champion (Slovakia)
• 2004 Hopman Cup Finalist (with Karol Kučera)
• 2004 Athens Olympic Games
• 2005 Hopman Cup Champion (with Dominik Hrbatý)
• 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Special achievements[link]

• 2001 WTA Newcomer of the Year Award
• 2002 WTA Most Improved Player of the Year Award
• 2003 Laureus World Sports Academy Award nominee for World Newcomer of the Year Award

See also[link]

• Slovakia Fed Cup team

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Daniela Hantuchová

• Her official website
• Daniela Hantuchová at the Women's Tennis Association
• Daniela Hantuchová at the International Tennis Federation
• Daniela Hantuchová at the Fed Cup
• Daniela Hantuchova on Twitter

Awards
Preceded by Dája Bedáňová	WTA Newcomer of the Year 2001	Succeeded by Svetlana Kuznetsova
Preceded by Justine Henin-Hardenne	WTA Most Improved Player of the Year 2002	Succeeded by Nadia Petrova

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top ten Slovak female singles tennis players as of 28 May 2012 1. Dominika Cibulková (16 ) 2. Daniela Hantuchová (18 ) 3. Magdaléna Rybáriková (107 1) 4. Jana Čepelová (183 2) 5. Lenka Juríková (252 ) 6. Romana Tabak (259 4) 7. Lenka Wienerová (262 1) 8. Kristína Kučová (279 4) 9. Zuzana Luknárová (288 4) 10. Zuzana Kučová (296 5)

Kim Clijsters

Kim Clijsters at the 2011 Open GDF Suez
Country	Belgium
Residence	Bree, Belgium
Born	(1983-06-08) 8 June 1983 (age 29) Bilzen, Belgium
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Turned pro	17 August 1997
Retired	6 May 2007 Returned 11 August 2009
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US $24,271,348 (3rd in overall earnings)
Singles
Career record	513–124
Career titles	41 WTA (10th in overall rankings) 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (11 August 2003)
Current ranking	No. 47 (28 May 2012)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (2011)
French Open	F (2001, 2003)
Wimbledon	SF (2003, 2006)
US Open	W (2005, 2009, 2010)
Other tournaments
Championships	W (2002, 2003, 2010)
Doubles
Career record	131–54 (70.81%)
Career titles	11 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (4 August 2003)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2003)
French Open	W (2003)
Wimbledon	W (2003)
US Open	QF (2002)
Mixed Doubles
Career titles	0
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon	F (2000)
Last updated on: 28 May 2012.

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters^[3] (Dutch pronunciation: [kɪm ˈklɛistərs] ( listen); born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 28 May 2012, Clijsters is ranked no. 47 in singles. Clijsters is a former world no. 1 in both singles and doubles.

Clijsters has won 41 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles: three at the US Open, in 2005, 2009, and 2010 and one at the Australian Open in 2011. She has also been runner-up in four Grand Slam singles tournaments, and won the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002, 2003, and 2010. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters announced her retirement with immediate effect on 6 May 2007,^[4] but almost two years later, on 26 March 2009, she publicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009 summer hard court season.^[5] In only her third tournament back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first unseeded player and wildcard to win the tournament, and the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.^[6]

In June 2011, TIME magazine named her one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future".^[7] According to Forbes in August 2011, she became the fifth highest-paid female athlete over the past year.^[8]

Playing style[link]

Clijsters is recognized for her powerful groundstrokes, as well as for her backhand slices and drop shots.^[9] She is also recognized for her all-court defense, characterized by her speed, slides, and athleticism.^[10] Maria Sharapova, interviewed after losing to Clijsters in the 2005 Nasdaq-100 Open, said, "You just have to expect that she's going to get every ball back".^[11]

Personal life[link]

Clijsters was born on 8 June 1983, in Bilzen, Limburg, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the daughter of Lei Clijsters, a former international footballer, and Els Vandecaetsbeek, a former national gymnastics champion. Lei Clijsters died of lung cancer on 4 January 2009.^[12] Clijsters says that she inherited footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother.^[13] Kim's younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion and retired in 2004 after back injuries.

In December 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004.^[14] Clijsters is still affectionately nicknamed "Aussie Kim" by Australians. In October 2006, Clijsters announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters' hometown of Bree. In an interview with Sportweekend (a sports programme on Belgian Flemish television), Clijsters said that she was retiring to start a family.^[4] Clijsters and Lynch married privately on 13 July 2007, at 6 am at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both sets of parents present.^[15]

Clijsters gave birth to daughter, Jada Elle, on 27 February 2008, at 1:35 pm at the Vesalius hospital in Tongeren, Belgium.^[16]

Tennis career[link]

Junior career[link]

Clijsters was an accomplished junior player. In singles, she finished as runner-up in the 1998 Wimbledon junior event,^[17] finishing 11th in the year-end singles ranking.^[18] In the same year in doubles, Clijsters won the French Open title with Jelena Dokić, defeating Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova in the final,^[19] as well as the US Open with Eva Dyrberg, defeating former partner Dokic in the final.^[20] Clijsters ended the season as no. 4 in the International Tennis Federation junior doubles world ranking.^[18]

1999[link]

In 1999, Clijsters made her breakthrough professionally. At her first WTA tournament in Antwerp, she qualified and lost to the eventual finalist Sarah Pitkowski-Malcor in the quarterfinal, after failing to convert a match point.

Playing through the qualifying rounds at Roehampton, she made it to the main draw of Wimbledon.^[21] Clijsters won six matches in a row, while only losing 25 games. She defeated no. 10 Amanda Coetzer en route to the fourth round, during which Clijsters lost to her childhood idol,^[22] Steffi Graf, in straight sets, in difficult rainy circumstances.^[21] Later that summer, Clijsters reached the third round of the US Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams after serving for the match. In the autumn, Clijsters won her first Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles title in Luxembourg. She followed up with her first WTA doubles title in Bratislava, partnering Laurence Courtois. At the end of the year, she was granted the WTA Most Impressive Newcomer award, the only Belgian player to have received this trophy.

2000–2002[link]

Clijsters climbed up the rankings over the next couple of years. In 2001, she reached her first Tier I final at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, losing to Serena Williams in a match overshadowed by controversy. Clijsters also reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati, 10–12, in the third set. This two-hour, 21-minute match featured the longest third set in a French Open women's final. Clijsters was four times within two points of winning, before Capriati prevailed. Her next important breakthrough came at the end of 2002, when she won the year-end Home Depot Championships in Los Angeles, defeating top ranked Serena Williams in the final. This was only the fifth defeat of the year for Williams and snapped her 18-match winning streak. On her way to the final, Clijsters defeated fourth-ranked Justine Henin and second-ranked Venus Williams, becoming just the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in the same event. She also equaled the event's record for the fewest games dropped.

2003: Ascent to No. 1[link]

Clijsters started her season at the Adidas International, where she won her first tournament of the year, defeating Lindsay Davenport in straight sets in the final.^[23] Clijsters reached the final after defeating Patty Schnyder,^[24] Chanda Rubin^[25] and Justine Henin.^[26] At the Australian Open, Clijsters lost in the semifinal to Serena Williams 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, after leading 5–1 in the final set and holding two match points.^[27][28] On the way to the semis Clijsters lost just fifteen games beating Samantha Reeves^[29] and completing a double bagel (wherein the opposing player fails to win a single game) against Petra Mandula.^[30] She then continued by winning in straight sets against Tatiana Poutchek,^[31] Amanda Coetzer, and Anastasia Myskina.^[32] At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, she defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final.

Clijsters in 2003

Clijsters reached the final of the WTA German Open, after defeating Jennifer Capriati 6–4 in the final set.^[33] In the final, she played Justine Henin and squandered three match points to lose the final set, 5–7.^[34] To compound the day, Clijsters also lost the doubles final 4–6 in the final set.^[35]

Clijsters’ third title of the year came at the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome, where she defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the final.^[36][37] Clijsters had defeated Myskina^[38] and doubles partner Ai Sugiyama to make the final.^[39]

At the French Open, Clijsters reached the final for the second time in three years, after defeating Nadia Petrova.^[40] In the final, Clijsters lost to Henin 0–6, 4–6,^[41] and again at the US open, 5–7, 1–6. She also lost in the semifinal at Wimbledon to Venus Williams, after leading by a set and a break.

On 11 August 2003, Clijsters attained the world no. 1 ranking, holding the spot for 12 non-consecutive weeks during the remainder of the year, and was the first player to be top ranked by the WTA without first winning a Grand Slam singles title.

On 18 August 2003, Clijsters also attained the world no. 1 ranking in doubles, joining a very select group of only four players—Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Martina Hingis, and Lindsay Davenport—having reached the world no. 1 ranking in singles and doubles simultaneously. By 2010, only Serena Williams had managed to join this group.

The world no. 1 ranking was again at stake in October during the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany. Clijsters rallied from a set down to beat Henin. The match marked only the eighth time that the top two players battled for the top ranking.^[42] Even though Clijsters won that match, she finished the year ranked world no. 2, just behind Henin.

2004[link]

Clijsters started 2004 by playing in the Hopman Cup. During the tie against Australia, Clijsters injured her ankle against Alicia Molik.^[43] Clijsters was on crutches for a few days and feared she might need surgery. Clijsters pulled out of the Adidas International due to the injury.^[44] Clijsters did recover in time to reach her fourth career Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she lost once more to Henin.^[45] After defeating Marlene Weingärtner, Maria Elena Camerin (with a double bagel),^[46] Dinara Safina,^[47] Silvia Farina Elia,^[48] Anastasia Myskina (during the match Clijsters aggravated her ankle injury),^[49] and Patty Schnyder to reach the final. Clijsters then won two consecutive titles in Paris and Antwerp. In Paris, Clijsters defeated local favourite Mary Pierce in the final.^[50] To reach the final, Clijsters defeated Maria Sanchez Lorenzo,^[51] Farina Elia,^[52] and Safina.^[53] While defending her Tier I title at the Pacific Life Open, Clijsters injured her wrist during her win against Angelika Roesch in her first match. Clijsters withdrew before her second match with the injury described as a bruised bone.^[54] Clijsters withdrew from the event in Miami the next week^[55] Clijsters then appeared six weeks later in her home town of Bree to play in a Fed Cup tie against Croatia,^[56] winning both of her rubbers. Clijsters returned to the tour in Berlin and needed three sets to see Marta Marrero off.^[57] Clijsters then pulled out of her second match and then was told to rest for five weeks, causing her to miss the French Open.^[58] Clijsters then had surgery to remove a cyst, causing her to miss three months of the tour, including Wimbledon and the US Open.^[59][60] Clijsters also missed the Olympics, but she had already decided not to play the tournament after a dispute about clothing sponsors.^[61] Clijsters returned to the Tour at the Gaz de France Stars.^[62] She made the semifinals, defeating Iveta Benešová^[63][64] and Magdalena Maleeva,^[65][66] before pulling out in the second set against Elena Bovina.^[67][68] Clijsters had aggravated the injury and although she did not need surgery, she was out for the rest of the season.^[69] She played down fears that the injury might force her retirement from tennis.^[70]

2005: First Grand Slam title[link]

Clijsters missed the Australian Open due to injury.^[71] In February, after four months out, Clijsters returned to the tour by participating in the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. Her first match back was against Jelena Kostanić, which she won in straight sets,^[72] before losing to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.^[73][74]

Clijsters completed her comeback in March and April, when she won, as an unseeded player, 17 matches in a row to claim two Tier I titles and regain a top-20 ranking. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Clijsters was ranked world no. 133. The Belgian began by beating Nicole Pratt,^[71] Shinobu Asagoe,^[75] Anna Chakvetadze,^[76] and Evgenia Linetskaya,^[77] all without dropping a set. In the semifinals, Clijsters defeated world no. 5 Elena Dementieva in straight sets^[78] and world no. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final in three sets.^[79] The week after that win, Clijsters defeated four top-6 players in straight sets to win the NASDAQ-100 Open. To win the title, Clijsters defeated Sandra Kloesel,^[80] Amy Frazier,^[81] Nathalie Dechy,^[82] Anastasia Myskina,^[83] Elena Dementieva, Amélie Mauresmo,^[84] and Maria Sharapova,^[85] going the whole tournament without dropping a set.

Turning her attention to clay, Clijsters’ winning streak continued at the J&S Cup. Clijsters defeated Tatiana Perebiynis,^[86] Maria Kirilenko,^[87] and Elena Bovina. Against Bovina, Clijsters’ picked up a minor shoulder injury.^[88] Clijsters’ 17 match winning streak was finally ended by Svetlana Kuznetsova.^[88] Playing next at the WTA German Open Clijsters defeated Yuliana Fedak^[89] and Dinara Safina in straight sets before, hurting her right knee^[90] and retiring against Patty Schnyder.^[91] Clijsters recovered in time to play in the French Open.^[92] Playing in the French Open for the first time in two years, Clijsters defeated Meilen Tu,^[93] Cervanová, and Daniela Hantuchová^[94] to advance to the fourth round, where she lost to Davenport 1–6, 7–5, 6–3 after leading 3–1 in the second set.^[95]

Clijsters got off to the best possible start for her grass-court season at the Hastings Direct International Championships by winning the tournament. Clijsters defeated Jelena Janković,^[96] Conchita Martínez, Mashona Washington,^[97] Kuznetsova^[98] and Vera Dushevina to claim her third title of the year.^[99] At Wimbledon, Clijsters defeated Katie O'Brien,^[100] Marissa Irvin,^[101] and Roberta Vinci,^[102] before facing Davenport in the round of 16 for the second Grand Slam in a row. The result was the same as the French Open, with the American winning.^[103]

After Wimbledon, Clijsters went on an amazing run of form, where she lost just once between July and October. Clijsters’ run began at the Bank of the West Classic against Ai Sugiyama,^[104] and she defeated Daniela Hantuchová,^[105] Anna-Lena Grönefeld, and Venus Williams to win her fourth title of the year.^[106] Clijsters’ streak continued in San Diego, as she defeated Marta Domachowska^[107] and Janković,^[108] before suffering her only defeat in this run to Shuai Peng.^[109]

After the defeat to Peng, Clijsters continued the run, as she won 22 matches in a row, collecting four straight titles along the way, including her maiden Grand Slam title. The 22-match streak started against Karolina Šprem,^[110] with victories over Safina, Nadia Petrova,^[111] and Francesca Schiavone.^[112] Clijsters collected her fifth title of the year.^[113] The streak continued in Toronto as Clijsters beat Virginie Razzano,^[114] Ana Ivanovic (via a walkover),^[115] Flavia Pennetta,^[116] Anastasia Myskina^[117] and Justine Henin-Hardenne to win the Rogers Cup.^[118] After winning three of her four US Summer Hard court tournaments, Clijsters won the US Open Series, which links all the US summer hard courts together and doubles the winners prize money at the US Open. Giving Clijsters a chance to double the $1.1 million US Open winners prize to $2.2 million.^[119]

Clijsters won her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open, after having reached four Grand Slam finals previously. Clijsters started by defeating Martina Müller,^[120] Fabiola Zuluaga,^[121] Ai Sugiyama^[122] and María Vento-Kabchi^[123] in straight sets to reach the quarter finals. There, Clijsters defeated tenth-seeded Venus Williams in the quarter-finals 4–6, 7–5, 6–1, winning 11 of the last 13 games after being down 6–4, 4–2.^[124] Clijsters squandered five match points in the second set of her semi against Sharapova but eventually won 6–2, 6–7(4), 6–3.^[125] In her fifth attempt, Clijsters won her first Grand Slam final, defeating Mary Pierce in straight sets. By winning the US Open Series Clijsters doubled her US$1.1 million in prize money she received for winning the US Open, to US$2.2 million.^[126][127] The pay check was the largest payday in women's sports history.^[128]

On 15 September, a week after her US Open victory, it was announced that Clijsters and her coach, Marc Dehous, had parted company, which was due in part to her paying him only $9,000 of her $2,200,000 US Open winnings.^[129][130]

Clijsters’ hot streak continued as she extended her streak to 21 wins, even without a coach at the Fortis Championships. Clijsters beat Klara Koukalová,^[131] Schiavone,^[132] Dechy and Lena Groenefeld all without dropping a set to win her eighth title of the year.^[133] The title was Clijsters’ fourth consecutive title.^[134] At the Porsche Grand Prix Clijsters defeated Šprem^[135] for her twenty second consecutive match win before Dementieva ended the streak.^[136]

Clijsters then won her ninth and final tournament of the year at the Gaz de France Stars, defeating Schiavone in the final, to go the whole tournament without dropping a set.^[137] Clijsters defeated Ekaterina Bychkova,^[138] Šprem,^[139] Julia Schruff^[140] and Safina^[141] to make the final.

At the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, Clijsters was eliminated in the group stage. Clijsters lost her first match, a rematch of the US Open final, to Pierce 6–1, 4–6, 7–6^[142] and her second match to Mauresmo 6–3, 7–6. This left the Belgian needing to win and hope that the results in the other matches went her way.^[143] Although results did not go her way and Clijsters was eliminated with one match still to play,^[144] she finished her season by defeating Dementieva in straight sets.^[145] Clijsters ended the year ranked World No. 2.

2006[link]

Clijsters in 2006

Clijsters started the year by from her semifinal match at the WTA tournament in Sydney, citing a left hip muscle strain.

At the Australian Open, Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, 6–3, 2–6, 6–4, before retiring from her semifinal match with Amélie Mauresmo. Despite the loss, the ranking points she accumulated were enough to regain the world no. 1 ranking, a position she last held on 9 November 2003. She was the first tennis player, male or female, to rise from outside the top 100 (world no. 134) to world no. 1 in less than a year. Clijsters' loss to Mauresmo in the Australian Open semifinal was due to an ankle injury. Although she had been expected to miss at least eight weeks to recover, Clijsters returned two weeks later at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. She lost the final of that tournament to Mauresmo in three sets.

Clijsters won her first title of the year at a clay court event in Warsaw, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. At the French Open in May, Clijsters reached the semifinals without losing a set, defeating Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, 7–6, 6–1. However, she lost to Justine Henin in the semifinal, 3–6, 2–6, on her 23rd birthday. She was seeded second going into Wimbledon, but was again eliminated in the semifinal by Henin, also in straight sets, 4–6, 6–7(4).

Clijsters at 2006 Wimbledon

Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova in straight sets. This was her first loss to Sharapova in five career meetings.

On 16 August, after receiving a first-round bye at the Tier I Rogers Cup in Montreal, Clijsters faced Canadian Stéphanie Dubois in the second round. Having won the first set 6–1 and trailing 2–3 in the second set, Clijsters slipped and fell on her left wrist and was forced to retire from the match. On 18 August 2006, Clijsters announced on her official website that the condition of her wrist was worse than she had expected and that she would be unable to defend her title at the US Open. She also missed the Fed Cup final against Italy, which Italy won 3–2.^[146]

Playing in Paris at the Gaz de France Stars tournament, her first event in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi in the final. At the year-end WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semifinal to Mauresmo, 2–6, 6–3, 3–6, after defeating Dementieva and Kuznetsova and losing to Sharapova in the round-robin phase of the tournament.

2007: Retirement[link]

2007 was to be Clijsters’ final year on tour, as she had planned in 2005 to retire at the end of the 2007 season.^[147] Clijsters started the year by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title, she defeated Zheng Jie, Patty Schnyder, and top-ranked Maria Sharapova. Clijsters then won the Medibank International in Sydney, defeating Nicole Pratt,^[148] Shahar Pe'er,^[149] Li Na, and^[150] Jelena Janković to claim the title, after being match point down in the final.^[151]

Clijsters at the 2007 J&S Cup

At the Australian Open, Clijsters was the fourth seed. The Belgian started by giving a double bagel to Vasilisa Bardina, before going on to defeat Akiko Morigami,^[152] Alona Bondarenko,^[153] and Daniela Hantuchová^[154] in straight sets. Clijsters then defeated sixth seed Martina Hingis in three sets,^[155] before losing to Sharapova in the semifinals.^[156]

Clijsters next played in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games, after pulling out of the Open Gaz de France with a hip injury.^[157] While Clijsters said that she was fit, she hinted that she might miss the French Open.^[158] Clijsters defeated Olga Poutchkova,^[159] Ana Ivanovic,^[160] and Tatiana Golovin^[161] to reach the final without dropping a set, though she lost there to Amélie Mauresmo.^{[162][163][164]}

After this event, Clijsters confirmed that she would miss the French Open^[165] and US Open, making Wimbledon her last Grand Slam event. The Belgian also added that her last two tournaments would be in Luxembourg and at the WTA Tour Championships in Stuttgart.^[166][167]

At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters lost in the fourth round to Li Na in three sets,^[168] after beating Akiko Morigami^[169] and Samantha Stosur.^[170] A month later in her first clay tournament of the year in Warsaw, Clijsters failed to defend her title, when she lost to Julia Vakulenko 6–7(3), 3–6.^[171]