Ashley Harkleroad

Ashley Harkleroad

Country	United States
Residence	Wesley Chapel, Florida, United States
Date of birth	May 2, 1985 (1985-05-02) (age 24)
Place of birth	Rossville, Georgia, United States
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	54.8 kg (121 lb; 8.63 st)
Turned pro	(June 12, 2000)
Plays	Right, (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$1,009,244
Singles
Career record	213–137
Career titles	0 (8 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	No. 39 (June 9, 2003)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3rd Round (2007)
French Open	3rd Round (2003)
Wimbledon	2nd Round (2006)
US Open	2nd Round (2003)
Doubles
Career record	96–77
Career titles	0 (4 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	No. 39 (January 29, 2005)
Last updated on: May 12, 2009.

Ashley Harkleroad (born May 2, 1985), is an American tennis player. Born in Rossville, Georgia, Harkleroad reached a career-high ranking of No. 39 on June 9, 2003. As of May 2009 she isn't currently playing as she recently had a child. Her career prize money to date is $1,009,244^[1] Harkleroad was the first WTA Tennis Player to pose naked for the Mens Magazine Playboy.

Career

Ashley Harkleroad turned pro on June 12, 2000, and was quickly billed as the next American tennis superstar. Her debut was at the ITF tournament in Largo, Florida, in 1999. The following year she played her first WTA qualifying event in Miami, Florida and her first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open. In 2001, she returned to the same events while improving her status on the ITF Circuit. In 2002 she won her first tour matches, reaching the second round at San Diego, Hawaii, and Bratislava, where she made her first doubles semi-final with partner Maria Emilia Salerni. She ended 2002 in the top 200 for the first time.

Her breakthrough year was in 2003, when at Charleston she defeated three top 20 players at the time (No.16 Elena Bovina, No.19 Meghann Shaughnessy, and No.9 Daniela Hantuchová), losing just 11 games along the way to reach her first tour semifinal before losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne. She became the lowest-ranked semifinalist (No. 101) in the event's history since unranked Jennifer Capriati reached the finals in 1990.

After that performance, on April 14, 2003 she broke out from No. 101 to climb to a No.56 ranking. Subsequently she reached the semifinals again at Strasbourg and scored her second Top 10 win and second over Daniela Hantuchová at Roland Garros while reaching the 3rd round and for the second time winning past the first round at a grand slam. On June 9, 2003 she soared into the Top 50 at No. 39 and reached the final in doubles at the Japan Open in Tokyo.

In 2004, she made her career first Tour final (at Auckland) before losing to defending champion Eleni Daniilidou. For most of the 2005 season, Harkleroad sat out due to various injuries and an illness in the family, but the time she was on court was spent on the ITF Women's circuit winning 2 titles. She did however reach a tour doubles final at Quebec City.

2006

Harkleroad played her first main tour event since 2005 at Auckland, successfully qualifying for the main draw only to fall in the opening round. She failed to qualify at Sydney before reaching the second round of the Australian Open (as a qualifier) where she pushed world number 4 Maria Sharapova in a tough match. On her way she upset a higher ranked opponent- Shuai Peng of China. This performance saw Harkleroad break back into the top 100 at number 83. Harkleroad ended 2006 at #86 in Singles and #55 in Doubles.

2007

Harkleroad during her first-round women's doubles match at the 2007 Australian Open.

Ashley was selected for the USA in the Hopman Cup after Venus Williams withdrew. She and partner Mardy Fish went 0–3 in the event. Harkleroad pushed Tatiana Golovin to 3 sets before losing 3–6,6–4,3–6. Ashley lost 3–6,0–6 to Nadia Petrova and 6–3,4–6,4–6 to Alicia Molik. Harkleroad started out the main WTA season in Hobart, Tasmania. She lost in the first round to Austrian Sybille Bammer 7–6(2),6–1. Bammer eventually defeated Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. She lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the third round of the Australian Open 7–6 (6),5–7,3–6. In the previous rounds, she beat Meng Yuan of China 6–3,6–0 and upset 17th seeded German Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6–2,6–2. Ashley struggled in the clay court season and finished at Roland Garros in the second round losing to Venus Williams 1–6,6–7(8-10). Harkleroad was down 1–6,1–5 before rebounding and holding set points. During this match, Harkleroad received the fastest recorded women's main draw serve,^[2] a record which Venus Williams broke in the U.S. Open on August 28, 2007.^[3] In the grass court season, Harkleroad's worst, Ashley played the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament for the second straight year as her Wimbledon warm-up. In 2006, she lost in the final to Caroline Wozniacki. This year, she defeated Wozniacki in the final to win the event. Ashley lost to Roberta Vinci, a good grass-court player in the first round of Wimbledon. In the U.S. Open Series, Ashley failed to qualify at the Acura Classic but qualified in Los Angeles and reached the second round before falling to Roland Garros runner-up Ana Ivanović 4–6,2–6. At the U.S. Open (tennis), Ashley fell to Ioana Raluca Olaru 5–7,6–1,4–6. Ashley will be playing for the first time since the U.S. Open in San Francisco, where she won $50,000 at the ITF challenger for the second consecutive year. Ashley ended the year by winning a $75,000 challenger in Pittsburgh and a $50,000 challenger in La Quinta back to back. She also ended the year ranked 67, her second highest year end to date. Ashley also won the doubles title in la Quinta with Christina Fusano. Ashley finished with a 29-20 record in singles and a 13-11 record in doubles for the 2007 season.

2008

Starting the year off as usual in Auckland, Ashley reached the second round, defeating 8th seed Émilie Loit before losing to home-crowd wild card Marina Erakovic. Jetting to Hobart, Harkleroad had a banner tournament. Staying in Australia, Harkleroad played in Hobart after winning three matches to qualify. She defeated three top-100 players before bowing out in the Semi-Finals to top seed Vera Zvonareva. In the Australian Open, Ashley lost to 30th seed Virginie Razzano.

Harkleroad debuted with the Fed Cup team for the United States just two weeks later. Facing Germany, Harkleroad, Lindsay Davenport, Laura Granville, and Lisa Raymond made up the United States team. Davenport was upset in a tie, giving the Germans a 1–0 lead. Harkleroad crushed Tatjana Malek and Sabine Lisicki, both in straight sets to help the U.S. win 4–1 and becoming the tie's hero.

She then reached the final of the $75,000 ITF event in Midland where she was defeated by compatriot Laura Granville.

Her next tournament was the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells. She upset Lucie Šafářová and eighth seed Dinara Safina. She then lost to Agnieszka Radwańska in the fourth round in three sets 6–2 4–6 6–4. At the Sony Ericsson Open, she reached the third round after taking out the 23rd seed Virginie Razzano impressively 6–4 6–4, but lost to Elena Vesnina 4–6 7–5 4–6. While at the Sony Ericsson Open, a large cyst on one of her ovaries burst and she was sent to the hospital. She made it through the ordeal but had to lose one of her ovaries.

At the 2008 French Open, she lost 6–2 6–1 against tournament favorite Serena Williams in the first round.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, she lost 6–4 6–3 against 2006 winner Amélie Mauresmo in the first round.

Personal

Harkleroad started playing tennis at age four.^[4] She is currently coached by Chuck Adams and formerly coached by José Luis Clerc and Jay Berger. Her father, Danny, works in the printing industry and played college football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Her mother, Tammy, is a school teacher, and played college tennis at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee. Ashley got the nickname 'Pebbles' while living in Flintstone, Georgia, a small town that has one traffic light. She lists her tennis aspiration as becoming a Top 10 pro with an eye on No.1^[1]. Ashley married ATP pro Alex Bogomolov, Jr. in December 2004 but they divorced in October 2006.^[4] She is currently engaged to former ATP Pro Chuck Adams. During US Open coverage on the USA network on August 29, 2008, commentator John McEnroe announced that Harkleroad is pregnant with Adams's child. She gave birth to a son, Charlie on March 30, 2009.[1]

US Playboy's first tennis player

After losing a tennis match to Serena Williams on May 25, 2008 at the French Open, Ashley told reporters she would appear in the August 2008 issue of Playboy, a decision she made while convalescing from ovarian cyst surgery in March, 2008. She later appeared as the cover girl of the magazine,^[5] thus becoming the first professional tennis player after Vanessa Menga (Playboy Brazil 2001) to grace the pages of Playboy. ^[6]

Titles

Singles wins (0 WTA, 8 ITF)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 7, 2002	ITF / Los Gatos, California, United States	Hard	Tzipi Obziler	6–2,6–2
2.	August 18, 2002	ITF / Bronx, New York, United States	Hard	Ľubomíra Kurhajcová	6–1, 6–3
3.	July 17, 2005	ITF / Louisville, Kentucky, United States	Hard	Séverine Brémond	4–6,7–5,6–0
4.	August 7, 2005	ITF / Washington, D.C., United States	Hard	Olga Poutchkova	6–2,6–1
5.	October 15, 2006	ITF / San Francisco, California, United States	Hard	Clarisa Fernández	6–2,6–3
6.	October 14, 2007	ITF / San Francisco, California, United States	Hard	Sunitha Rao	6–1,6–2
7.	November 11, 2007	ITF / Pittsburgh, United States	Hard	Olga Poutchkova	4–6,6–4,6–3
8.	November 18, 2007	ITF / La Quinta, United States	Hard	Stéphanie Dubois	6–3,7–6(8–6)

Grand Slam Singles Timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament.

Grand Slam Doubles Timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ashley Harkleroad

• Ashley Harkleroad profile on the WTA Tour's official website
• Ashley Harkleroad at the Fed Cup