Ashley Harkleroad

This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (February 2011)

Ashley Harkleroad

Country	United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California, United States
Born	May 2, 1985 (1985-05-02) (age 26) 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-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$1,022,094
Singles
Career record	213–140
Career titles	0 (8 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	No. 39 (June 9, 2003)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3R (2007)
French Open	3R (2003)
Wimbledon	2R (2006)
US Open	2R (2003)
Doubles
Career record	96–77
Career titles	0 (5 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	No. 39 (January 29, 2007)
Last updated on: June 24, 2011.

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. Her career prize money to date is $1,022,094.^[1] Harkleroad was the first WTA tennis player to pose naked for the American men's magazine Playboy.^[2]

Career

Harkleroad turned pro on June 12, 2000, and was quickly billed as the next American tennis star. 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 semifinal with partner María Emilia Salerni. She ended 2002 in the top 200 for the first time in her career.

Her breakthrough year was 2003, when at Charleston she defeated three top-20 players (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, she climbed from no. 101 to climb to no. 56. She then reached the semifinals again at Strasbourg and scored her second top-10 win and second over Daniela Hantuchová at Roland Garros while reaching the third round. It was the second time she had passed 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 two titles. She did, however, reach a tour doubles final at Quebec City.

2006

Harkleroad played her second 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 no. 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 no. 83. Harkleroad ended 2006 at no. 86 in singles and np. 55 in doubles.

2007

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

Harkleroad was selected for the US team in the Hopman Cup after Venus Williams withdrew. She and partner Mardy Fish went 0–3 in the event. Harkleroad pushed Tatiana Golovin to three sets, before losing 3–6, 6–4, 3–6. Harkleroad 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 Grönefeld, 6–2, 6–2. Harkleroad struggled in the clay-court season and finished in the second round at Roland Garros, 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, Williams hit the fastest recorded women's main-draw serve,^[3] a record which Venus broke again in the U.S. Open on August 28, 2007.^[4] In the grass-court season, Harkleroad's worst, Harkleroad played the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament for the second straight year as her Wimbledon warm-up. In 2006, she had lost in the final to Caroline Wozniacki. This year, she defeated Wozniacki in the final to win the event. Harkleroad lost to Roberta Vinci, a good grass-court player in the first round of Wimbledon. In the U.S. Open Series, Harkleroad 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), Harkleroad fell to Ioana Raluca Olaru, 5–7, 6–1, 4–6. Harkleroad played 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. Harkleroad ended the year by winning a $75,000 challenger in Pittsburgh and a $50,000 challenger in La Quinta back to back. She ended the year ranked no. 76, her second-highest year-end to date. Harkleroad also won the doubles title in la Quinta with Christina Fusano. Harkleroad finished the year with a 29–20 record in singles and a 13–11 record in doubles.

2008

Starting the year off as usual in Auckland, Harkleroad reached the second round, defeating 8th seed Émilie Loit, before losing to home-crowd wild card Marina Erakovic. Harkleroad played in Hobart, after winning three matches to qualify. She defeated three top-100 players, before bowing out in the semifinals to top seed Vera Zvonareva. In the Australian Open, Harkleroad 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 lost one of her ovaries.

At the 2008 French Open, she lost 2-6, 1-6 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.

After losing early in the U.S. Open Series, Harkleroad withdrew from the U.S. Open due to a pregnancy. She took an indefinite break from tennis as a result. She gave birth on March 30, 2009 to a boy.

2010 comeback

Harkleroad planned on originally coming back at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, but decided to wait for the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida. She used her special protection rank of 72 to enter the main draw. She played Alicia Molik in the first round. She lost, 1-6, 1-6, after only practicing like a player for a month. She also was accepted into the main draw of the 2010 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford. She lost against defending champion Marion Bartoli in the first round, 1-6, 4-6. She competed in World Team Tennis during the summer of 2010.

Personal

Harkleroad started playing tennis at age four.^[5] 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 at Chattanooga. Her mother, Tammy, is a school teacher, and played college tennis at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee. Harkleroad 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] Harkleroad married ATP pro Alex Bogomolov, Jr. in December 2004 but they divorced in October 2006.^[5] She is married to former ATP pro Chuck Adams. During US Open coverage on the USA network on August 29, 2008, commentator John McEnroe announced that Harkleroad was pregnant with Adams's child. She gave birth to a son, Charlie on March 30, 2009.^[6]

US Playboy's first professional tennis player

After losing a tennis match to Serena Williams on May 25, 2008 at the French Open, Harkleroad 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. In an on the air interview, broadcast during the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, Harkleroad stated that Amanda Beard's 2007 pictorial was partly an inspiration for her own, but that her own layout was more risqué by depicting full nudity and pubic hair, while Beard's did not. She appeared as the cover girl of the magazine, as well as in a four page full frontal nude pictorial,^[7] thus becoming the first professional tennis player to pose for Playboy. ^[8]

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 at the Women's Tennis Association
• Ashley Harkleroad at the Fed Cup