Mirjana Lučić

Mirjana Lučić

Country	Croatia
Residence	Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Date of birth	March 9 1982 (1982--) (age 25)
Place of birth	Dortmund, West Germany
Height	m ({{FORMATNUM:5 ft 11+1⁄2 in}})
Weight	65 kg (143 lb)
Turned Pro	April 26, 1997
Retired	Active
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career Prize Money	$ 846,640
Singles
Career record:	102-77
Career titles:	2 WTA and 1 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 32 (May 11, 1998)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2r (1998)
French Open	3r (2001)
Wimbledon	SF (1999)
U.S. Open	3r (1997-98)
Doubles
Career record:	30-20
Career titles:	2 WTA and 1 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 19 (October 26, 1998)
Infobox last updated on: 2006.

Mirjana Lučić (born in March 9 1982, in Dortmund, West Germany) is a professional tennis player from Croatia. She enjoyed a brief but promising career on the WTA Tour in the late-1990s, during which she set a few "youngest-ever" records and won one Grand Slam women's doubles title at the Australian Open in 1998 when she was only 15 years old, partnering Martina Hingis. Following a series of personal problems from 2000 onwards, she faded from the scene. In March 2007, following her first round victory at Indian Wells, Lucic announced her full-scale comeback to tennis.

Career

Lučić began playing tennis at age four by hiding in the car when her older sister went to tennis classes and then sneaking into the lessons herself. As a junior player, she won the girls' singles title at the US Open in 1996, and the girls' singles and doubles crowns at the Australian Open in 1997, becoming only the third player in the Open Era to win two junior Grand Slam singles titles by the age of 14 (the others being Hingis and Jennifer Capriati).

Lučić turned professional in April 1997 at the age of 15. One week after turning pro, she won the very first WTA Tour event she played in at Bol. She then reached the final of her second career event in Strasbourg, where she lost to Steffi Graf.

In 1998, playing in her very first tour doubles event, Lučić became the youngest player in history to win a title at the Australian Open at age 15 years, 10 months and 21 days, when she and Hingis won the women's doubles title. The win made Lučić the first player to win both the very first singles and doubles events they had ever played in on the WTA Tour. And she went on to win the second doubles event of her career when she partnered Hingis to win the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. Later that year, Lučić defended her singles title at Bol, becoming the youngest player ever to defend a tour title at age 16 years, 1 month and 24 days. She also finished runner-up in the 1998 mixed doubles event at Wimbledon, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.

In 1999, Lučić achieved her career-best Grand Slam singles performance when she reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, before losing in three sets to Graf 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3. In the 3rd round, she stunned World No. 4 and 9 time Grand Slam champion, Monica Seles 7-6, 7-6.

After 1999, Lučić's suffered a series of personal and financial problems and she failed to make any further significant impact on the tour. She then proceeded to take an extended hiatus from competition; her career-high world rankings were World No. 32 in singles and World No. 19 in doubles (both achieved in 1998). Since then, she has returned to the WTA tour and won her first qualifying match in the 2007 Region championships. Her last appearance on the tour before that was in 2003.

Mirjana Lucic gave an interview in New York Daily News in April of 2006 explaining why she stopped playing and describing her life with an abusive father, vowing that wouldn't stop her and she'll continue to fight to the end. Lučić has been training with a new coach, Ivan Beros, and has said she is fit and ready to continue tennis.

As a "wild card" in the qualifying draw of the Cellular South Cup in Memphis in February, Lucic won one match (def. Melanie Oudin, 16 63 63) before losing in the second round (to Natalie Grandin, 64 36 62). She was also awarded a wild card to the 2007 Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells (CA) in March, where she again won her first match [def. Lindsey Nelson, 64 76(5)] before losing in the second round (to Anna Chakvetadze, 62 75). Sports Illustrated tennis writer Jon Wertheim called it "early in the comeback, but ... a story worth following."

She also received a wild card to the Tiro A Volo tournament in Rome, where she lost in the first round (to Karin Knapp, 64 63). That being her third tournament within the previous 12 months, she received her first WTA ranking since her return to the professional tour. She re-entered the rankings at 524.

Even though she lost the first round to Knapp in the Rome challenger, she received a wild card for the 1.3 million dollar tournament in Rome and beat the 65th-ranked player in the world, Elena Vesnina. She then went on to lose to Catalina Castano in the 2nd round. Her ranking jumped to 444 with the result.

WTA Tour titles

Singles (2)

#	Date	Tournament	Tier/GS	Surface	Opponents in final	Score
1.	May 4, 1997	Bol, Croatia	IV	Clay	Corina Morariu	7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5)
2.	May 3, 1998	Bol, Croatia	IV	Clay	Corina Morariu	6-2, 6-4

Doubles (2)

#	Date	Tournament	Tier/GS	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score
1.	February 1, 1998	Australian Open, Melbourne	GS	Hard	Martina Hingis	Lindsay Davenport & Natasha Zvereva	6-4, 2-6, 6-3
2.	February 8, 1998	Pan Pacific, Tokyo, Japan	I	Carpet	Martina Hingis	Lindsay Davenport & Natasha Zvereva	7-5, 6-4

Runner-ups (2)

Singles (1)

• 1997: Strasbourg (lost fo Steffi Graf)

Doubles (1)

• 1998: Bol, Croatia (w/Joannette Kruger)

References

External links

• Mirjana Lučić profile on the WTA Tour's official website
• tenniscorner.net profile
• Fed Cup record

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