Lisa Raymond

Lisa Raymond (born August 10, 1973) is an American retired professional tennis player who has achieved notable success in doubles tennis. Raymond has 11 Grand Slam titles to her name: 6 in women's doubles and 5 in mixed doubles. On June 12, 2000, she reached the World No. 1 Ranking in doubles for the first time. Her career high singles ranking was No. 15 in October 1997. Over the course of her career, Raymond won four singles titles and 79 doubles titles, and held the World No. 1 doubles ranking for a total of 137 weeks.

Earning more than US$10 million in prize money in her career, Raymond reached the quarterfinals in singles at the 2004 Australian Open and the 2000 Wimbledon Championships. Raymond, who plays right-handed, has wins over former World No. 1's Venus Williams, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis, as well as other accomplished former top 10 players such as Magdalena Maleeva, Lori McNeil, Irina Spîrlea, Natasha Zvereva, Conchita Martínez, Marion Bartoli, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Kirilenko. She is one of the few players to win a career Grand Slam in doubles. Among her doubles partners are Lindsay Davenport, Martina Navratilova, Rennae Stubbs, Samantha Stosur, Květa Peschke, Cara Black and Liezel Huber. Raymond is also an Olympic medalist, having won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics for the United States, partnering with Mike Bryan.

Early years

Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Raymond is a 1991 graduate of The Academy of Notre Dame de Namur, a private Catholic girls school in Villanova, Pa.She received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Andy Brandi's Florida Gators women's tennis team. As a Gator, she won the NCAA singles title in 1992 and 1993 and led the Gators to their first NCAA national team championship in 1992. She was the first player to win all three collegiate Grand Slam titles in a single season (1992). She received the 1992 Volvo Rookie of the Year award, the 1992 Tennis Magazine Collegiate Player of the Year award, and twice received the Honda Sports Award for Tennis, recognizing her as the outstanding collegiate female tennis player of the year in 1991–92 and in 1992–93.

As a junior, Raymond won five U.S. National (USTA) singles and doubles titles, and she was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for players 18 and under in 1990. She was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2003.

2005–2007

Played the first half of the year with Rennae Stubbs before beginning a partnership with Samantha Stosur, winning the US Open, her second doubles crown at Flushing Meadows, and the Season Ending Championships, also her second. Raymond and Stosur won six titles together and were named ITF World Doubles Champions of 2005.

In 2006, Raymond and Stosur won ten titles including the French Open and their second Season Ending Championships. By winning the French Open, Lisa Raymond became only the 13th person in history to have won all four double Grand Slams. Finished the year as the co-holders of the number one spot. Won a WTA-leading 10 titles. Raymond and Stosur were again awarded by the ITF as World Doubles Chapmpions of 2006. They also received the WTA Team of the Year award for their achievements.

The year 2007 was a good one for Raymond and Stosur, with the pair winning five titles; also that year Lisa decided to retire from her singles career. However, Stosur was diagnosed with a virus, forcing her to miss the second half of the season meaning Raymond had to play with various partners. Even though they only played half the season together, they had still qualified for the Season-ending Championships but could not compete.

2008–2009

Raymond began 2008 playing with Elena Likhovtseva with solid results but was cut short due to injury but then reunited with former partner Samantha Stosur in May, after the latter's return from injury. They went on to reach the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, losing both. Raymond also won titles in Memphis and New Haven.

In 2009, Raymond began a partnership with Květa Peschke, where they reached four finals and two semi-finals before their year was cut short by an injury to Peschke, just before Wimbledon. Lisa played with different partners, winning one title, taking her tally to 68.

Raymond now considers her 2008–2009 seasons to be almost 'lost' due to a lack of drive in her fitness.

2010

Raymond started the year by reuniting with former partner Rennae Stubbs. They lost their first round in Sydney, before reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open, as the number six seeds, losing to Venus and Serena Williams. Raymond also made the semi-finals of the Mixed doubles tournament. Raymond and Stubbs won the Aegon International against Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik in the final 6–2, 2–6 [13–11] Both Raymond and Stubbs qualified for the WTA Tour Championship at Doha and will face second seeds Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik.

2011

Raymond started the year by teaming up with Julia Görges but in April started a new partnership with Liezel Huber. Starting slowly, by May their results picked up with a quarter-final showing in Warsaw, semi-finals at Roland Garros and Birmingham, runners-up in Eastbourne and Stanford. They were also quarter-finalists at Wimbledon and Cincinnati. They won their first tournament in Toronto and then claimed the US Open and Tokyo, with a semi-final finish in Beijing which qualified them for the WTA Championships in Istanbul. Both have stated they want to continue their partnership in 2012 and hopefully play the London Olympics. Raymond has now won six women's Grand Slam double titles, three at the US Open, bringing her grand total to 9 (three in mixed) and 73 double titles in total.

2012

In Raymond's first tournament of the year which was at Sydney she and her partner Huber were 2nd seeds.They got to the final where they were against top seeds Peschke and Srebotnik.The final was very close with the first 2 sets shared.In the deciding 3rd set the top seeds won 13–11.In the Australian Open Raymond and Huber got to the quarter-finals without dropping a set but narrowly lost their quarter-final match to Mirza and Vesnina in the deciding 3rd set 7–6. Raymond and Huber won the next 4 tournaments which were in Paris, Doha, Dubai and Indian Wells.In Paris they were the top seeds.Grönefeld and Martić were beaten in straight sets in the final.In Doha Raymond and Huber defeated Kops and Spears in the final in straight sets.In Dubai Raymond and Huber got revenge for their Australian Open defeat to Mirza and Vesnina by beating them in straight sets in the final.At Indian Wells Raymond and Huber beat Mirza and Vesnina in straight sets again in the final.At Wimbledon Raymond and Huber were number 1 seeds but lost to eventual champions Serena and Venus Williams. Raymond's last tournament of the year was the Masters Cup.Her partner in the doubles was Huber.They got to the semi-finals losing to Hlave and Hrade in straight sets.

2013

Raymond started the year ranked No. 6 in doubles. Her first tournament was with partner Maria Kirilenko in Sydney, where they were seeded 3rd. They beat Marina Erakovic and Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets in the 1st round, but then lost in straight sets to Darija Jurak and Katalin Marosi in the 2nd round.

Next, Raymond and Kirilenko played at the Australian Open, where they were seeded 3rd. They were beaten in straight sets in the 2nd round by the Australian duo of 16-year-old Ashleigh Barty (who was playing with a wildcard) and Casey Dellacqua, who later went on to reach the final. After the Australian Open, she dropped to No. 7, being overtaken in the rankings by her partner Kirilenko.

In February, Raymond teamed up with Sam Stosur to play at the Doha tournament, where they were unseeded and beat 8th seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza in straight sets, then beat Janette Husárová and Shuai Zhang 2:1 sets, but lost in the quarter-finals against 3rd seeded Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in straight sets.

Next, in March, Raymond played in Miami, where she teamed up with British teenager Laura Robson (who was playing with a wild card). They reached the semi-finals, where they beat 1st seeds and World #1 pair Errani and Vinci in straight sets with the loss of just 3 games, but then lost in straight sets against 3rd seeds Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik in the final. This partnership continued into the 2013 Wimbledon tournament.

2014

Raymond started the year ranked 42 in the doubles. She reached the final of her first tournament of the year Hobart with Zhang Shuai as her partner.They narrowly lost to Monica Niculescu and Clara Zakopalová.In the Australian Open she partnered with Hantu.They reached the 3rd round and got knocked out by Marka and Vesni.At Nurenberg she gets as far as semi-final with Huber as her Partner Huber.The same pair lost to eventual French Open champions Hsei and Peng in the 3rd round.At Wimbledon Raymond and Huber were seeded 15th but lost in the 2nd round.In the US Open Raymond teamed up with King and they got to the 3rd round before losing to the eventual tournament winners Makarova and Vesnina.Raymonds best result in the mixed doubles was a 2nd round exit at the Australian Open with Fryst as her partner.In the French Open and US Open she lost in the 1st round with Peers and Lipsk respectively.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 13 (6–7)

Mixed doubles: 10 (5–5)

Doubles: 1 Bronze Medal Match (0–1)

Singles: 12 (4–8)

Doubles: 122 (79–43)

Fed Cup

Country: USA Years Participated: 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 Best Result: Winning Team 2000

Overall Record: 14–9 Singles Record: 3–6 Doubles Record: 11–3

Hopman Cup

Country: USA Years Participated: 2006 Best Result: Winning Team 2006 (w/Taylor Dent)

Overall Record: 3–4 Singles Record: 0–4 Mixed Doubles Record: 3–0

Olympics

Country: USA Years Participated: 2004 Best Result: Doubles Quarter-Finalist (w/Navratilova), Singles 3rd Round

Overall Record: 3–2 Singles Record: 2–1 Doubles Record: 1–1

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles