Lucie Hradecká

Lucie Hradecká ([ˈlutsɪjɛ ˈɦradɛtskaː]; born 21 May 1985, in Prague) is a tennis player from the Czech Republic. In her career, Hradecká has won 21 WTA doubles titles, and two Grand Slam titles, the 2011 French Open and the 2013 US Open, partnered both times by fellow Czech Andrea Hlaváčková. The pair are also the 2012 Olympic silver medallists in doubles. Hradecká has also won a mixed doubles title at the 2013 French Open with František Čermák, and an Olympic bronze medal alongside Radek Štěpánek at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her biggest singles career highlight to date was defeating former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic in the first round of the 2015 Australian Open.

Career

2002–2008: Career beginnings, first pro tour titles

She won her first doubles title on the WTA Tour in 2006 at Portorož with partner Renata Voráčová, as the fourth-seeded team. In the final, the Czech team defeated Eva Birnerová and Émilie Loit, the second seeds, by walkover. They also had a victory over the top-seeds Maria Elena Camerin and Emmanuelle Gagliardi in the semifinal.

As qualifiers, she reached the third round of doubles competition with Hana Šromová at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships before going down to fifth seeds Meghann Shaughnessy and Anna-Lena Grönefeld. En route they defeated 12th-seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amélie Mauresmo, both Grand Slam singles champions at the time and the previous year's Wimbledon doubles runner-ups by walkover.

In 2007, she made the doubles semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters tournament with Voráčová. En route, the team defeated Janette Husárová and Meghann Shaughnessy, the seventh seeds, in the first round, and legendary team and third-seeded Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez in three sets in the quarterfinals, before losing to top seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.

Later that year, Hradecká and Voráčová won at Bad Gastein beating Ágnes Szávay and Vladimíra Uhlířová. She again won the 2007 Portorož title with Voráčová beating Elena Likhovtseva and Andreja Klepač in the final.

Hradecká reached her very first singles final at Bad Gastein in July 2008, where, as a qualifier, she defeated players such as Patricia Mayr of Austria to get to the final, where she lost to the fourth-seed Pauline Parmentier 4–6, 4–6, after leading 4–1 in the first set. She also reached the doubles final.

2009–2011: Grand Slam success; 2011 French Open doubles champion

At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Hradecká held two match points over 13th seeded Ana Ivanovic in the first round. However, she was unable to close it out, losing 7–5, 2–6, 6–8.

At her home tournament, the 2010 ECM Prague Open, Hradecká pleased her fans with a dramatic comeback to defeat Stefanie Vögele in the first round. Hradecká came back from 1–5 down in the first set to win 7–6, 6–2. In the second round she crushed fellow double-hander Monica Niculescu 6–2, 6–1 and reached the semifinals before losing to Ágnes Szávay. A year later at the same tournament, Hradecká was the winner, defeating qualifier Paula Ormaechea in the final.

She paired-up with Andrea Hlaváčková to win her first Grand Slam title at the French Open, defeating the Indian-Russian duo of Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina in the final.

2012: Wimbledon doubles final, Olympic silver medal

Lucie kicked off the 2012 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. She defeated Alberta Brianti and upset second seed Peng Shuai to book a place in the quarterfinals, where she fell to eventual champion Zheng Jie. Then, Lucie went to the Moorilla International, where she was overpowered by Shahar Pe'er in round one.

Going into the Australian Open, Hradecká crushed Evgeniya Rodina in the first round. She lost to Vera Zvonareva in the second. Next, at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland, she made it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Jamie Hampton. At the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Hradecká defeated Anna Tatishvili before falling to Lesia Tsurenko.

She then suffered two-first round defeats at the Premier Mandatory events BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open, falling to Zheng Jie and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively. Then, at the Oaks Club Challenger in Osprey, Florida, she made it to the quarterfinals, with wins over Melinda Czink and Eugenie Bouchard, where she was beaten by Edina Gallovits-Hall. Next, Hradecká went on to beat Urszula Radwańska in the first round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, before losing to Stefanie Vögele.

After losing early in Estoril, Hradecká qualified for Madrid. She caused the two biggest upsets in the tournament by beating both the world No. 4, Petra Kvitová (who also was the defending champion) and the world No. 5, Samantha Stosur, on the way to her first ever semifinals appearance at the Premier level, where she lost to Serena Williams in straight sets, 6–7, 0–6 and won just six points in the second set.

Lucie and Andrea Hlaváčková reached their second Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, losing to the Williams sisters. At the Summer Olympics in London, she and Radek Štěpánek lost in the first round of the mixed doubles, but she and Andrea Hlaváčková were much more successful, winning the silver medal.

2015: Singles success

Hradecká started 2015 ranked 141st in the world, and thus had to qualify for the main draw of the Australian Open, which she successfully did with three wins in the qualifying rounds. The first round saw her pitted against world No. 5 Ana Ivanovic. After losing the first set winning only one game, Hradecká would come back to win this match in three sets, marking the biggest victory of her career thus far.

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runners-up)

Mixed Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Tour Championships finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 Finals

Doubles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)

Olympic medal matches

Doubles: 2 (1 silver medal)

Mixed Doubles: 1 (1 bronze medal)

WTA career finals

Singles: 7 (7 runners-up)

Doubles: 47 (23 titles, 24 runners-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 27 (20 titles, 7 runner–ups)

Doubles: 50 (35 titles, 15 runner–ups)

Doubles performance timeline

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Grand Slam singles performance timeline