Tímea Babos

Tímea Babos ([ˈtiːmɛɒ ˈbɒboʃ]; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian professional tennis player.

Babos, who was born in Sopron, has won three singles and 21 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, one singles and one doubles WTA 125K series title, as well as 12 singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. In September 2016, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 25, and in July 2018, she reached No. 1 in the doubles rankings, becoming the first Hungarian player to reach the top of the WTA rankings in either singles or doubles.

An accomplished junior player, Babos's greatest success has come in doubles, winning the 2018 Australian Open and 2019 French Open and having reached the women's doubles final of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2018 US Open with Kristina Mladenovic of France and the 2016 Wimbledon Championships with Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, and the mixed doubles final of the 2015 Wimbledon Championships with Alexander Peya of Austria and the 2018 Australian Open with Rohan Bopanna of India. Her nickname on tour is 'Babosdook', given to her by doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic as she is a big fan of horror films. The nickname is believed to be a reference to the film The Babadook.

Career

2010

At the Australian Open she competed in the girls singles junior event. Babos was the 1st seed. In the first round, she beat Australian Ashling Sumner. In the second round, she defeated Sandra Zaniewska. In the third round, she beat Anna Arina Marenko. Then she faced Kristýna Plíšková and lost in three sets. Babos also competed in the girls' doubles event and also was seeded 1st along with Gabriela Dabrowski. In the final, they lost to Jana Čepelová and Chantal Škamlová.

Tímea Babos in action during the 2009 US Open girls' junior event

In May, Babos won the French Open girls' doubles event with Sloane Stephens. The duo didn't lose a set in the entire tournament. In the final, they beat Lara Arruabarrena and María Teresa Torró Flor of Spain.

Babos and Stephens won the Wimbledon Championships, beating Elina Svitolina and Irina Khromacheva in the final.

Two days after winning this title, she participated her first WTA event in Budapest, losing to 3rd seed Timea Bacsinszky in the first round.

In her last junior tournament, the US Open, she lost in the second round in singles, but won doubles with Stephens, becoming the first junior doubles team to win Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open in the same year.

2011

Babos continued to mainly participate on the ITF Women's Circuit. She started the year at her second WTA tournament in Monterrey via wildcard, but lost in the first round of qualifying to 138th ranked Aleksandra Wozniak. She then suffered early round exits at her next five ITF tournaments, not getting past the second round of any of them. Babos broke the streak by winning her sixth ITF title at a $25,000 tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan. She defeated Diana Isaeva, Tamara Čurović, eighth seeded Ekaterina Yashina, third seeded Veronika Kapshay, and finally, second seeded Tadeja Majerič, all in straight sets. Despite her success, her ranking fell from 261 to 301.

Babos used the tournament as a springboard for the rest of the year, as her results improved dramatically afterwards compared to the beginning of her season. She reached the semi-finals of another $25,000 tournament in Kristinehamn, falling to second seeded Alexandra Cadanțu in three sets, before winning her seventh ITF title and second of the year at a $25,000 tournament in Stuttgart as the 7th seed. It was not as easy as Astana, but she won after being pushed to three sets in three matches, including the final. Babos then continued to her home country at the Budapest Grand Prix where she won her first WTA tour main draw match. She defeated Anna Remondina before falling to eventual champion and top-seeded Roberta Vinci in three close sets. Following Budapest, she broke into the top 200 for the first time, jumping from 231st to 177th. She then proceeded to end her clay-court season with a semi-final appearance in A Coruña.

She continued her hard court season where she hit her second bad streak of the year, reaching only one quarterfinal in eight tournaments. She entered a $50,000 tournament in Saguenay, Quebec, ranked 181st. There she won her biggest title to date as the 3rd seed. Her first three matches were all in straight sets, before defeating top-seeded Mirjana Lučić, and finally, struggling to a win over fifth seeded American Julia Boserup. Babos then reached the semi-finals in a $50,000 tournament in Toronto and a $25,000 tournament in Bratislava. She ended the season with her ninth ITF title in a $25,000 tournament in Helsinki, winning the tournament without dropping a set. Babos finished the year with a 41–19 record, ranked 153rd, having won four ITF tournaments.

In doubles, Babos accumulated similar success in doubles with different partners. She won a $25,000 tournament in Irapuato, Mexico, with Johanna Konta, a $25,000 tournament in Bath, Somerset, with Anne Kremer, a $25,000 tournament in A Coruña with Victoria Larrière, and a $50,000 tournament in Saguenay, Quebec. She also reached the final of four other ITF tournaments. Babos finished the year with a 34–13 record, ranked 161st, and winning four tournaments from eight final appearances.

2012

Babos began the season at an ITF tournament in Quanzhou, China. She reached the final of the $50,000 event just to fall short against 1st seeded Kimiko Date-Krumm in straight sets. She entered the qualifiers of the Australian Open as the 21st seed two weeks later, where after a first round win over Margalita Chakhnashvili she fell to Irena Pavlovic of France.

Her next tournament was the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas in Bogotá. With only one WTA main-draw win under her belt before the event, she caused some surprise to reach the semi-finals without dropping a single set where she was beaten by Alexandra Panova, who finished runner-up of the tournament.

Babos surpassed this achievement in the following week by winning her first WTA title at the Monterrey Open. Babos knocked out, among others, 2nd seed Sara Errani and 3rd seed Sorana Cîrstea en route to the final, where she met Alexandra Cadanțu. Babos continued to play on the level she showed throughout the tournament and won the clash without facing a single break point during the match. Following this success, Babos rose from No. 107 to No. 68 in the following week's WTA rankings to make her top-100 debut.

At the US Open, Babos was upset in the first round by British qualifier Johanna Konta in straight sets.

2013

Babos' start of the season was marked by early exits in her tournaments, including the Australian Open, where she lost to Kristina Mladenovic in the first round. She reached the second round at the Qatar Open and the Copa Colsanitas (losing to Sara Errani and Mandy Minella, respectively) and the quarterfinals at the Brasil Tennis Cup, losing there to eventual champion Monica Niculescu. At the latter, she had already fallen from the top 100.

After losing in the first round of Indian Wells to Johanna Larsson, Babos played in Monterrey, where she was the defending champion. She beat local wildcard Ana Sofía Sánchez before beating 4th seed Ana Ivanovic in three sets. She then lost to Niculescu, but managed to win the doubles title alongside Kimiko Date, beating Tamarine Tanasugarn and Eva Birnerová in the finals. After entering the Morocco Open (where she partnered Mandy Minella in the doubles and beat Petra Martić and Kristina Mladenovic to win the title) as a qualifier and winning an ITF $50,000 in Johannesburg, Babos suffered another sequence of early-round exits (except at the Budapest Open, where she reached the quarterfinals), including losses at the three remaining Grand Slams. Her last tournament was a $50,000 in Toronto, where she lost the final to Victoria Duval. Babos ended the year ranked No. 88 in the singles rankings and No. 45 in the doubles, after winning two other titles at a 125k tournament in Suzhou (partnering Michaëlla Krajicek) and in Tashkent (partnering Yaroslava Shvedova).

2018

Babos recorded her second top-10 win over 10th seed CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round of the Australian Open. After losing in the second round of singles to Carla Suarez Navarro, Babos partnered Kristina Mladenovic to win the women's doubles crown, defeating 2nd seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final. She also reached the mixed doubles final alongside Rohan Bopanna, where they lost in three sets.

In February, Babos won Taiwan Open, defeating Kateryna Kozlova in the final. She also reached final in Monterrey, where she lost to Garbiñe Muguruza.

Babos and Mladenovic reached final in Madrid, where they lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. At French Open Babos and Mladenovic lost in quarterfinals to Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya.

Babos and Mladenovic won doubles at 2018 Birmingham Classic, defeating Elise Mertens and Demi Schuurs in the final. At Wimbledon Babos and Mladenovic reached quarterfinals, where they lost to Alicja Rosolska and Abigail Spears. After Wimbledon Babos became No. 1 in doubles rankings for the first time.

2019

Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic were the defending champions at 2019 Australian Open. They lost in the final to Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai Babos and Mladenovic made the final of the 2019 French Open.

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournaments

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner–ups)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner–ups)

WTA Finals

Doubles: 2 (2 titles)

Premier Mandatory/Premier-5 tournaments

Doubles: 7 (2 titles, 5 runner–ups)

WTA career finals

Singles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Doubles: 34 (21 titles, 13 runner-ups)

WTA 125 series finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner–up)

Wins over top-10 players

ITF finals

Singles (12–8)

Doubles (9–8)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' doubles