Karolina Šprem

Karolina Šprem Baghdatis (born 25 October 1984) is a retired professional tennis player from Croatia. She won eleven titles (ten singles) all at the ITF level. Her highest ranking is world No. 17, achieved in October 2004.

Karolina Šprem

Šprem at the 2010 NSW Medibank Tennis Open.
Country (sports)	Croatia
Residence	Varaždin, Croatia
Born	(1984-10-25) 25 October 1984 Varaždin, Croatia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in)
Turned pro	July 2001
Retired	2011
Plays	Right-handed (double-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,298,606
Singles
Career record	266–170
Career titles	10 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 17 (11 October 2004)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	4R (2005)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	1R (2003,2004,2005,2006)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	3R (2004)
Doubles
Career record	14–16
Career titles	1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 182 (8 May 2006)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2006)
Wimbledon	1R (2005)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	9–7

Personal life

Karolina was born to Gabro and Božena Šprem in Varaždin, Croatia. She was introduced to tennis by her father at nine years of age. She turned professional in July 2001.

Šprem represented Croatia at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens. She reached the third round in singles and the second round in doubles (with Jelena Kostanić).

On 14 July 2012, Šprem married ATP player Marcos Baghdatis at Trakošćan Castle in Croatia.[1] At Wimbledon, as a spectator for Baghdatis' match on centre court against Andy Murray, Šprem confirmed that she and Baghdatis were expecting their first child. Karolina gave birth to a girl, named Zahara, on 20 October 2012.[2]

Professional career

2003–2006

Šprem displayed stunning results at the beginning of the 2003 season. Playing on the ITF Circuit, she had a record 29-match winning streak from January to March, which earned her four titles at Grenoble, Southampton, Redbridge and Castellon.

Later in the year, she went on to reach two WTA-level finals in Strasbourg and Vienna. She also reached the semifinals of the WTA Tour event in Helsinki, and won the ITF event in Poitiers.

Šprem's career highlight came at Wimbledon 2004, where she was a quarterfinalist. She defeated the then-two-time champion, four-time finalist and world no. 8 Venus Williams en route. Her run was ended by Lindsay Davenport. The umpire of her match against Venus had awarded her an extra point in the second set tiebreak by mistake.[3][4]

After Wimbledon, Karolina struggled to find her good form she had, losing early in many tournaments. She began training with Borna Bikić.

She rebounded at the Australian Open 2005, where she had a run to the fourth round. In September 2005, at the WTA event in Kolkata, India, she reached the final after a string of good wins. However, she lost the final to Anastasia Myskina.

2007–2009

Sprem at the 2008 US Open

In late 2007, Šprem announced a permanent split from Bikic and returned to her old coach Ricardo Sanchez. She had to cope with a serious elbow injury, which needed surgery.[5] She was out of the tour for 10 months.

In April 2008, she returned to the pro tour, winning in Amelia Island over Ai Sugiyama and top-10 player Daniela Hantuchová, before falling to Lindsay Davenport in the third round.

In July, Šprem made the semifinals of a Tier III event in Budapest.

In 2009, Karolina won three big ITF titles in Biberach, Torhout, and Mestre.

2010–2011

In 2010, she scored one of her biggest wins in years when she defeated 25th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues at the Australian Open.

During the Australian hard-court season in 2011, Karolina suffered a left-wrist injury, which forced her to stop competing. She tried playing in April at the tournament in Estoril, Portugal, but was unable to finish her first qualifying match against Heather Watson. This confirmed that the injury was very serious. She has been out of the tour since, and is still recovering.[6]

WTA career finals

Singles: 3 (3 runners-up)

Winner – Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) Tier I (0–0) Tier II (0–0) Tier III, IV & V (0–3)

Finals by surface Hard (0–1) Grass (0–0) Clay (0–2) Carpet (0–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	24 May 2003	Internationaux de Strasbourg, France	Clay	Silvia Farina Elia	3–6, 6–4, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	14 June 2003	Austrian Open, Vienna, Austria	Clay	Paola Suárez	6–7^(0–7), 6–2, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	25 September 2005	Sunfeast Open, Kolkata, India	Hard (i)	Anastasia Myskina	2–6, 2–6

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 14 (10–4)

$100,000 tournaments

$75,000 tournaments

$50,000 tournaments

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	2 September 2001	Mostar	Clay	Adriana Basarić	4–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	27 January 2002	Courmayeur	Hard (i)	Stefanie Weis	4–6, 7–6^(7–3), 6–4
Winner	2.	17 February 2002	Bergamo	Hard (i)	Rita Degli Esposti	6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	31 March 2002	Rome–Parioli	Clay	Dinara Safina	7–6^(7–3), 2–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	23 June 2002	Gorizia	Clay	Ainhoa Goñi Blanco	6–7^(4–7), 1–6
Runner-up	4.	11 August 2002	Rimini	Clay	Laurence Andretto	5–7, 4–6
Winner	3.	26 January 2003	Grenoble	Hard (i)	Sophie Lefèvre	7–5, 7–5
Winner	4.	16 February 2003	Southampton	Hard (i)	Magdalena Zděnovcová	6–1, 3–0 ret.
Winner	5.	23 February 2003	Redbridge	Hard (i)	Olga Barabanschikova	6–3, 6–2
Winner	6.	23 March 2003	Castellón	Clay	Ľudmila Cervanová	6–3, 6–3
Winner	7.	2 November 2003	Poitiers	Hard (i)	Roberta Vinci	6–4, 7–5
Winner	8.	1 March 2009	Biberach	Hard (i)	Kirsten Flipkens	6–1, 6–2
Winner	9.	11 April 2009	Torhout	Hard (i)	Viktoriya Kutuzova	6–1, 6–4
Winner	10.	11 April 2009	Mestre	Hard	Yvonne Meusburger	2–6, 6–2, 6–4

Doubles (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	24 November 2002	Zagreb	Hard (i)	Mervana Jugić-Salkić	Jelena Kostanić Matea Mezak	6–2, 6–4

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Australian Open	A	1R	4R	2R	1R	A	1R	2R	1R
French Open	A	1R	2R	3R	A	1R	1R	1R	A
Wimbledon	2R	QF	1R	3R	A	A	1R	2R	A
US Open	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	LQ	LQ	1R	A

References

1. "Baghdatis and Sprem make it a true mixed-doubles marriage". Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
2. "Karolina Šprem rodila djevojčicu Zaharu. Ime je odabrao otac, ciparski tenisač Marcos Baghdatis".
3. "Tennis: Williams Loses Count and Match", The New York Times, 25 June 2004, p. D1
4. Wimbledon officials to review umpire error – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
5. http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20070719/sport03.asp
6. 'Karolina & Marcos: It all started in Sydney' WTA (Retrieved 19 September 2012)

External links

• Karolina Šprem at the Women's Tennis Association
• Karolina Šprem at the International Tennis Federation
• Karolina Šprem at the Fed Cup