Tamira Paszek

Tamira Paszek

Full name	Tamira Shelah Paszek
Country	Austria
Residence	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Born	(1990-12-06) 6 December 1990 (age 22) Dornbirn, Austria
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	60 kg (130 lb; 9.4 st)
Turned pro	26 October 2005
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,953,375
Singles
Career record	179–140
Career titles	3 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	26 (11 February 2013)
Current ranking	28 (20 May 2013)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (2007, 2013)
French Open	2R (2007)
Wimbledon	QF (2011, 2012)
US Open	4R (2007)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2012)
Doubles
Career record	22–40
Career titles	0 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking	93 (6 May 2013)
Current ranking	97 (20 May 2013)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2012)
French Open	1R (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012)
Wimbledon	2R (2012)
US Open	3R (2012)
Team Competitions
Fed Cup	5–10
Last updated on: 20 May 2013.

Tamira Shelah Paszek (born 6 December 1990 in Dornbirn) is a professional Austrian tennis player. As of 20 May 2013, she is the Austrian number 1, ranked number 28 in the world.

She is currently being coached by Andrei Pavel^[1] (former coach of Jelena Janković) having previously been coached by Angel Giminez and Larri Passos (former coach of former ATP number one Gustavo Kuerten).^{[citation needed]}

Biography [edit]

Paszek was introduced to tennis by her mother, Françoise Paszek, at age four-and-a-half.^[2] Her mother is a Chilean-born Austrian; and her father Ariff Mohamed, a Tanzanian-born, Kenyan-raised Canadian of Indian descent.^[2] She attended Gymnasium Dornbirn-Schoren^[3] and Bundes-Oberstufenrealgymnasium Schoren.^[4]

Tennis career [edit]

As a junior, Paszek was a finalist in the 2005 Girls' Singles Championship at Wimbledon and at the US Open – Girls' Singles in 2006.

In September 2005 she won her first title at an ITF tournament in Sofia. In October of the same year she received a wild card to appear at her first WTA tournament in Linz; she defeated Elena Vesnina in the first round and lost to Ana Ivanović after a tough first set.

In 2006 she passed qualifications in Istanbul, where she lost in the second round to Catalina Castaño; and in Portorož in the Banka Koper Slovenia Open, where she won her first WTA title by defeating number 6 seed Maria Elena Camerin from Italy 7–5 6–1. This was a career-first tour singles title in only her third tour main draw. That title made her the youngest tour singles titlist in 2006 and the seventh-youngest of all-time, the youngest winner being Tracy Austin. A month later, at the Zürich Open, she lost to Camerin in the second round of qualifying. She finished 2006 as world number 181 in the WTA rankings.

2007 [edit]

She started the 2007 WTA Tour at the Australian Open, where she passed qualifications and defeated Top 40 player Séverine Brémond in straight sets in the first round, before losing to number 22 seed Vera Zvonareva.

After her loss to Li Na in the second round of the Miami Masters, she broke into the top 100 of the WTA rankings. At the 2007 French Open she was defeated by Justine Henin in the second round.

At Paszek's first grass tournament of her career, she reached the third round in Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova in a tight match. At the 2007 Wimbledon Championships she reached the fourth round after beating two seeded players, number 17 seed Tatiana Golovin and number 12 seed Elena Dementieva; she then eventually lost to number 5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets. The win pushed her up 19 spots from number 54 to number 35, a career high and only a few spots from a guaranteed seeding spot at the US Open.

She also participated at the Fed Cup for Austria in 2007. She won her first two matches in the group stage against Australia but lost both her matches in the World Group play-offs against Israel; a singles match against Shahar Pe'er and a doubles match, partnering Melanie Klaffner.

She debuted on the 2007 US Open, reaching the fourth round, beating on the way number 24 and number 11 seed, Francesca Schiavone and Patty Schnyder. She lost to number 6 seed, Anna Chakvetadze.

Paszek decided against defending her title in the Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portorož, Slovenia, in favour of the larger China Open tournament in Beijing. However, she lost in the second round by fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva (whom she beat in Wimbledon) 6–2, 6–0 in less than an hour.

2008 [edit]

At the 2008 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, Paszek made it to the semifinals, losing to veteran Lindsay Davenport. In the first round of the 2008 Australian Open, Paszek played third-seeded Jelena Janković of Serbia. Paszek easily won the first and Janković went on to win the second set. In the deciding set, Paszek led by two games and had three match points before Janković came back to win the three-hour match.

Following this she lost in the first round of Doha to Patty Schnyder. Then she competed for the first time as a seed in a tier 1 tournament at Indian Wells retiring in the third round to Casey Dellacqua. Then in Miami she was defeated by Anna Chakvetadze in the second round.

This started a losing streak of six straight matches running through the French Open and Wimbledon. At Wimbledon she lost her second marathon match of the year to Francesca Schiavone. It came to an end in Los Angeles where she defeated Aiko Nakamura only to lose to Flavia Pennetta in the second round.

On 31 July, Paszek beat world number one Ana Ivanovic in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal in three sets. In the quarterfinals, she played Victoria Azarenka, who defeated her. Then she lost in the first round of Cincinnati to Petra Cetkovská. At the US Open she defeated the 23rd seed Maria Kirilenko, only then to lose to the lower ranked opponent Magdaléna Rybáriková.

Paszek was runner up in Bali. She reached the final after taking out the 7th seed Flavia Pennetta and the top seed Daniela Hantuchová. She lost the final against Patty Schnyder. She then withdrew from the Generali Ladies Linz due to injury.

2009 [edit]

Paszek ended her professional relationship with coach Lari Passos and is now coached by Angel Giminez.^[5]

Paszek lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Australian wild card Jelena Dokić in three sets.

Paszek passed the first round at Indian Wells, winning in straight sets against Mara Santangelo 6–3, 6–2, and lost in the second round against 21st seed Alisa Kleybanova by the same score.

2010 [edit]

In January, Paszek lost in second round of qualifying at tournament in Auckland. After defeating Carly Gullickson she retired in her match against Rebecca Marino. Her next tournament was the 2010 Moorilla Hobart International. She scored a big win after defeating Roberta Vinci, but then lost to Gisela Dulko in a long three-setter.

Her next tournament was the 2010 Australian Open where she lost to Julia Görges in the first round. At the tournament in Paris, Paszek lost to eventual runner-up Lucie Šafářová. To reach the main draw at 2010 Dubai Tennis Championships, Paszek entered qualifying. She defeated Tsvetana Pironkova in first round, but then lost to Anna-Lena Grönefeld. After Dubai she entered at Indian Wells, but lost to Julie Coin. At the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, Paszek defeated Anne Keothavong but then lost to 22th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

She lost in early rounds of Marbella, Barcelona and Fes, and didn't enter the 2010 French Open. Instead, Paszek played the $25,000 ITF tournament in Izmir. She won that tournament, beating Çağla Büyükakçay. Her next tournament was ITF Budapest. She qualified, defeating Vanda Lukács and Jana Čepelová, and reached the second round, losing to Lenka Wienerová.

She then entered the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, qualified, but lost to Kurumi Nara in the second round.

She tried to qualify in Budapest defeating Eleni Danilidou and Jessica Moore but lost to Andreja Klepač. Her next tournament was the 2010 ECM Prague Open where she entered qualifying. Paszek defeated Tadeja Majerič and then crushed first seed Anastasia Rodionova. She then lost to Liana Ungur. After losing the first set 6–2, Paszek went to play better, breaking Ungur serve and lead 2–0. On the other side Ungur came back broke twice to lead 3–2. Paszek then retired because of the heat and a stomach complaint. But, because Gisela Dulko withdrew, Paszek gained her chance to enter to the main draw. She faced Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet and lost in a match that lasted three hours and 40 minutes.

Paszek's next tournament was the 2010 Banka Koper Slovenia Open, where she defeated Jelena Kostanić Tošić for her first main draw win since Ponte Vedra Beach in 2009. She then faced Stefanie Vögele and lost.

After some bad losses in qualifying of the Premier tournaments, Paszek found her form in the 2010 US Open where she entered qualifying. She defeated Michaëlla Krajicek, Korea's Kim So-jing and Russia's Evgeniya Rodina to reach the main draw. In the final qualifying round, Paszek trailed Rodina 2–6 after the first set before coming back to win the second and blank the Russian in the third. In the first round of the main draw, she defeated 26th seed Lucie Šafářová, despite being three games behind in the second set. She lost to Chan Yung-jan in the second round.

Her next tournament was at the 2010 Bell Challenge. She defeated Marina Erakovic in the first and Jill Craybas in the second round. In her first quarterfinal of 2010 she defeated number eight seed Sofia Arvidsson. She then crushed Christina McHale in the semifinal to book her place in the final, where she won the title by beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

2011 [edit]

Paszek started 2011 ranked number 89 and lost in the first round of Auckland to Sofia Arvidsson. She qualified for Hobart and reached the second round of the main draw before falling to Jarmila Gajdošová. Prior to the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, Paszek had a standard year before she went on to reach the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time in her career, defeating world number seven and sixth seed Francesca Schiavone (her first top 10 win of 2011) in an epic third round match that lasted three hours and 42 minutes. Paszek finally prevailed, hitting a total of 40 winners to 36 unforced errors. Paszek played Russian Ksenia Pervak in the fourth round. She went on winning, beating Pervak in three sets, reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time. She played number four seed Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. The match started on Court 1 but was moved to Centre Court after the first game due to rain. Paszek lost, however, in straight sets.

2012 [edit]

Tamira Paszek in her Fed Cup singles match against Anett Kontaveit in Eilat, Israel in February 2012

Paszek began 2012 poorly, losing in the first round of the first five tournaments she entered. She recorded her first season win at the BNP Paribas Open, defeating Anastasiya Yakimova in three sets. She lost in the second round. Her next win came at the French Open warm-up event in Strasbourg, where she crushed Johanna Larsson in the first round. She was defeated by Alberta Brianti in the next round. She then fell in the first round in Nottingham, Paris, and Birmingham.

In June, Paszek won her first WTA title for two years, defeating Angelique Kerber at the Eastbourne grass court event. Paszek was 5–3 down in the deciding set and saved five championship points.^[6] On 27 June, playing on a covered centre court, Paszek upset former world number one and Wimbledon number seven seed Caroline Wozniacki in the first round in an encounter lasting three hours and 12 minutes.^[7] She beat Alizé Cornet in the second round; Yanina Wickmayer in the third round and Roberta Vinci in the fourth to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka for the second successive year.^[8]

Paszek represented Austria in the Olympics but lost to Alizé Cornet in the first round. She had a great result at the Rogers Cup, starting with an upset over Julia Görges in the first round. In the second round, she moved past Victoria Azarenka when Azarenka retired early in the first set. After easily beating Carla Suárez Navarro in the third, she was defeated by Petra Kvitová in the quarterfinals. She lost in the first round of the US Open to Olga Govortsova. She rebounded, reaching the quarterfinals in Seoul before losing to world number 21 Varvara Lepchenko in three sets. Paszek then lost in the second round in Tokyo and Beijing. Her final tournaments of the year were in Linz and Luxembourg, losing in the first round of both events. Paszek ended the year ranked world number 30.

2013 [edit]

Paszek began the year with two consecutive losses in Brisbane and Sydney. She next played at the Australian Open where she was the 30th seed. She achieved her first Australian Open victory since 2007 with an emphatic win over Stefanie Vögele in the first round. However, she was outplayed by American wildcard Madison Keys and lost in straight sets. Paszek then lost in the first round in Paris and Doha.

WTA career finals [edit]

Singles: 4 (3–1) [edit]

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	24 September 2006	Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Maria Elena Camerin	7–5, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	8 September 2008	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Patty Schnyder	6–3, 6–0
Winner	2.	19 September 2010	Quebec City, Canada	Carpet	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	7–6(6), 2–6, 7–5
Winner	3.	23 June 2012	Eastbourne, Great Britain	Grass	Angelique Kerber	5–7, 6–3, 7–5

Singles performance timeline [edit]

Doubles performance timeline [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tamira Paszek

• Tamira Paszek at the Women's Tennis Association
• Tamira Paszek at the International Tennis Federation
• Tamira Paszek at the Fed Cup

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top Austrian female singles tennis players as of 20 May 2013 1. Tamira Paszek (28 1) 2. Yvonne Meusburger (114 13) 3. Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (203 4) 4. Melanie Klaffner (257 11) 5. Nicole Rottmann (361 34) 6. Tina Schiechtl (510 7) 7. Barbara Haas (521 7) 8. Janina Toljan (545 1) 9. Yvonne Neuwirth (566 2) 10. Jeannine Prentner (642 )