Michaella Krajicek - Rising Dutch Tennis Star

Personal life

Michaella was born on January 9, 1989 in Delft. She is the younger half-sister of the former professional tennis player and Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, and she is therefore nicknamed Kleine Kraai (Little Kraai).

She currently resides in Almere.

Career

Juniors

2002

In 2002 the 13 year old Michaella Krajicek was included in the Dutch team for the Cesky Telecom World Junior Tennis final. She was the No. 1 ranked junior player in Europe at the time. Krajicek led her country to victory over Poland in the final winning both her singles and doubles matches en route to a 3–0 win for The Netherlands.

2003

Michaella won the first Grade A tournament of 2003 (The Yutacan Cup in Mexico), making it her fourth victory in the seven tournaments she had entered. Her record stood at 33-3. Krajicek won her second Grade A tournament at the Italian Open taking her to the No. 2 ranking in the world. At the French Open Michaella lost in the semifinals to Vera Douchevina and reached the final of the doubles with Katerina Bohmova, losing to Marta Fraga & Adriana Gonzalez Penas in straight sets. Prior to Wimbledon Michaella Krajicek was expected to be one of the main challengers but she lost a three set match 8–6 in the third to Anna Chakvetadze, which ended at 8.50pm. She got to her second successive Grand Slam junior doubles final with Bohmova, but they lost to scratch pairing Alisa Kleybanova & Sania Mirza in three sets. At the US Open Michaëlla was the favourite, alongside recent Wimbledon winner Kirsten Flipkens. The draw went to form and they met in the final with Flipkens winning 6–3, 7–5. Michaella was in tears afterwards and said that she was happy to reach the final but blamed the loss on tiredness and inferior conditioning. In September Krajicek was named in the Dutch Junior Fed Cup team, a competition The Netherlands had not won since 1990. Despite a persistent nosebleed which threatened her to retire in the semifinals Michaella Krajicek was undefeated throughout the tournament as the top seeded Dutch team won, beating Canada 2–1 in the final. She needed a win in the final event of the year to end 2003 the No. 1 junior in the world but lost in the second round of the Orange Bowl International to Neha Uberoi. She ended the year ranked No. 2 behind Flipkens.

2004

Michaella Krajicek had a knee injury at the beginning of 2004 and did not play until late February. At the French Open Krajicek & Bohmova finally won their first Grand Slam Junior Doubles title, beating Irina Kotkina & Yaroslava Shvedova 6–3, 6–2. Michaëlla had lost in the quarterfinals of the singles to Timea Bacsinszky 8–6 in the third set. At Wimbledon Krajicek reached the semifinals of the singles and doubles, losing to eventual champion Katerina Bondarenko in the singles and alongside new doubles partner Shahar Peer falling to Victoria Azarenka & Volha Havartsova 7–6, 6–2. It was at this point that Michaella Krajicek started playing ITF tournaments on a regular basis. After winning $10,000 Satellite tournaments in Brussels in July and Koksjide in August Michaëlla built on these successes by finally winning her maiden singles Junior Grand Slam at the US Open. She beat Jessica Kirkland 6–1, 6–1 to go one step further than the previous year and become the first Dutch winner of the event in 10 years (when Sjeng Shalken won the boys' in 1994). In October Krajicek qualified for her first WTA Tour event in Luxembourg but she lost to No. 8 seed Shinobu Asagoe 6–0, 6–7, 6–1 in the first round proper. She won another $10,000 ITF tournament in Stockholm then beat her first top 100 player (Slovak Ludmila Ceranova) as well as her Wimbledon conqueror Bondarenko en route to the semifinals of the $75,000 tournament in Poitiers. She followed that up with a win in Bergamo (a $50,000 tournament) and ended the year ranked No. 429 in the world in the WTA rankings and was the 2004 ITF Junior World Champion, ending the year No. 1 in the world for juniors. Michaella Krajicek had a 41-6 record in singles and was the first Dutch player to become Junior World Champion. Her record in seniors was 26-4, winning 26 of her last 28 matches, capturing four ITF titles in the year. Her record on hard courts was 16-2, clay was 10-1 and she lost her only match on grass.

Seniors

2005

At the age of 16 Michaella qualified for her first grand slam event, the Australian Open. She beat three opponents ranked higher than her to qualify, then beat top 100 player Stephanie Foretz in straight sets before losing in the second round to No. 12 seed Patty Schnyder 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. In February she won her first $75,000 ITF tournament in Ortisei, beating No. 51 in the world Martina Sucha in the last 16, then three months later Krajicek reached her first doubles final on the WTA tour, the Estoril Open (Portugal, clay) partnering Nagyová. Now ranked No. 114, Michaella Krajicek qualified for her second successive grand slam (the French Open) without dropping a set but unfortunately drew the No. 20 seed Daniela Hantuchova in the first round and lost to the Slovak 6–3, 6–1. A consolation was that her performance in qualifying had made her a top 100 player for the first time, ranked No. 99. After the French Open Michaëlla received three wild cards into Wimbledon. She intended to play in both the women's singles and mixed doubles and together with her brother Richard. However she was injured during the tour event in Rosmalen just a week before the start of Wimbledon, and had to withdraw.

Krajieck returned to play in October by qualifying for a Tier II event in Luxembourg, but a week later Michaëlla won her first WTA Tour event by winning the Tashkent Open. She beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6–0, 4–6, 6–3 in the final. Three weeks after that in Hasselt Michaella Krajicek beat Anna Chakvetadze, Lucie Safarova and the No. 13 in the world Nathalie Dechy on her way to the semifinals where she lost to Francesca Schiavone.

She ended the year ranked No. 58 in the World with a 30-10 playing record. She went 17-5 on hard courts, 6–4 on clay, 2–1 on grass and 5–0 on carpet.

2006

She started 2006 by qualifying for the Hopman Cup tournament in Perth with Peter Wessels where the duo went all the way to the final to be beaten in a very close mixed doubles by the American team of Taylor Dent and Lisa Raymond. At the Hopman Cup, she won 3 out of her 5 singles matches (def. Lisa Raymond, Gisela Dulko and Anna-Lena Groenefeld; lost to Samantha Stosur and Shuai Peng). In Mixed Doubles, they had a 3–2 record (def. Reid/Stosur, Peng/Sun, Groenefeld/Kiefer; lost to Raymond/Dent, Dulko/Gaudio).

A week later Michaella Krajicek won her second WTA title in Hobart only dropping one set en route to the final, where she beat her practice partner Iveta Benesova 6–2, 6–1 in the final. This win put her inside the top 50 to a career-high ranking of No. 43 entering the Australian Open. At the Australian Open Michaella reached the third round for the first time ever in a Grand Slam tournament. In the first round she beat Kristina Brandi and in the second she defeated 32nd seed Sania Mirza of India. However, she retired from her third round match with Amelie Mauresmo after suffering from heat exhaustion. The clay season was not a successful one, despite a semifinal appearance at the Istanbul Cup where she lost to Anastasia Myskina in straight sets. This was the only real highlight on clay for Krajicek in 2006 as she lost in the first round of the French Open in straight sets to No. 7 seed Patty Schnyder. This led her to drop out of the top 50, but that was only briefly as in the warm up for Wimbledon she won her third career title (and second of the year) in 's-Hertogenbosch (her brother Richard was one of the tournament organisers). In the semifinal Michaella Krajicek beat a top 10 player for the first time in what she described as the best match of her career,[3] overcoming No. 1 seed (and No. 8 in the world) Elena Dementieva in three sets. She beat Dinara Safina in the final 6–3, 6–4. She could not continue her form into Wimbledon though, losing 7–5, 6–3 in the first round to Australian doubles expert Samantha Stosur.

Post-Wimbledon Michaella won two successive Tier IV doubles tournaments on clay with Janette Husarova in Palermo and Budapest, the latter where she also got to the semifinals in singles competition. Thereafter the hard court season was not a productive one for Krajicek, losing in the first round of 4 successive tournaments, including the US Open where she lost 6–3, 6–0 to the eventual winner Maria Sharapova.

Michaella Krajicek ended the year ranked No. 35 in the world, she had a 27-18 record, 14-9 on hard courts, 8–7 on clay, 5–1 on grass and 0–1 on carpet. She was 1–5 against top 10 opponents.

2007

Michaëlla's 2007 season did not start as strongly as her 2006 one did as she lost 3–6, 6–1, 6–0 to Severine Bremond in the 1st round of the Moorilla Hobart International, where she was the defending champion. She was then defeated in straight sets by Luxembourg's Anne Kremer in the first round at the Australian Open 2007. The inability to defend the previous year's points dropped her ranking dramatically as she entered Paris ranked No. 70 in the world. After being dumped out of the first round in Paris in straight sets by Dinara Safina, Michaella Krajicek proceeded to lose in the second round of four successive tournaments. Her best result on clay prior to the French Open was a quarterfinal run in a Tier I tournament in Charleston. Michaëlla beat both No. 1 seed Nicole Vaidisova and Sybille Bammer in three sets before losing to Vera Zvonareva 6–1, 7–5.

At the 2007 French Open she made the third round, beating local favorite and No. 31 seed Severine Bremond followed by Shenay Perry before losing to Serena Williams. As the No. 31 seed at Wimbledon (but ranked outside the top 40 for not defending points in 's-Hertogenbosch), her skills on the grass shone through as she defeated Tzipora Obziler, British wildcard Katie O'Brien, No. 8 seed (and No. 7 in the world) Anna Chakvetadze and Martina Hingis's surprise conqueror Laura Granville en route to her very first quarterfinal showing at a Grand Slam. In her quarterfinal match she was defeated by No. 18 seed and eventual finalist Marion Bartoli in a rain-effected three set match, the score being 6–3, 3–6, 2–6.

Following Wimbledon, though top-seeded she lost in the first round of Palermo, losing 6–2, 6–4 to 111th ranked Czech Eva Birnerova in her final tournament prior to the American hard court season. Michaella Krajicek lost in the second round in San Diego to Martina Hingis 7–5, 6–2, the third round in L.A. to Maria Sharapova 7–6, 6–7, 6–4 (a match where the wind conditions were so poor one end was virtually unplayable) and the first round in Toronto to Shahar Peer 7–5, 7–6. At the US Open Krajicek fell in the second round to Hungarian Agnes Szavay 7–6, 6–3.

On the European indoor-circuit Michaella fared little better, going out in the first round in three of her final five tournaments and only winning one match in Moscow. Her only good run came in Stuttgart where due to the heavily packed field she had to qualify and won 4 matches in a row before succumbing to Nadia Petrova 6–1, 6–3 in the last 16.

Her record in 2007 was 24-26 (her first season on tour with a losing record), with 11-12 on hard courts, 7–8 on clay, 5–3 on grass and 1–3 on carpet. Her record against top 10 players was 2–5. She finished 34th in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships Singles Standings.

2008

Michaella Krajicek struggled early in 2008. After bombing out in the first round at the ASB Classic, she lost to Akiko Morigami during the first round of the 2008 Australian Open. Following a break of over a month, she lost her first match at the Pacific Life Open to the Russian Galina Voskoboeva. Then at the Sony Ericsson Open she lost first up Marina Erakovic in 3 sets. She then lost to Alize Cornet at the Family Circle Cup. Returning to Europe, she lost 4 straight tournaments without winning a set. These were to Akgul Amanmuradova at the ECM Prague Open, Sybille Bammer at the Qatar Telecom German Open, Samantha Stosur at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia and then Sanda Mamic at the French Open

However her form turned around at Birmingham. Michaella Krajicek defeated Tatiana Poutchek 6-2,6-1 for her first win of the year. However she lost to eventual finalist Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-4. At her home tournament in s'Hertogenbosch, she defeated Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama in a tough battle, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(7). In the second round she then defeated Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2. However she lost the quaterfinal against Tamarine Tanasugarn 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

She is currently ranked 51th in the WTA singles rankings. Her record for the year in singles is 3-12.

Singles titles (8)