Kristína Kučová
Kristína Kučová is a Slovak tennis player.
She has won eleven singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. In September 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 71. On 5 October 2009, she peaked at No. 168 in the doubles rankings.
Kučová was an accomplished junior player, having won the Girls' Singles title at the 2007 US Open and reaching a combined career-high junior ranking of world No. 3 on 10 September 2009.
Playing for Slovakia at the Fed Cup, she has a win–loss record of 1–5.
Kučová was born in Bratislava. Her elder sister Zuzana, also a tennis player, retired from the professional tour in 2013.
Tennis career
Junior years
At the 2007 US Open, the unseeded Kučová took the girls' singles title, defeating the 13th seed Julia Glushko in the third round, top seed and defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals, and number two seed Urszula Radwańska in the final. Kučová also reached the 2007 Wimbledon Championships and 2007 French Open girls' doubles quarterfinals. She reached the French Open quarterfinals with her compatriot Klaudia Boczová, losing to the eventual champions and third seeds Ksenia Milevskaya and Urszula Radwańska. With her compatriot, Lenka Juríková, she reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals and lost to the eventual runners-up Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara.2014
Kučová started the year in the qualifying for Sydney where she lost to Misaki Doi, then she lost in the first round of qualifying for the Australian Open to Paula Kania in three sets. She lost in qualifying for Doha to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets, and also in Dubai where she lost to Flavia Pennetta. She managed to qualify for Katowice and then beat Monica Niculescu 6–1, 6–1 in the first round before losing to Alizé Cornet. She lost in qualifying for the French Open to the wild card Irina Ramialison 1–6, 0–6 and in qualifying for Wimbledon to Maryna Zanevska.She reached her first WTA semifinal at Bucharest by beating Anna Schmiedlova, Cristina Dinu and Danka Kovinić before losing to Roberta Vinci 1–6, 3–6 in the semifinals. She won the $50k ITF event in Sobota in Poland by beating Sesil Karatantcheva in the final. She won a $25k event in Fleurus, Belgium by beating Evgeniya Rodina in the final. She lost in the second round of qualifying in Linz to Anna-Lena Friedsam 5–7, 0–6 and in the first round of qualifying for Limoges to Katarzyna Piter 2–6, 4–6.
2016: Breakthrough and into the top 100
Kučová failed to qualify for the Australian Open. She lost in the final qualifying round to Wang Yafan, despite having a match point in the second set.After defeating Stefanie Vögele and Hsieh Su-wei, Kučová reached the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur, where she lost to the second seed Elina Svitolina despite winning the first set 6–1.
She qualified for the main draw of the Rogers Cup by defeating Erin Routliffe and Christina McHale. She upset Yanina Wickmayer in the first round, who had won the singles and doubles titles in Washington the week before. In the second round she caused a bigger upset by defeating the No. 8 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, setting up a third-round clash with the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. Kučová won the match in three sets to reach her first WTA Premier-level quarterfinal, where she beat the 15th seed Johanna Konta in straight sets. She was eventually eliminated in the semifinals by the 10th seed Madison Keys. Following the tournament she broke into the world's top 100 in the rankings for the first time in her career.
Grand Slam performance timelines
Singles
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 24 (11 titles, 13 runner–ups)
Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
Loss | 0–1 | Apr 2007 | ITF Hvar, Croatia | 10,000 | Clay | Karolina Jovanović | 1–6, 4–6 |
Win | 1–1 | May 2007 | ITF Michalovce, Slovakia | 10,000 | Clay | Katarzyna Piter | 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 |
Loss | 1–2 | May 2008 | ITF Galați, Romania | 10,000 | Clay | Valentina Sulpizio | 2–6, 6–7 |
Loss | 1–3 | Aug 2008 | ITF Hechingen, Germany | 25,000 | Clay | Maša Zec Peškirič | 6–3, 6–7, 3–6 |
Loss | 1–4 | Sep 2008 | ITF Maribor, Slovenia | 50,000 | Clay | Maša Zec Peškirič | 2–6, 6–7 |
Loss | 1–5 | Mar 2009 | ITF La Palma, Spain | 25,000 | Hard | Anastasija Sevastova | 6–4, 1–6, 1–6 |
Loss | 1–6 | Jun 2009 | ITF Pozoblanco, Spain | 50,000 | Hard | Angelique Kerber | 3–6, 4–6 |
Loss | 1–7 | Jun 2010 | ITF Brno, Czech Republic | 25,000 | Clay | Zuzana Ondrášková | 3–6, 6–4, 2–6 |
Loss | 1–8 | Sep 2010 | ITF Bucharest, Romania | 25,000 | Clay | Mădălina Gojnea | 4–6, 4–6 |
Win | 2–8 | Jun 2012 | ITF Alkmaar, Netherlands | 10,000 | Clay | Janina Toljan | 6–3, 6–4 |
Win | 3–8 | Jul 2012 | ITF Denain, France | 25,000 | Clay | Michaela Hončová | 6–2, 1–6, 6–2 |
Loss | 3–9 | Jun 2013 | ITF Zlín, Czech Republic | 25,000 | Clay | Melanie Klaffner | 3–6, 2–6 |
Win | 4–9 | Jul 2013 | ITF Les Contamines, France | 25,000 | Hard | 7–5, 6–7, 6–3 | |
Win | 5–9 | Aug 2013 | ITF Craiova, Romania | 50,000 | Clay | Alberta Brianti | 7–5, 3–6, 6–4 |
Loss | 5–10 | Sep 2013 | ITF Sofia, Bulgaria | 25,000 | Clay | 2–6, 6–1, 3–6 | |
Loss | 5–11 | Oct 2013 | ITF Herzliya, Israel | 25,000 | Hard | Yuliya Beygelzimer | |
Win | 6–11 | Jul 2014 | ITF Sobota, Poland | 50,000 | Clay | Sesil Karatantcheva | 1–6, 7–5, 6–3 |
Win | 7–11 | Aug 2014 | ITF Fleurus, Belgium | 25,000 | Clay | Evgeniya Rodina | 6–3, 6–4 |
Win | 8–11 | Feb 2015 | ITF Beinasco, Italy | 25,000 | Clay | Barbora Krejčíková | 6–4, 7–6 |
Win | 9–11 | Jul 2015 | ITF Toruń, Poland | 25,000 | Clay | Giulia Gatto-Monticone | 4–6, 6–1, 6–4 |
Win | 10–11 | Sep 2015 | ITF Bucha, Ukraine | 25,000 | Clay | Alexandra Cadanțu | 4–6, 7–6, 6–0 |
Loss | 10–12 | Mar 2018 | ITF Irapuato, Mexico | 25,000 | Hard | Marie Bouzková | |
Loss | 10–13 | Feb 2019 | ITF Trnava, Slovakia | 25,000 | Hard | Lucie Hradecká | |
Win | 11–13 | Apr 2019 | ITF Dothan, United States | 80,000 | Clay | Lauren Davis | 3–6, 7–6, 6–2 |