Petra Martić


Petra Martić is a professional tennis player from Croatia. Having made her international debut in 2008, she reached a career high singles ranking of No. 14 in January 2020. Martic has won one singles title on the WTA Tourthe 2019 Istanbul Cup, and reached the quarterfinals of the 2019 French Open. She has also won one WTA 125K series singles and one doubles tournament, as well as four singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Early and personal life

Petra Martić was born in Split, Croatia to Nenad and Sandra. She grew up in the village of Duće, 30 km from Split, and moved to Split at the age of 10. Her father died in a car accident when Petra was five, and her uncle Mladen was killed during the Croatian War of Independence. Petra is quoted saying that her mother is a hero to her for managing to go through all this and raising Petra by herself, and that this motivates her to excel in tennis and bring joy to her family.

Tennis career

2006–2009: Early career

The best result in her junior career was the quarterfinals in 2006 US Open. In 2007, she played her first WTA Tour main draw at Miami. In 2008, Martić won the ITF Zagreb Open, defeating Yvonne Meusburger, and then made it to the quarterfinals of the WTA event Slovenia Open, losing to Julia Görges.
She qualified for the 2009 French Open and lost in the second round to 21-year-old Canadian world No. 24 Aleksandra Wozniak. She then made it to another Portorož Open quarterfinal, losing to defending champion and fifth seed Sara Errani. In September 2009, at the age of 18 years and 8 months, Martić entered top 100 for the first time.

2010: First top-20 victory

Martić began the season by falling in the qualifying stages of the ASB Classic and the Medibank International Sydney. She lost in the first round of the Australian Open, falling to Sabine Lisicki.
In February, she beat third seed and world No. 15 Yanina Wickmayer in the first round of the Open GdF Suez, winning 6–4, 3–6, 7–5. Martić broke twice and dropped serve once. She lost in the next round to Ágnes Szávay.
Martić qualified for the BNP Paribas Open, where she lost in the second round to Jelena Janković.
She also scored another big win at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami as she defeated world No. 21 Aravane Rezaï in the second round in three sets. She then lost to Yanina Wickmayer.
She lost in the first round of her next three tournaments, Andalucia Tennis Experience, Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem and Estoril Open.
She was forced to retire in her first-round match of the Madrid Open whilst 4–6, 2–1 down. Her next tournament was the Warsaw Open where she lost in three sets to Gréta Arn in the first round.
Martić was drawn against world No. 5, Elena Dementieva, in the first round of the French Open where she was beaten 6–1, 6–1.
She next participated in the ITF tournament in Marseilles where she reached the quarterfinals, losing to Johanna Larsson in three sets.
Martić only played one grass tournament in the 2010 season, Wimbledon. There, she beat British No. 1, Elena Baltacha in the first round. She was due to play against Marion Bartoli in the second round; however, she was forced to retire before the match.
At the hard-court tournaments, she lost in the first round of Banka Koper Slovenia Open to Katarina Srebotnik and in the first round of İstanbul Cup to Vera Dushevina.
Martić was drawn against the top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the first edition of the e-Boks Danish Open where she lost.

2011: First top-50 finish

Martić qualified for the Australian Open, where she lost to Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round. Martić also made it to the semifinals of Bogota and Copenhagen and beat Vesnina and Vickmayer to reach the third round of Cincinnati. She finished the year in top 50 for the first time in her career.

2012: First WTA final

Martić started the 2012 season losing in the first rounds of several tournaments including the Australian Open, Doha, and Dubai.
She reached her first WTA final at the Malaysian Open where she upset the No. 3 seed Peng Shuai and the No. 2 seed Jelena Janković. However, she had to retire in the final against Hsieh Su-wei.
After falling in the first rounds of Indian Wells and Miami, Martić made the semifinals of the e-Boks Open losing to Caroline Wozniacki, and the quarterfinals of the Budapest Grand Prix losing to Elena Vesnina.
Martić advanced to the fourth round of the French Open. She defeated Michaëlla Krajicek, world No. 8 Marion Bartoli, and Anabel Medina Garrigues. She lost in the fourth round to Angelique Kerber.
At the US Open, Martić drew defending champion Samantha Stosur in the first round, and was defeated 6–1, 6–1. She would, however, bounce back at the Pan Pacific Open, upsetting world No. 5, Petra Kvitová, in the second round. It was the first meeting between the two and the second top-ten victory of the year for Martić.

2013-2016: Struggling with injuries

The next four years of her career were plagued by injuries and poor form. In 2013, Martić made it to the third round of a WTA tournament only twice, at Katowice and Wimbledon. She also won the 2013 ITF Nottingham, but dropped out of the top 100 by the end of the year. In 2014, she scored only one WTA main-draw victory, against Sorana Cirstea in Guangzhou in September. In 2015, Martić mostly played at the ITF and 125K series tournaments, with moderate success. The only notable result was qualifying for the Australian Open. She finished her 2015 season in October, not scoring a single victory at a WTA event main draw and only two top-100 victories during the year. She was ranked 148 at the end of the year.
In February 2016, she made it to the semifinals of a WTA event for the first time in four years at Rio de Janeiro in February, and did not play from February to May. The last match she played was at Wimbledon in June, where she lost to U. Radwańska in the first round of qualifying. In September, she dropped out of the top 200.

2017-2018: Making a comeback

Suffering from a major back injury, Martić was not sure if she would play competitive tennis again.
After a ten-month injury lay-off, she made a come-back at $25k event at Santa Margherita di Pula. Ranked No. 659, Martić had to go through qualifying, and in the end, won the tournament. She then went on a 17–3 run leading up to 2017 French Open, where she qualified, and won three rounds in the main draw, losing to Elina Svitolina after being up 5–2 in the third set. Along the way, she defeated Madison Keys and Anastasija Sevastova - her first top-20 victories in five years. At Wimbledon, she again went through qualifying rounds and upset Daria Gavrilova on her way to her second consecutive fourth-round appearance at a Grand Slam. After Wimbledon, Martić played only four more tournaments, going 2–4, but finished the year in top 100 for the first time since 2012.
Continuing her success from 2017, Martić made it to the fourth round of the 2018 Australian Open, and reached her first quarterfinal at a Premier Mandatory in Indian Wells. She made it to the final of Bucharest, her first WTA final after 2012 Kuala Lumpur,. In September, Martić won the WTA 125k at Chicago and finished year at No. 32 for the second year-end top-50 finish of her career.

2019: First WTA title, first major quarterfinal, top 20 debut

After a slow start to the year, Martić reached the semifinals of WTA Charleston in April, defeating Belinda Bencic along the way. Then she followed it with her first WTA trophy at İstanbul Cup, defeating Marketa Vondrousova in the final, after losing the first set 1–6. Martic then made it to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, defeating Muguruza and Vekic along the way. In April, she was nominated for the WTA Player of the Month. On the 13th of May, she entered the top 30 for the first time in her career - seven years, seven months and 18 days after first entering the top 50.
At the French Open, seeded 31st, she defeated Ons Jabeur and Kristina Mladenovic to reach the third round where she upset second seed Karolína Plíšková. She defeated Kaia Kanepi in the fourth round to reach her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal. There, she was defeated by Markéta Vondroušová.
Martić then reached her first-ever grass-court semifinal at WTA Birmingham and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, equaling her best result at this tournament. Following Wimbledon, she broke into the top 20 for the first time.
Martić didn't find much success during the beginning of the summer hard-court season, losing her opening round matches in Toronto and Cincinnati, but rebounded at the US Open by reaching the third round there for the first time. She then upset world No. 11, Anastasija Sevastova, to reach the second week of a major for the third consecutive time. She lost to Serena Williams in the fourth round in straight sets. Martić carried her momentum to the start of the Asian hard-court swing. In Zhengzhou, she reached her first Premier-level final, after beating Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals and former top-10 player Kristina Mladenovic in the semifinals to face Plíšková for the first time since upsetting her at the French Open. However, Martić was unable to repeat that result, as she was defeated by the world No. 2 in straight sets.

Playing style

Martić employs an aggressive all-court game that exemplifies her variety. Her groundstrokes are powerful, and is able to hit both her forehand and her backhand flat, and with topspin. She is also proficient at hitting her backhand with slice, and can incorporate the drop shot effectively into points. Her serve is powerful, and has been recorded at 120 mph, and is also reliable, allowing her to hit many aces throughout a match, whilst minimising double faults. Her return of serve is also a major weapon, ranking consistently within the top 100 of the WTA for return games won. She is a strong volleyer, due to her doubles experience, and is as comfortable at the net as she is at the baseline. She is capable of extending rallies, acting more like a counterpuncher, to draw unforced errors out of highly aggressive players. Martić possesses a remarkably unique game, containing an almost complete repertoire of shots.

Performance timelines

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Singles

Current through the suspension of the 2020 WTA Tour.
Notes

WTA career finals

Singles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–12012 Malaysian Open – Singles|Malaysian Open, MalaysiaInternationalHard Hsieh Su-wei6–2, 5–7, 1–4 ret.
Loss0–22018 Bucharest Open – Singles|Bucharest Open, RomaniaInternationalClay Anastasija Sevastova6–7, 2–6
Win1–22019 İstanbul Cup – Singles|İstanbul Cup, TurkeyInternationalClay Markéta Vondroušová1–6, 6–4, 6–1
Loss1–32019 Zhengzhou Open – Singles|Zhengzhou Open, ChinaPremierHard Karolína Plíšková3–6, 2–6

Doubles: 4 (4 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12012 Open GDF Suez – Doubles|Open GDF Suez, FrancePremierHard Anna-Lena Grönefeld Liezel Huber
Lisa Raymond		6–7, 1–6
Loss0–22012 Gastein Ladies – Doubles|Gastein Ladies, AustriaInternationalClay Anna-Lena Grönefeld Jill Craybas
Julia Görges		7–6, 4–6,
Loss0–32013 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem – Doubles|Morocco Open, MoroccoInternationalClay Kristina Mladenovic3–6, 1–6
Loss0–42016 Monterrey Open – Doubles|Monterrey Open, MexicoInternationalHard Maria Sanchez6–4, 5–7,

WTA 125K series finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–1Oct 2007ITF Jersey, United Kingdom25,000Hard Sabine Lisicki3–6, 4–6
Win1–1Jul 2008ITF Zagreb, Croatia75,000Clay Yvonne Meusburger6–2, 2–6, 6–2
Win2–1Sep 2009ITF Biella, Italy100,000Clay Sharon Fichman7–5, 6–4
Win3–12013 Aegon Trophy – Women's Singles|ITF Nottingham, Great Britain75,000Grass Karolína Plíšková6–3, 6–3
Loss3–22014 South Seas Island Resort Women's Pro Classic – Singles|ITF Captiva Island, United States50,000Hard Edina Gallovits-Hall2–6, 2–6
Win4–2Apr 2017ITF Pula, Italy25,000Clay Kathinka von Deichmann6–4, 7–5
Loss4–3May 2017ITF Wiesbaden, Germany25,000Clay Kathinka von Deichmann4–6, 6–4, 6–7

Doubles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runner–ups)

Top 10 wins

Record against top 20 players

Match record against certain players who have been ranked in the top 20, with those who have been No. 1 in boldface.