Jarmila Gajdošová

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Jarmila Gajdosova
country = SVK
AUS
residence = Sydney, Australia
datebirth = birth date and age|1987|4|26
placebirth = Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
now Slovakia
website = [http://www.jarmilagajdosova.com/ Official website]
height = height|m=1.73
weight = convert|67|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro = May 2005
plays = Right; Two-handed backhand
careerprizemoney = $511,093
singlesrecord = 193–119
singlestitles = 0 WTA, 9 ITF
highestsinglesranking = No. 64 (September 25, 2006)
AustralianOpenresult = 1r (2006, 2007, 2008)
FrenchOpenresult = 2r (2006)
Wimbledonresult = 2r (2007)
USOpenresult = 3r (2006)
doublesrecord = 67–56
doublestitles = 1 WTA, 5 ITF
highestdoublesranking = No. 51 (June 25, 2007)
updated = October 6, 2008

Jarmila Gajdosova (Jarmila Gajdošová) (born April 26, 1987 in Bratislava, Slovakia, then Czechoslovakia) is an Australian professional female tennis player of Slovak origin.

By March 7, 2006, aged just eighteen, she stood within touching distance of the threshold of the Top 100 in the WTA Tour rankings, at World No. 106, after a year of great improvement, although she had already established a well-founded reputation as a child prodigy.

Junior career

Although she had already been playing in senior events for some years by the time, the highlights of her junior career came as she reached the semifinals at two junior Grand Slam tournaments. In the 2003 Wimbledon junior competition she lost in semifinal to the later winner Kirsten Flipkens. In the Australian Open junior competition, 2004, she reached semifinal in both singles and doubles (with Shahar Peer). In both times she lost to Nicole Vaidisova. Another success came in winning doubles at the Italian Open junior tournament in 2003 with Andrea Hlavackova.

enior career

2001-3

She began competing on the ITF Circuit just days after her fourteenth birthday in late April 2001, and that year entered three ITF tournaments, winning two matches and losing three. In 2002, she again entered only three tournaments, but this time won four matches and lost three.

Early in 2003, still aged fifteen, she stepped up her schedule, and that February she reached the semi-final of a $25,000 tournament at Redbridge, defeating Severine Beltrame, Sandra Kloesel, and Roberta Vinci before losing to Olga Barabanshikova. The very next tournament she entered, her third of the year and only the ninth of her career, she "won outright". It was the $10,000 event at Rabat in March; and in the semi-final she defeated future Top-100 star Ekaterina Bychkova for the loss of just one game. On the strength of this result, she found herself wild-carded into qualifying for her first WTA Tour event, a clay-court tournament at Budapest in April, and justified the wild-card by defeating all three of her adverseries in the qualifying draw, including Melinda Czink, in straight sets, then ousting future Top-50 player Virginie Razzano of France in the second round of the main draw, before finally losing 6-4, 6-3 to future Top-10 player Alicia Molik of Australia.

The fifteen-year-old had started her first year of extensive competition as she meant to continue; and on her sixteenth birthday she entered qualifying for a $50,000 ITF event on grass at Gifu, Japan. Again, she qualified, defeating Aiko Nakamura of Japan in the qualifying round; and she reached the second round of the main draw before losing to another top Japanese player, Akiko Morigami. The very next week, she came through three straight matches in qualifying at her third successive event, another Japanese $50,000 grass-court tournament, at Fukuoka, defeating Sanda Mamic of Croatia in the qualifying round, before advancing to the quarter-final of the main draw after a second-round victory over Zheng Jie of China, only to lose to Saori Obata.

Playing two $25,000 tournaments in Italy in June, Gajdosova played a higher ranked player in only the second round of each, in the forms of Martina Sucha and Catalina Castano; and though she took a set from the Colombian, it was not enough to spare her defeat. She then headed to the U.S. Open in August, and reached the final round of qualifying with upset of Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, but ultimately lost to Aniko Kapros of Hungary. Her season ended with two more losses in the later stages of qualifying draws at WTA events to higher ranked players; and though Stephanie Foretz of France needed two tie-breaks to see her off at Luxembourg, it was a more one-sided affair in a repeat meeting with Kapros in Philadelphia, who prevailed 6–2, 6–2. Despite the frustration of these losses late in the season, the sixteen-year-old Slovak had soared from virtually nowhere into the World Top 200, ending the year ranked World No. 197.

2004

In 2004, Gajdosova could achieve only parity with her superlative previous year. She crossed ties with a host of more experienced players as she focused her attention mostly on the WTA Tour events and the top-level ITF events, and failed to beat players like Gisela Dulko at Memphis in February, Marta Marrero at Indian Wells in March, future Top-20 star Ana Ivanovic in the semi-final at Gifu and again in the final at Fukuoka (though she took her to three sets "both" times), Jelena Jankovic at Filderstadt in October, and Russian Elena Vesnina in qualifying at Quebec City. She also suffered six successive losses between August and October to players most of whom she would be capable of beating when on her best form. But still, earlier in the season she scored wins over Lilia Osterloh and Tzipora Obziler in qualifying for Memphis, Akiko Morigami and Tiffany Dabek at Fukuoka, Zuzana Ondraskova in Wimbledon qualifying, and Elena Baltacha in a $50,000 ITF event at Lexington, while her performance in reaching the final of the $50,000 event at Fukuoka was her career-best in a tournament of its class. All in all, although unlike the previous year she had not won any events outright, her year-end ranking was World No. 217, down just 20 year-on-year.

2005

In February 2005, she qualified for the annual WTA Tour event at Hyderabad, and beat Li Ting of China in the first round of the main draw before losing to Anna Lena Groenefeld of Germany. She did not play in March or April, but returned in May to win her first $25,000 ITF event and her "second" career tournament on the clay of Catania, Italy, beating Ivana Abramovic of Croatia in the final. The following week, she reached the quarter-final of another $50,000 event at Saint Gaudens, France, beating Argentine Maria-Emilia Salerni and French player Pauline Parmentier to this end. She entered qualifying at the French Open, and defeated Shikha Uberoi but lost to Swede Sofia Arvidsson in the second leg.

Over May and June, the eighteen-year-old suffered two consecutive losses in $25,000 tournaments to Chinese player Yuan Meng. But in Yuan's absence from her path, she was able to win her second $25,000 tournament of the year and "third" career title on the grass courts of Felixstowe in July, beating Katie O'Brien of the United Kingdom in the semi-final and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in the final. The following week, she remained on form, reaching the semi-final of the $50,000 event at Vittel, France, with wins over German Jana Kandarr and her younger countrywoman Sandra Kloesel.

For the second successive summer, she then experienced several consecutive early defeats, including another loss to Elena Vesnina and losses to little-known players. But in late September she pulled her form together again to defeat both established Top-100 player Alona Bondarenko and her younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko, and Maria-Emilia Salerni of Argentina to qualify for the WTA event at Luxembourg, in the first round of which she then defeated her highly experienced countrywoman Katarina Srebotnik in two close sets before losing to young Russian Dinara Safina. October's results were less satisfactory, and she did not play towards the end of the year. However, despite the inconsistency of her results in the second half of 2005, she had still improved her year-end ranking to a personal-best World No. 147.

2006

Early in 2006, she enjoyed some of her best form. After being drawn in a fiercely competitive segment of the qualifying draw for the WTA Tour event at Gold Coast, she defeated three higher ranked players, Ivana Lisjak, Vilmarie Castellvi and Varvara Lepchenko, all three matches running to a deciding set, to reach the main draw, whereupon she continued by ousting Italian Tathiana Garbin in another three-setter, before finally losing in her fifth consecutive three-set match to young Czech Lucie Safarova. Tellingly, it was the only match of the tournament in which Safarova, "who went on to win the entire event", dropped a set.

The 18-year-old Gajdosova followed it up by coming through a slightly easier qualifying draw to gain entry to her first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open. She then lost a close three set first-round match to Martina Muller of Germany. But the ranking points accrued were sufficient to lift her to a career-best world ranking of World No. 117 on February 6, 2006.

Staying in Australia for the rest of the month, she retreated temporarily to the ITF circuit, winning two $25,000 tournaments in consecutive weeks, at Gosford and Sydney, the "fourth" and "fifth" ITF singles titles of her young career. These two minor tournament victories resulted in her ranking rising to World No. 106.

In mid-March, she followed up these two tournament victories by entering another $25,000 event at Canberra, and again came through as the outright victor, after defeating World No. 178 Hanna Nooni of Sweden in the semifinals and Australian Monique Adamczak in the final.

The very next week, she extended her winning streak to seventeen matches in reaching the quarter-finals of a $25,000 event in Melbourne, but then lost to Australian World No. 260 Sophie Ferguson, 6-1, 6-4. Still, once the ranking points from Canberra and Melbourne had been worked into the computer, she had succeeded in breaking through into the WTA Top 100 for the first time in her career.

In April, staying at the $25,000 tournament level that had recently brought her so much success, she reached another semi-final at Patras, Greece (losing in three sets to Estonian World No. 240 Margit Ruutel), but could only reach the second-round at Bari, Italy, before retiring when trailing upcoming French player Alize Cornet 6-0, 4-1.

Finally in early May she decided to return to the WTA Tour, entering qualifying for the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin while ranked World No. 94. However, she lost in three sets in the second-round of the qualifying draw to Ukrainian World No. 147 Julia Vakulenko, 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. The very next week, she lost in the first round of qualifying for the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome to World No. 115 Viktoria Azarenka of Belarus6-3, 6-3.

By the time she entered the Tier III Internationaux de Strasbourg a week later, her ranking had slipped back to World No. 100, and she had to come through three rounds of qualifying (defeating French World No. 127 Severine Bremond in the qualifying round) to reach the main draw, where she immediately lost to French World No. 27 Marion Bartoli 6-0, 7-6.

At the end of the month, entering a Grand Slam as a direct entrant for the first time at the French Open, still as World No. 100, she defeated lower-ranked wildcard Stephanie Cohen-Aloro in Round One before losing in straight sets to World No. 9 Patty Schnyder in Round Two.

The following week, in early June, her ranking unchanged, she entered a $75,000 ITF event at Prostejov in the Czech Republic and defeated two Czech players in succession, firstly turning the tables on World No. 31 Lucie Safarova (who had defeated her earlier in the year), the Slovak this time emerging a 7-5 6-4 victor, and then edging past upcoming World No. 239 Renata Voracova (3-6 6-2 7-6), before losing in the quarter-finals to on-form Italian Romina Oprandi in straight sets, 3-6 4-6.

Travelling to England for the grass-court season, buoyed to her career-best ranking of World No. 86, she reached the second round of the Tier III tournament at Birmingham with a 6-3 6-4 win over Yuan Meng of China before losing more comfortably to Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama; and then she came through three rounds of qualifying in straight sets at Eastbourne, a Tier II tournament, with wins over Stephanie Foretz of France, Galina Voskoboeva of Russia and Samantha Stosur of Australia, but was the clear loser in the first round of the main draw to Russian former World No. 2 Anastasia Myskina. And as a direct entrant at The Championships, Wimbledon a week later, she was ousted in straight sets in the first round by experienced Australian Nicole Pratt.

July brought her mixed fortunes. Her ranking having slipped to World No. 96 after a largely indifferent grass-court run, she retreated again to the ITF circuit in the middle of the month to play a $50,000 event at Vittel, France, and won the event, beating French rising star Olivia Sanchez for the loss of just four games in the final after earlier demolishing young Romanian talent Ioana Raluca Olaru in the quarter-final for the loss of just four games. Her ranking resultantly surged back up ten places to No. 86 again. But in the Tier IV WTA tournament at Budapest the following week, she lost 6-7 2-6 in the first round to Slovak star Martina Sucha.

In August, she won just one match in three tournaments coming into the U.S. Open (a win against Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus in the first round of the Tier IV event at [Stockholm), otherwise recording losses against Joanna Sakowicz of Poland (in three sets, in the first round of a $50,000 ITF fixture at Baden-Baden, Germany), Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic (in straight sets, in Round Two at Stockholm), and Vera Dushevina of Russia (against whom she retired in the first set of their first-round qualifying tie at the Tier II tournament at New Haven).

But as a direct entrant to the main draw of the US Open, she reached the third round with straight-sets victories over American hopeful Alexa Glatch and the Ukraine's Viktoriya Kutuzova before succumbing to Russian star Dinara Safina 3-6 0-6. And as a result, her ranking leapt to a new career high of World No. 65.

In September, competing at the Tier IV tournament at Portoroz, Slovenia, Gajdosova recorded comfortable straight-sets victories over Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic and Margalita Chaknashvili of Georgia before losing to French veteran Emilie Loit 3-6 3-6. She then attempted to qualify for two Tier II main draws in succession, at Luxembourg and Stuttgart, but was unsuccessful in both cases, losing in three sets in the second round of qualifying at Luxembourg to Kathrin Woerle of Germany, and again in three sets in the first round of qualifying at Stuttgart to little-known Polish player Karolina Kosinska.

October brought Gajdosova further frustration. She lost in the first round of another French $50,000 ITF event to Elise Tamaela of the Netherlands in two straight tie-breaks at Joue-Les-Tours, then entered the main draw of the Tier I WTA tournament at Zurich as a lucky loser to American player Meilen Tu, having earlier defeated Argentine star Gisela Dulko in three sets in the second round of qualifying, but was dismissed in the first round of the main draw by experienced Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy in straight sets. Then at Linz, Austria, she once more failed to qualify for a Tier II WTA draw, losing to Russian Vera Dushevina 2-6 2-6 in the second round of qualifying.

In November, she returned to Australia, but retired in the first set of her first round tie in the only further event she played before the end of the season, which was in any case only a $25,000 ITF fixture.

Despite this uninspired finish to 2006, she finished the year ranked down just seven places from her peak of World No. 64 attained fleetingly in September, at World No. 71.

2007

Whereas the early months of 2006 had been a time of career breakthroughs for the young Slovak talent, the beginning of 2007 presented little more than disappointment to her.

She began the new season, still in Australia, at the end of December 2006, by narrowly failing to qualify for Gold Coast, where she lost comfortably to Roberta Vinci of Italy in the qualifying round. Then in qualifying for Hobart in January, she fell at the first hurdle to Czech star Klara Zakopalova in straight sets. And as a direct entrant to the Australian Open, she lost in Round One to experienced Venezualan Milagros Sequera, also in straight sets.

In February, her ranking having tumbled to World No. 88, she lost in the first round of the Tier IV draw at Pattaya, Thailand to Italian Mara Santangelo in three sets. Then she was defeated in the first round of the Tier III tournament at Bangalore, India by rising Uzbek Akgul Amanmuradova in straight sets. At Memphis, another Tier III event, she won her first main draw round of the year so far against Eva Birnerova, 7-5 6-3, before losing a close three-set tie to American Laura Granville in Round Two. A week later, she finally managed to pull together a string of back-to-back victories in an ITF $75,000 tournament at Las Vegas, with wins over Kristina Barrois of Germany (in three sets] , Ahsha Rolle of the United States (6-0 6-2) and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus (6-4 6-3), before bowing out to Japan's Akiko Morigami in the semifinals.

In March, as a direct entrant to the Tier I event at Indian Wells, ranked World No. 90, she lost in the first round to fast-rising Dane Caroline Wozniacki, 3-6 1-6. Then she came through qualifying for Miami with comfortable straight-sets wins over Kristina Barrois and Luxembourg's experienced Anne Kremer before losing a close two-set match in the first round of the main draw to Catalina Castano of Colombia, 3-6 5-7. And in the first round of the main draw of the Tier II fixture at Amelia Island, her ranking having slipped back to World No. 99, she was defeated by young American Alexa Glatch, 4-6 3-6.

Still in the United States at the start of April, she entered qualifying for the Tier I tournament at Charleston, but lost at the second stage in three sets to Yuliana Fedak of the Ukraine. Towards the end of the month, she entered qualifying for the Tier II tournament at Warsaw, Poland, and dispatched two local players before losing in the qualifying round to Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek in three sets.

In May, ranked World No. 95, she reached the quarter-finals of the Tier IV fixture at Prague with comfortable straight-sets victories over Anastasia Rodionova of Russia and Sandra Kloesel of Germany before herself being ousted for the loss of just five games by prominent French player Marion Bartoli. This performance recovered her ranking somewhat to World No. 85. But she could manage only the second round of another Tier IV event at Fes, Morocco the following week, losing in three sets to Alize Cornet of France after first defeating Hungary's Melinda Czink in three sets herself.

At the end of the month, the first round of a Grand Slam once again proved a hurdle too far for the young Slovak, as she was narrowly edged out in three sets by Andrea Petkovic of Germany at the French Open.

In June, she skipped Birmingham this year, and headed directly to the qualifying draw at Eastbourne, by which time her ranking had slipped back outside the Top 100 again to World No. 105. But despite posting a close three-set win at the second stage of qualifying over Laura Granville of the United States, she lost in the qualifying round to veteran grass court specialist Elena Likhovtseva of Russia. Then at The Championships, Wimbledon, she soundly dispatched another American in the form of Meghann Shaughnessy 6-2 7-4 before losing heavily to Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in Round Two, 1-6 1-6.

Gajdosova did not compete that July. She returned to action in mid-August in Canada, again ranked World No. 105, and attempted to qualify for the Tier I Canadian Open, but was prevented at the second hurdle by Italian star Flavia Pennetta in straight sets despite having defeated Germany's Julia Schruff to begin with, also in straight sets. Her only other tournament that month was the US Open, where she again faced Jelena Jankovic, this time losing a more evenly-contested joust 2-6 6-7.

The young Slovak would play only four more tournaments that season, recording her sole victory in the first round of the Tier III event at Kolkata, India against Youlia Fedossova of France in mid-September, alongside heavy straight-sets lossses in the first rounds of two other Tier III tournaments at Bali, Indonesia (against Edina Gallovits of Romania) and Guangzhou, China (against Olga Govortsova of Belarus) the same month, a heavy second-round defeat at Kolkata to Chan Yung-Jan of Taipei, and another one-sided loss to upcoming Australian talent Jessica Moore in the first round of a $25,000 ITF event at Traralgon, Australia in October. As a result, her ranking had subsided significantly to World No. 142 by the end of the year.

2008

Gajdosova started the year ranked World No. 142. She received a wild card into the main draw of the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts in Gold Coast, Australia where she lost in the first round to World No. 15 Dinara Safina 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. She then lost in the second round of the qualifying competition for the Medibank International in Sydney to World No. 100 Jill Craybas 7-5, 6-2. Gajdosova then received a wild card into the main draw of the Australian Open where she lost in the first round to World No. 7 Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3.

Gajdosova then played two tournaments in the United States. She lost in the first round of the qualifying competition for the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California to World No. 101 Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-0. She then lost in the first round of the ITF Circuit event in Redding, California to World No. 199 Margalita Chakhnashvili 4-0 retired.

Gajdosova then played three ITF Circuit tournaments in South Korea. In Incheon, she lost in the first round to World No. 374 Jin-A Lee 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. The following week, Gajdosova won the tournament in Gimcheon, defeating World No. 295 Jingjing Lu in the final. Gajdsova then lost in the second round of the tournament in Changwon to World No. 432 Ling Zhang 6-1, 6-4. As of May 26, 2008, Gajdsova's ranking had dropped to World No. 195.

... to be updated...

WTA Tour titles (1)

Doubles (1)

External links

* [http://www.jarmilagajdosova.com/ Jarmila Gajdosova's home page]
*
* [http://www.juniortennis.com/ajt/playerinfo.php?player_id=111 Junior profile]