Katie O'Brien

Infobox Tennis player
playername= Katie O'Brien


country= GBR
residence= Hessle, England
datebirth= birth date and age|1986|05|02
placebirth= Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
height= height|meters=1.675
weight= convert|61|kg|lb|abbr=on
turnedpro= 2004
plays= Right-handed, double-handed backhand
careerprizemoney= $207,609
singlesrecord= 188–140
singlestitles= 2 ITF
highestsinglesranking= No. 104 (9 June 2008)
AustralianOpenresult=
FrenchOpenresult=
Wimbledonresult= 2nd round (2007)
USOpenresult=
doublesrecord= 82–82
doublestitles= 2 ITF
highestdoublesranking= No. 174 (8 October 2007)
updated= 12 May 2008

Katie Jill O'Brien (born 2 May 1986) is a British tennis player from Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. She is currently the British number 4, ranked at number 146 in the world as of 06 October 2008.

Early years

O'Brien attended Hymers College, Hull from 1997 to 2002, gaining 8 GCSEs (5A*s, 3As), and Woodhouse Grove School, Leeds from 2002 to 2004, gaining 2 A Levels (2As in Maths and French). [ [http://www.lta.org.uk/PlayerProfiles/Womens-Singles/Katie-OBrien/ LTA Profile] accessed 19 June 2008Dead link|date=September 2008]

In 2003, she won the U18 national singles and doubles championships.

Career

2004-2006

In 2004, playing nearly all of her matches on the ITF tour, she gained a wild card at Wimbledon. She lost 6–4 6–4 against María Sánchez Lorenzo who was ranked in the top 50 whilst O'Brien was outside the top 500 at the time. 2005 brought O'Brien her first career title to her name albeit a $10,000 ITF title but in her home town of Hull. She lost 6–2 6–3 against Kim Clijsters, who was seeded 15, at Wimbledon in the first round.

In 2006, O'Brien won her second ITF singles title and two doubles ITF tournaments. On the WTA tour she took Tathiana Garbin to three sets at Wimbledon and gained wild cards into Birmingham and Eastbourne, so by the end of the year O'Brien had entered the World's top 200.

2007

Katie O'Brien has her most successful season yet, reaching several ITF quarter finals early on in 2007. Improving on this Katie O'Brien started the grass court season ranked 190 and after Wimbledon, ranked 121. O'Brien achieved this by qualifying for the International Women's Open in Eastbourne (a Tier II WTA event) and reaching the last 16 defeating Vasilisa Bardina (ranked 64) in straight sets before eventually falling to Elena Dementieva (ranked 12).

Following this, as a wild card entry to Wimbledon she reached the second round, and was defeated 6–0 6–1 by Michaëlla Krajicek only holding serve once. She was the only British woman to reach the second round.

Into the summer hard court season, Katie O'Brien only managed to reach the 2nd round in ITF Vancouver tournament despite being the top-seed for the tournament she fell in straight sets to Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6–4 6–4. [ [http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=691c9907-becf-4e3a-bf16-74ff2522533f Discontented top women's seed out by Jason Botchford, The Province Published: August 03 2007] accessed 7 August 2007]

Despite a very positive start to the season, Katie had a disappointing American hard court season losing a run of five matches at WTA Tour events, one of them being at the qualifying for the U.S. Open. Despite being seeded there she struggled to prove her worth.

Following this Katie O'Brien competed in the qualifying event for Portoroz in Slovenia a WTA Tier IV event where she lost in the final to Ana Vrljic 6–3 6–4. In the same week Katie competed as the defending champion and number 1 seed in the Nottingham $25,000 ITF event though Katie eventually fell in the Quarter finals to Irena Pavlovic.

O'Brien then played in the Tashkent Open a WTA tier IV event where she won her opening match against Julia Schruff 3–6 6–3 6–2 in the next round she faced Anastasiya Yakimovawhere she had to play a very patient set to stake her place in her first ever WTA Tour quarter final. In the next round she was up against the number 3 seed Olga Govortsova. Her opponent, ranked 55 in the world at the time, proved too much for her and she lost 6–3 6–2. As well as this, she reached the semifinals of the women's doubles with Akgul Amanmuradova.

O'Brien then went back to the ITF tour playing where she reached the semi finals in Jersey, the final in Glasgow and the semi finals in Istanbul. She backed this up by reaching two more semifinals in ITF events in Australia and climbed back up to 128.

2008

O'Brien began her year by playing in the Australian Open qualifying as the 15/Q seed where she reached the final round but lost to 11/Q seed Meng Yuan 6–4 6–2, having suffered from shingles over the off-season.

Katie then took part in the Fed Cup, where she pushed world number 14 Patty Schnyder 7–6(5) 7–5, after leading 4–2 in the first set tiebreaker and 3–0 in the second set. She also took Caroline Wozniacki to three sets, 6–2 1–6 6–2 in the final group tie against Denmark. Great Britain finished bottom of the group, but O'Brien comfortably won her relegation play-off tie against Portugal's Magali de Lattre 6–4 6–2, to ensure GB will take part in the Euro/Africa Zone 1 in 2009.

Katie reached the quarter-final as the fifth-seed, at the $75,000 ITF tournament Midland, USA, losing to the eventual winner, Laura Granville. In the middle east O'Brien then attempted to qualify into both Doha and
Dubai but lost to Urszula Radwanska and then Eva Hrdinová in the first round of qualifying at each event respectively in consecutive weeks. Katie obtained straight entry into the Bangalore Open where she played Olga Savchuk in the first round. She missed 3 match points and lost the match in three sets 6–4 2–6 7–5. The following week she is attempted to qualify for the Pacific Open in Indian Wells, where in the first round she defeated Selima Sfar 6–3 7–6 to reach the final qualifying round against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, where she lost 6-4 6-4, serving 15 double faults.

After that, she reached the quarterfinal at the ITF/Jersey $25,000 event, losing in straight sets to Tanja Ostertag. The following week she lost in the opening round of the ITF/Patra $50,000 event to her compatriot, Naomi Cavaday, 6–2 6–1. The week after, she lost in the opening round of the ITF/Monzón $75,000 event to Swiss veteran Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6–1 6–2.

Following the two back-to-back defeats, Katie started her clay court schedule, which started at the $100,000+H ITF/Saint Malo event. Seeded 6, she took on Spanish player Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and to many people's surprise, she won 6–3 6–4. She followed this up with a 6–3 7–5 victory over Zuzana Ondraskova, before losing 6–0 6–2 to eventual champion Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France. Katie's next event was the Tier IV Fes tournament, where she lost to Frenchwoman Emilie Loit in the opening round 6–7 (7–9) 6–4 6–1, despite leading 4–2 in the second set. Next was the ITF/Zagreb $75,000 event, where Katie, seeded fifth reached the second round. She defeated former Strasbourg champion Claudine Schaul of Luxembourg 6–4 6–2, but then lost 6–3 6–3 to Mathilde Johansson of France. Katie attempted to qualify for the WTA Rome event, but lost to the in-form Czech player Iveta Benesova 6–4 6–3. Katie concluded her clay schedule at the French Open, where she was seeded 10 in qualifiers. She successfully defeated compatriot Melanie South 7–5 6–1 and was the only British woman to reach the second round, where she lost 6–4 6–2 to Kristina Barrois.

Katie's grass court season started well, reaching the second round of the ITF/Surbiton event and the second round of the DFS Classic, Birmingham, defeating Alla Kudryavtseva 6-0 3-6 7-6(3) before losing 7-5 1-6 7-5 to Yaroslava Shvedova. A career high of 104 followed. However, Katie soon dropped to 150 after losing in the opening round of the International Women's Open, Eastbourne in 6-4 6-3 to Samantha Stosur and 6-0 7-5 in the opening round of Wimbledon to Shahar Pe'er, the number 24 seed from Israel, despite leading 5-0 in the second set. O'Brien was a wildcard for both tournaments and as a result of her drop down the ranks, she fell to the position of British number three.

Following Wimbledon, Katie headed off to Palermo for the Tier IV clay event in Palermo, where she started her campaign against Lourdes Dominguez Lino, a clay court expert from Spain. Despite winning the first set, she lost 5-7 6-3 6-0. Her next tournament was ITF/Biella $100,000, also on clay, where she reached the second round. Katie then returned to the WTA Tour in Portoroz, a Tier IV hardcourt event, where she was drawn against fifth seed Tsvetana Pironkova. Despite leading 4-1 in the first and second sets, Katie eventually won 7-6(6) 4-6 6-2 to record her first top 50 win of her career and improve her record to 2-0 over Pironkova. She fell to Vera Dushevina of Russia in the third round in straight sets, 6-3 6-2. [cite web |url=http://tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=140424 |title=Wozniacki defeats Sprem in Portoroz |publisher=tennis.com |date=23 July 2008]

Following this, Katie went over to North America and attempted to qualify for the Rogers Cup, Montreal, but lost 6-3 4-6 6-3 to Chanelle Scheepers in the final round. Katie then played the ITF/Monterrey Challenger, losing in the second round to top seed Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets and followed up this loss with another defeat against Meng Yuan in the opening round of the WTA Cincinnati event. O'Brien lost in the second round of the US Open qualifying to Alexa Glatch in straight sets.

After the US Open Katie O'Brien played the $25k Madrid Event but she fell at the first hurdle losing in round one.

The $75k Shrewsbury Event was Katie's next event, she beat Katalin Marosi in round one but lost her second round match.

Career Highlights

2nd Round Wimbledon 2007

Titles

ingles

Doubles

Grand Slam Performance Timeline

*"A" stands for any tournament the player did not participate in.
*"LQ" stands for participation in qualifying only.
*The career record is only for the players main draw participation.

References

External links

* [http://www.lta.org.uk/PlayerProfiles/Womens-Singles/Katie-OBrien/ Katie O'Brien] profile on the LTA's official website
*Wta|id=150193
*ITF female profile|number=100000391
*FedCupplayerlink|id=100000391