- Joannette Kruger
Joannette Kruger (born
September 3 ,1973 ) is a formerprofessional tennis player fromJohannesburg ,South Africa . Her career high ranking is No. 21 in the world, a ranking she achieved onMay 4 ,1998 .Kruger turned professional in 1989, but it was not until 1992 that she finally broke into the world's top 100. In 1995, she had her breakout season winning her first WTA Tour title in San Juan where she beat Kyoko Nagatsuka in the final. She also recorded her first two top ten wins over
Anke Huber andLindsay Davenport .After an injury-plagued 1996 season, she won her second career title in 1997 in
Prague ,Czech Republic by defeating Marion Maruska in the final. Other highlights included the quarterfinals of the Tier I inRome , defeatingBrenda Schultz-McCarthy andKarina Habsudova en-route, both top twenty players, and reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at the US Open, beatingBarbara Paulus in the first round.She continued her success in 1998, reaching her third WTA Tour final at
Oklahoma City , beatingSerena Williams in the quarterfinals but losing to her sisterVenus Williams in the final. At thePacific Life Open inIndian Wells , she upsetAmanda Coetzer for the first top five win of her career. OnMay 4 ,1998 , she reached her career high of No. 21.At the
Qatar Telecom German Open in 2000, she achieved the biggest win of her career by taking down world number threeNathalie Tauziat with the loss of just two games and then went on to make her first Tier I semifinal. The following year she reached her fourth WTA Tour final at the Wismalik International, beating Grand Slam championArantxa Sanchez-Vicario in semifinals before losing toAngelique Widjaja . She also reached her first two doubles finals in this year, winningSopot withFrancesca Schiavone and finishing runner-up atBasel withMarta Marrero .Kruger's last year on the Tour was in 2003, where she used a special ranking. She went 0–5 during this year with her last match being a 6–2, 6–1 loss to
Jennifer Capriati at theFrench Open .Titles
ingles
Runner-ups (4)
ingles (2)
*1998: Oklahoma City (lost to
Venus Williams )
*2001: Bali (lost toAngelique Widjaja )Doubles (2)
*1998: Bol (w/ Lučić)
*2001: Basel (w/ Marrero)External links
*wta|id=110167|name=Joannette Kruger
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