Champions of 2011:
Katarina Srebotnik/ Kveta Peschke
– Wimbledon Championships Women’s Doubles
Katarina Srebotnik was born on the 12th of March, 1981 to a Slovenian family and started playing professional tennis in 1995. A year down the road, Srebotnik had accomplished the second position as a junior player and
she maintained that position in 1998 as well. As a junior she won the 1998 Wimbledon girls singles title by defeating Kim Clijsters and was also a runner-up at the US Open.
Although, Srebotnik started her career as a singles player she soon moved into the doubles arena and became one of the few names to be remembered in history. The doubles specialist had bagged 19 titles on the ITF circuit. She
is the fourth player ever to win a title in her first WTA main draw at Estoril by defeating Kuti Kis in the title match and in doing so; she broke into the top 100 in 1999.
Moreover, the same year she bagged two WTA doubles titles; won first Grand Slam mixed doubles title at Roland Garros with Pieter Norval and won one singles title. She also captured five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
The Slovenian had touched stardom before pairing with Květa Peschke. Nevertheless, the two embarked on a journey to their success.
On the other hand, Kveta Peschke was born on the 9th of July, 1975 and won her first doubles title on the ITF circuit in 1992. However, she did not win any WTA doubles tournaments until 1998. Overall, Peschke had bagged
8 ITF doubles titles and 22 WTA doubles titles.
Even though, Peschke and Srebotnik had played side by side in two tournaments prior to 2010, the two together have established themselves as one of the elite doubles team.
The first time the two paired with each other was in 2006 and they suffered an opening round loss at Bank of West Classic in Stanford. From there onwards the duo did not reunite until 2008, when they made the semis at Paris. Once
more, two years went by before they paired up again in 2010 and they fell in the quarterfinals of Paris.
They joined forces once more at the Dubai Open and this time the results were phenomenal. They defeated many famous names such as Lisa Raymond with Rennae Stubbs and the then doubles world number one Cara Black with Liezel Huber
along their way to the final match. However, they lost the final to another influential team of Nuria Llagostera Vives with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
They took a step further in their performances and eventually won their first title together at the Paribas Open in Indian Wells by ousting Nadia Petrova with Samantha Stosur. Another notable achievement in the same year was when
they made it all the way to the final of the French Open but fell to the Williams sisters. They ended the 2010 season on a high note by qualifying for the year-end championships, where they made it to t he finals.
The two joined to become an unstoppable force in 2011, with already six titles under their belts, including the Wimbledon doubles champion which eventually landed them the doubles world number one ranking team.
Although, they are currently ranked as the world’s second best team, they were the first ones to secure a spot at the WTA Tour championships 2011. Srebotnik and Peschke have proved themselves that they have the mettle to continue
even when the going gets tougher.
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