Kaia Kanepi and her Professional Tennis Career in 2010
This year, Estonian professional tennis player Kaia Kanepi made her first US Open quarter final appearance, coming to the media’s attention as a worthy player and opponent. The 25 year old has been playing tennis since the age of 8, and she turned pro in
2000 at the age of 15. As a junior, she reached World Number 1 on the International Tennis Federation rankings. Kanepi’s highest ranking through her career is World Number 18, as of May 2009. She is the only Estonian to achieve a top 20 WTA career ranking.
However, her ranking today is World Number 26.
Kanepi’s first major win was at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Title in Palermo in 2010, making her the first Estonian woman to win a WTA Championship title. In addition to this, she has reached three Grand Slam quarter finals before being knocked out. This
achievement makes her the first Estonian tennis player to accomplish such a feat.
The Estonian player kicked off the new year sporting a darker hair colour and in much better physical shape than she had been in the previous year, 2009. Her first tournament was the ASB Classic, where she defeated Li Na at her first match, but fell in the
next round to Maria Kirilenko. Her first Grand Slam of 2010, the Australian Open, was her third tournament of the year, where she defeated Chan Yung Jan but was upset in the next round by 19th seed Nadia Petrova.
Kanepi participated in six more tournaments where she did not make it past the third match, and seldom past the first. Her mediocre playing even caused her to drop out of the World’s Top 100. She seemed to be on a downhill streak when out of nowhere, she
won ten straight matches to lay claim to her seventh and eight ITF titles.
After this success, her performance took a drastic turn for the better. She qualified for the 2010 French Open by beating Pauline Parmentier, and although she lost to Jelena Jankovic (World Number 4) in three sets, her performance guaranteed her a re-entry
into the Top 100.
After this Grand Slam, Kaia Kanepi then made it to this year's Wimbledon Championships by upsetting players Olga Savchuk, Elena Bovina and Ajla Tomljanovic in straight sets. After these three victories, Kanepi succeeded yet again by defeating World Number
6 Samantha Stosur in straight sets. In this tournament, the Estonian player also defeated Edina Gallovits, Alexandra Dulgheru, Klara Zakopalova, until her extremely competitive quarter final with Petra Kvitova. With this performance, her rankings went up to
World Number 38.
Kanepi’s next tournament was the 2010 Swedish Open, where she was defeated in the first round by Arantxa Parra Santonja. She won her first WTA tour title without dropping a single set in matches against Rossana De Los Rios, Ioana Raluca Olaru, Sara Errani
and Romina Oprandi. She then beat the defending champion, Flavia Pennetta.
Kanepi was seeded 31st at the 2010 US Open. She advanced to her first US Open quarter final by beating Alize Cornet, Akgul Amanmuradova, Jelena Jankovic and Yanina Wickmayer. In the quarter final, she was beaten by 7th seed Vera Zvonareva.
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