Jill Craybas

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Jill Craybas (born July 4, 1974, Providence, Rhode Island) is an American professional tennis player. Before entering the professional ranks in 1996, she attended and graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and was the 1996 NCAA Singles Champion. Her major was telecommunications and she has said in interviews that she hopes to enter this field (film or TV production) when her playing days are over.

Craybas has won one WTA title at the Tokyo Japan Open. She beat Silvija Talaja in the final after trailing 0-4 in the third set. In the 2006 season, Craybas has so far reached one quarterfinal at Hobart as the eighth seed, losing to unseeded Italian Mara Santangelo in three sets. She has also reached the semi-finals of a Tier III event in Memphis, an impressive fourth-round showing at the Tier I event in Miami and a further quarter-final appearance at Stanford in late July.

Craybas is best known for her 2005 defeat of Serena Williams in the 3rd round of Wimbledon. Though she beat Williams 6-3, 7-6, Craybas went on to be defeated by Serena's older sister, Venus by a score of 6-0, 6-2.

On March 25, 2006, Craybas once again served up a remarkable early round defeat of a top seeded player. This time it was No. 2 seed Kim Clijsters in the 2nd round of the NASDAQ-100 tournament. After squandering leads in both the 1st and 3rd sets, Clijsters eventually lost by a score of 5-7, 6-3, 5-7. It was Clijsters earliest ever exit from the NASDAQ-100, and on top of it, Clijsters was the defending champion.

Craybas, who may be a veteran on the tour nowadays, is thought to be playing the best tennis of her life. However, after having a successful start to 2006, has fallen short of what was expected of her from her dramatically impressive start, losing to lower-ranked opponents in first rounds or having difficult first round draws against the top players in the world.