Alexandra Stevenson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Alexandra Stevenson**
Grand Slam Record Singles Titles: 0

Date of birth:	December 15, 1980
Place of birth:	La Jolla, California, USA
Country:	USA
Residence:	San Diego, California, USA
Height:	6' 1 (1.85 m)
Weight:	156 lb. (71 kg)
Plays:	Right-handed
Turned pro:	June 1999
Highest singles ranking:	No. 18 (October 28, 2002)
Singles titles:	0
Highest doubles ranking	No. 67 (July 7, 2003)
Doubles titles:	1
Career prize money:	US$1,304,119
Australian Open	2r (2003, 2001) 1r (2004, 2002, 2000)
French Open	1r (2003, 2002, 2001, 2000)
Wimbledon	SF (1999), 2r (2000, 2001)
US Open	1r (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)

Alexandra Stevenson (born December 15, 1980, in La Jolla, California) is a professional tennis player from the United States.

Stevenson shocked the tennis world in 1999 when, in her first appearance at Wimbledon, she became the first woman qualifier in the Open Era to reach the semi-finals. In the fourth round, she saved one match point against Lisa Raymond in a 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 win. She then beat Jelena Dokic in three sets in the quarter-finals, before finally being knocked-out in straight sets by the eventual-champion Lindsay Davenport. Stevenson joined Chris Evert and Anna Kournikova as the only women in recent times to reach the semi-finals on their Wimbledon debut.

Since her dramatic first year as a professional in 1999, 2002 has been Stevenson's most successful year on the tour. She finished runner-up in two top-level touranments that year in Memphis and Linz. And she also won one tour doubles title at Leipzig, partnering Serena Williams.

Since 2002, Stevenson has been hampered by injuries and has struggled to find her form. An extensive labral tear in her right shoulder sustained in January 2003 required surgery. This was done on September 21, 2004.

Stevenson reached her career-high ranking at 18th on October 28, 2002. She is 610th in the WTA rankings as of June 26, 2006. Stevenson played in the qualifying round at the 2006 Wimbledon, but after defeating Jelena Dokic, a player that she had played in 1999 in the Wimbledon quarters, when they were both qualifiers, she fell in the second round of qualifiers. At the 2006 Cincinnati Women's Open, she also had a successful run in the qualifying round, she fell in the 4th and final round to Chin-Wei Chen 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Stevenson has continued to show some signs of revival, beating fellow American Stacia Fonseca in Stanford before losing to another American Shenay Perry in three sets in July 2006. This was followed by her first win over a top 100 player in over two years, Tian Tian Sun (ranked 87 at the time) and Tara Snyder in the qualifying tournament at the JP Morgan Women's Open in Los Angeles. Stevenson went on reach the main draw before losing to the current world number one doubles player, Australian Samantha Stosur. Stevenson was granted a wildcard for the qualifying tournament at this years' US Open, but was beaten Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus in the first round (Poutchek also beat Stevenson in the second round of qualifying for Wimbledon earlier this year). Stevenson is currently ranked 398 in the world.

As a junior player, Stevenson won the US Open girls' doubles title in 1997. She was ranked the No. 5 junior in the US in 1996.

Stevenson has been coached by her mother, Samantha Stevenson. The identity of her father was not publicly known at the time she became professional in 1999, but it was soon revealed that her father was former NBA star Julius Erving. The pair had a relationship in 1980, when Stevenson was a sports writer in Philadelphia and Erving was playing for the Philadelphia 76ers.