Karolina Šprem

Karolina Šprem
Singles
Šprem in-action at the 2004 Wimbledon Championships
Country	Croatia
Residence	Varaždin, Croatia
Born	(1984-10-25) 25 October 1984 Varaždin, Croatia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro	July 2001
Retired	2011
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$1,298,606
Career record	266–170
Career titles	0 WTA, 10 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 17 (11 October 2004)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	4R (2005)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	1R (2003–06)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	3R (2004)
Doubles
Career record	14–16
Career titles	0 WTA, 1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 182 (8 May 2006)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2r (2006)
Wimbledon	1r (2005)
Last updated on: 20 September 2012.

Karolina Šprem (born 25 October 1984, in Varaždin) is a professional tennis player from Croatia. She has won eleven titles (ten singles, one doubles) all at the ITF level. Her highest ranking is world no. 17, which she achieved in October 2004.

Personal life

Karolina was born to Gabro and Bozena Šprem in Varaždin, Croatia. She was introduced to tennis by her father at nine years of age. She turned professional in July 2001.

Šprem represented Croatia at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens. She reached the third round in singles and the second round in doubles (with Jelena Kostanić).

On 14 July 2012, Šprem married Lebanese-Greek Cypriot ATP player Marcos Baghdatis at Trakošćan Castle in Croatia.^[1] At Wimbledon 2012, as a spectator for Baghdatis' match on Centre Court against Andy Murray, Šprem confirmed that she and Baghdatis were expecting their first child in October 2012. Karolina gave birth to a girl, named Zahara, on 20 October 2012 in Zagreb, Croatia.^[2]

Professional career

2003–2006

Šprem displayed stunning results at the beginning of the 2003 season. Playing on the ITF circuit, she had a record 29-match winning streak from January to March, which earned her four titles at Grenoble, Southampton, Redbridge and Castellon.

Later in the year, she went on to reach two WTA-level finals in Strasbourg and Vienna. She also reached the semifinals of the WTA event in Helsinki, and won the ITF event in Poitiers.

Šprem's career highlight came at Wimbledon 2004, where she was a quarterfinalist. She defeated the then-two-time champion, four-time finalist and world no. 8 Venus Williams en route. Her run was ended by Lindsay Davenport. The umpire of her match against Venus had awarded her an extra point in the second set tiebreak by mistake.^[3]^[4]

After Wimbledon, Karolina struggled to find her good form she had, losing early in many tournaments. She began training with Borna Bikic.

She rebounded at the Australian Open 2005, where she had a run to the fourth round. In September 2005, at the WTA event in Kolkata, India, she reached the final after a string of good wins. However, she lost the final to Anastasia Myskina.

She made it to round three of Roland Garros 2006.

2007–2009

Sprem at the 2008 US Open

In late 2007, Šprem announced a permanent split from Bikic and returned to her old coach Ricardo Sanchez. She had to cope with a serious elbow injury, which needed surgery. She was out of the tour for 10 months.

In April 2008, she returned to the pro-tour, winning in Amelia Island over Ai Sugiyama and top-10 player Daniela Hantuchová, before falling to Lindsay Davenport in the third round.

In July, Šprem made the semifinals of a Tier III event in Budapest, eventually losing to Andreja Klepač.

In 2009, Karolina won three big ITF titles in Biberach, Torhout, and Mestre. She also qualified for the Australian Open, losing to Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round.

At the start of 2009, Šprem changed from a Wilson K-factor Blade 98 to a Tecnifibre racquet.

2010–2011

In 2010, she scored one of her biggest wins in years when she defeated 25th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues at the 2010 Australian Open. She followed this up with a tight loss to Australian wildcard Casey Dellacqua.

At the 2010 Open GDF Suez in Paris, Šprem made it through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw of the Premier event. In the first round, she defeated Timea Bacsinszky, before losing to sixth seed Shahar Pe'er in the second round.

In January 2011, Šprem went to Australia to begin the new season, where she failed to qualify for the tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney. She received direct acceptance into the main draw of the Australian Open, but was beaten in round one by Chanelle Scheepers.

During the Australian hard-court season, Karolina suffered a left-wrist injury, which forced her to stop competing. She tried playing in April at the tournament in Estoril, Portugal, but was unable to finish her first qualifying match against Heather Watson. This confirmed that the injury was very serious. She has been out of the tour since, and is still recovering.^[5]

WTA career finals

Singles: 3 (0–3)

Winner – Legend (pre/post 2010)
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (0–3)

Titles by Surface
Hard (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Clay (0–2)
Carpet (0–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
Runner-up	1.	24 May 2003	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Silvia Farina Elia	3–6, 6–4, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	14 June 2003	Vienna, Austria	Clay	Paola Suárez	6–7^(0–7), 6–2, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	25 September 2005	Kolkata, India	Hard (indoors)	Anastasia Myskina	2–6, 2–6

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 14 (10–4)

$100,000 tournaments
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner–up	1.	2 September 2001	Mostar	Clay	Adriana Basarić	4–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	27 January 2002	Courmayeur	Hard	Stefanie Weis	4–6, 7–6^(7–3), 6–4
Winner	2.	17 February 2002	Bergamo	Hard	Rita Degli-Esposti	6–1, 6–2
Runner–up	2.	31 March 2002	Rome – Parioli	Clay	Dinara Safina	7–6^(7–3), 2–6, 3–6
Runner–up	3.	23 June 2002	Gorizia	Clay	Ainhoa Goni-Blanco	6–7^(4–7), 1–6
Runner–up	4.	11 August 2002	Rimini	Clay	Laurence Andretto	5–7, 4–6
Winner	3.	26 January 2003	Grenoble	Hard	Sophie Lefèvre	7–5, 7–5
Winner	4.	16 February 2003	Southampton	Hard	Magdalena Zděnovcová	6–1, 3–0, ret.
Winner	5.	23 February 2003	Redbridge	Hard	Olga Barabanschikova	6–3, 6–2
Winner	6.	23 March 2003	Castellon	Clay	Ľudmila Cervanová	6–3, 6–3
Winner	7.	2 November 2003	Poitiers	Hard	Roberta Vinci	6–4, 7–5
Winner	8.	1 March 2009	Biberach	Hard	Kirsten Flipkens	6–1, 6–2
Winner	9.	11 April 2009	Torhout	Hard	Viktoriya Kutuzova	6–1, 6–4
Winner	10.	11 April 2009	Mestre	Hard	Yvonne Meusburger	2–6, 6–2, 6–4