Aleksandra Wozniak Profile

Aleksandra Wozniak (born September 7, 1987, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a professional Canadian tennis player of Polish descent. Wozniak is Canada's highest-ranked women's singles player at #32 in the world (September 21, 2009), and the 4th-highest ranked Canadian singles player of all time. She has won one WTA and seven ITF tournaments, and is the only Québécoise ever to have won a WTA tournament.

Wozniak speaks six languages, having learned Polish first. She has been coached since she was 3 years old by her Polish-born father, Antoni, a former pro soccer player whose "day" job is that of a truck inspector. Her older sister, Dorota, was the No. 1 player in Canada in the 14-and-unders and the 16-and-unders, and 2-time NCAA champion for San Diego State.

2009

Wozniak was defeated in the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland by Ayumi Morita; she had defeated Magdalena Rybarikova in the first round 6–3, 6–7, 7–5. Wozniak lost German Sabine Lisicki, also of Polish Heritage, in the first round of the 2009 Australian Open where she was the 30th seed.

Aleksandra Wozniak

Wozniak joined up with compatriot Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles. In the first round they defeated Australian juniors Bernard Tomic and Monika Wejnert 6–3. 6–2. In the second round they pulled off a surprise to defeat Mark Knowles and Yan Zi 7–6, 6–4. They played Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India in the quarter-finals but they lost 6-3, 4-6, 5-10.

In March she defeated world #48 Lucie Safarova 6–3, 6–3 in Indian Wells. That month she moved up to a career-best world #29. She reached her third single final in April in Ponte Vedra Beach, beating world #10 Nadia Petrova 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 in the semi-finals, but was defeated by world #12 Caroline Wozniacki 1–6, 2–6. In May she upset world #13 Marion Bartoli of France, 7–6 (2), 6–2, at the Madrid Open.[17]

Aleksandra Wozniak

Wozniak as the No. 24 seed became the first Québécoise to ever be seeded at Roland-Garros.[13] At the French Open, Wozniak made the second round after a three-set victory. She then reached the third round at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year by beating Croatian Petra Martic 6–3, 6–3.[18] In the third round, Wozniak defeated world #87 Spaniard clay-court specialist Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, with some rallies lasting 25 shots.[19] Wozniak next faced Serena Williams, whom she had beaten on their only previous meeting in July 2008.[20] However, Williams prevailed, 6–1, 6–2.[21][22]

She became Canada's first representative in the fourth round of the French Open women's draw in 17 years, and the first Canadian woman to survive into the second week at the French Open since Patricia Hy-Boulais in 1992. Wozniak was also the first Canadian to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since Maureen Drake qualified for the round of 16 at the 1999 Australian Open. "That's awesome for Canada and I hope to keep going," said Wozniak.[23]

Aleksandra Wozniak

Wozniak was named Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years at the 24th edition of the Tennis Quebec Excellence Awards. Her father Antoni and fitness trainer André Parent were joint winners of the International Coach of the Year Award for Quebec athletes.[24]

In June, at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, she dominated newly crowned French Open champion and world #5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6–0, 6–3 in the first round. She then defeated world #16 Zheng Jie of China in the second round, 7–6 (4), 6–3, and Russian Vera Dushevina in 45 minutes in the quarterfinals, 6–1, 6–0, winning 51 of the 69 points in the match, and breaking every one of Dushevina's service games.[25] With the win she rose two spots, to a new high of No. 21.[26] Wozniak then lost to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in the semis. In the first round of Wimbledon, where she was the first Canadian to be seeded in singles in 20 years at #23, Wozniak fell to Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6–4, 4–6, 4–6.

Aleksandra Wozniak

At the 2009 US Open, she advanced to the third round. In the second round she defeated the 17th seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-0, before losing to the 10th seed Flavia Pennetta 1-6, 1-6 in the following round. This has been her best US Open appearance to date.

Wozniak entered the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and caused an upset in the first round where she defeated Kimiko Date Krumm 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4. Kimiko was 5-2 up in the second set but could not hold her lead. In the second round, Wozniak was up against 4th seed Caroline Wozniacki and won by default as Wozniacki retired at 0-5 complaining of a viral illness. In the third round Wozniak fell to Magdaléna Rybáriková after winning the first set 6-1 but lost the next two sets 3-6, 3-6.