Tamara Zidanšek (Slovene:[zíːdanˈʃɛːk]; born 26 December 1997) is a Slovenian professional tennis player.
She has career-high rankings of No. 22 in singles and No. 47 in doubles by the WTA, and has won one singles title and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour and three singles titles along with one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. She has also won 17 titles in singles and six in doubles on the ITF Circuit.
On the ITF Junior Circuit, she was in the top 20 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 16, achieved in December 2015.[citation needed]
2014: Professional debut
Zidanšek made a perfect professional debut in 2014 at her home in Velenje, passing three qualifying rounds to go in the main draw and claim her first title on the pro-level at the age of 16.[2]
2021: First major semifinal, top-50 debut, first top-10 win & WTA Tour title
She reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam championship for the first time at the 2021 French Open, defeating Sorana Cîrstea in straight sets[3] and Paula Badosa in three sets.[4] These wins made her the first Slovenian female player to accomplish this since the country became independent in 1991. As a result, Zidanšek entered the top 50 for the first time.[citation needed] She also scored her first top-ten win in the first round, against the No. 6 seed, Bianca Andreescu.[5] In her semifinal match, Zidanšek was defeated by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.[6]
After saving four championship points and defeating Rebecca Šramková in the final, Zidanšek won the WTA 125 tournament in Bari.[10] As a result, she moved 30 positions up in the rankings back to the top 100 on 11 September 2023.[11]
Ranked No. 261 at the Thailand Open, Zidanšek reached her first WTA Tour semifinal since January 2022 coming back from a set down to beat Tatiana Prozorova,[15] sixth seed Katie Volynets,[16] and Nadia Podoroska, saving four match points in the quarterfinals.[17][18][19] She lost in the last four to eventual champion, Rebecca Šramková.[20]
Coaches
Zidanšek was coached by Zoran Krajnc until April 2021. In May 2021, her team signed with Pancho Alvariño from Spain.
Carl Maes joined the team in December 2021 for a period of one year. After a few coaching trials, she is now coached by former Slovenian ATP Tour player Blaž Kavčič.
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
^Edition is split into the two years due to COVID-19.
^The first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
^During the season, she did not play in the main draw of any tour-level tournaments. However, she played at the Billie Jean King Cup, which is not counted as a played tournament but matches count.
^2014: WTA ranking–741, 2015: WTA ranking–309, 2016: WTA ranking–223.
_09_(cropped).jpg)
