Yanina Wickmayer

Yanina Wickmayer (born 20 October 1989 in Lier, Belgium) is a Belgian professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 22. She reached the semi-finals at the 2009 US Open. She is a baseline player.
Wickmayer continued her success on the ITF circuit by winning several tournaments in Asia during the fall season (see external links). It was around this time that Wickmayer surpassed Caroline Maes as the number two Belgian female tennis player. At the start of the year, Wickmayer was number 534 in the world but by November 2007 was around number 170. Wickmayer has now won 8 singles titles and 7 doubles titles on the ITF circuit.
She was also selected by team captain Sabine Appelmans to represent the Belgium Fed Cup team at the 2007 Fed Cup. She lost to Venus Williams in her World Group match before winning one rubber and losing the other against Chinese opposition.
In the 2008 Fed Cup tie versus Ukraine, Wickmayer sprung a surprise victory over reigning Australian Open women's doubles champion Kateryna Bondarenko.
Wickmayer qualified in singles for the French Open, but lost in the first round to Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.
She reached the final of the DFS Classic, but lost to Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.
At Wimbledon she lost in the first round to Japan's Ai Sugiyama.

Wickmayer started the year with first round losses in both Brisbane and the Australian Open. She won her first tour match of the year at Indian Wells, defeating Magdaléna Rybáriková . She lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the second round, despite holding two match points. She then lost her first round matches in Miami, and Charleston.
Wickmayer won her first ever WTA Tour singles title, in Estoril. She beat 3rd seed Sorana Cîrstea , en route to the final, where she defeated Ekaterina Makarova. At the 2009 French Open, she was beaten by Samantha Stosur in the second round .
Wickmayer lost to a newly returned Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals at the 2009 AEGON Classic in Birmingham, UK . At the 2009 Ordina Open, Wickmayer reached both the singles final and the doubles final, losing to Tamarine Tanasugarn in the singles final. The doubles final was a close contest, she lost in three sets to an Italian pairing. At Wimbledon, she lost in the first round to Elena
During the summer hard court season, Wickmayer reached the third round in Los Angeles, losing to Vera Zvonareva. She was defeated in the early rounds of her three other summer tournaments.

At the 2009 U.S. Open, Wickmayer defeated a seeded Virginie Razzano in the first round. In the second round she recovered from a set down to beat Shuai Peng in three sets. In the third round Wickmayer dispatched Italian Sara Errani . In the fourth round Wickmayer defeated Petra Kvitová to reach the quarterfinals where she beat Kateryna Bondarenko to reach the semifinals before losing to Caroline Wozniacki. With this semifinal finish, Yanina reached a career high no. 22.
Wickmayer fell in the first round in Beijing, to Alisa Kleybanova. She has qualified for the year-end championships in Bali. Her next tournament was in Linz. She won through to the semis, where she upset top seed Flavia Pennetta, for her biggest career win. She beat Petra Kvitová in the final and as a result made it into the Top 20 for the first time. One week later at the 2009 BGL Luxembourg Open she won through to the semi-finals, where she was edged by Timea Bacsinszky .
Her last tournament of the year was at the year-end championships in Bali. Drawn into Group C, she defeated Kimiko Date Krumm in her first match in straight sets: . She was supposed to face Anabel Medina Garrigues next but was disqualified from the tournament due to doping allegations. This was her last tournament of 2009.
On 1 October 2009, it was announced that Wickmayer and fellow Belgian tennis professional Xavier Malisse were to defend themselves before the Flemish anti-doping tribunal for failing to properly fill out their whereabouts. Wickmayer replied in a press release that the failure to follow procedure was due to her not being able to log on to the relevant website, not being able to contact the right people when needed, and not being in the country when written admonitions arrived by mail. At the tribunal on 22 October 2009 the prosecution did not ask for a ban, but rather for a "principal restraint" of the facts that they were being accused of, and as such it was expected that this would not cause any problems for both sporters.
However, on 5 November 2009 the decision of the tribunal was announced, an effective one-year ban for both players. Wickmayer as well as Malisse appealed the final decision, and her ban was lifted on 16 December 2009 after the appeal was granted.
Yanina accepted a wildcard into the first tournament of the year, the ASB Classic in Auckland. Seeded third, she defeated first seed Flavia Pennetta in the final, winning the tournament without dropping a set. This title was her first title of the year and third of her career.
Due to her suspension being lifted after the deadline for the Australian Open, Yanina was forced to enter the qualifying draw. After a nervous first round qualifying, she easily won through to the main draw. Being a dangerous floater, she drew Alexandra Dulgheru first round. In a match that included numerous rain delays, she prevailed . Yanina defeated two Italian players, the 12 seed, Flavia Pennetta and Sara Errani in the second and third round respectively, but lost in three sets to Justine Henin in the fourth round. Despite the loss she moved up to a career-high of no.15.
Wickmayer was selected to represent Belgium at the World Group II Fed Cup tie against Poland. Wickmayer won both her rubbers against Marta Domachowska and Agnieszka Radwańska, thus allowing Kirsten Flipkens to secure the tie for Belgium with a win against Domachowska, to advance to the World Group Playoff.In her next two tournaments, the Open GDF Suez tournament in Paris and the 2010 Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, Wickmayer lost in first-round matches – in Paris to Petra Martić and in Dubai to Shahar Pe'er.She fared better in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where she won two matches before losing in the round of sixteen to María José Martínez Sánchez of Spain, who had upset sixth seed Victoria Azarenka in the previous round. She then travelled to Miami for the Premier Mandatory Sony Ericsson Open. Seeded 12th, in the fourth round she thrashed Timea Bacsinszky 1. Despite losing to Marion Bartoli in a close quarterfinal match, her strong performance has brought her to a new career-high ranking of World no. 13, moving to 12 without playing the next week.