Anke Huber

Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Finals. Huber won 12 singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. She finished inside the top 20 for 10 seasons and achieved a career-high ranking of No.4 in October 1996.

Early life Huber was born in Bruchsal, Baden-Württemberg. She started playing tennis at the age of 7 after being introduced to the game by her father, Edgar. In junior competition, she won the under-12 German Championships in 1986, the under-14s in 1987, the under-16s in 1988, and the European Championships in 1989. She was also a semifinalist at Wimbledon's junior tournament in 1990.

Career

Huber made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 1990 Australian Open, a year before she graduated from high school. After defeating Maider Laval and Elise Burgin, she was defeated in the third round by 13th-seeded Raffaella Reggi. In August 1990, she defeated Marianne Werdel Witmeyer to win the Schenectady tournament, a warm-up for the US Open. Jennifer Capriati then defeated Huber in the first round of that tournament 7–5, 7–5. Huber was the runner-up in her next event, losing in Bayonne to Nathalie Tauziat in straight sets. She finished 1990 ranked world No. 34.

Huber became Germany's top female tennis player upon Steffi Graf's retirement in 1999. Two years later, Huber retired, citing a persistent ankle injury and the desire for a "normal life" as the reasons for her retirement. She planned to quit after the 2002 Australian Open, her favourite tournament, but changed her mind when she unexpectedly qualified for the year-ending Sanex Championships in Germany. "I thought there's nothing better than to celebrate saying goodbye in front of the home fans in your own country", said Huber. Huber's final match took place on 31 October 2001 against Justine Henin, which she lost 6–1, 6–2.

During her 12-year career, Huber reached 23 singles finals (winning 12 of them), 29 singles semifinals, and 50 singles quarterfinals. Her career record in singles was 447–225, and she earnedUS$4,768,292 in career prize money.

Huber represented her country at three levels: the Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona and in 1996 in Atlanta; the Fed Cup from 1990 through 1998 and in 2000 and 2001, helping Germany to victory in 1992 by beating Spain's Conchita Martínez in the final; and the Hopman Cup, which she won with Boris Becker in 1995.

Although she did not win a Grand Slam title, Huber felt proud of her accomplishments, especially because she had to walk in Graf's footsteps. "I recognised pretty early on that I would never have her success, but I was still always measured against her", she said. "So, whenever I got into the quarterfinals or the semis of a Grand Slam tournament, it counted for nothing. Sometimes it was good to have her because she drew the attention away from me...On the other side, there was always the pressure to be the second Steffi Graf."

In 2002, Huber accepted a role with the German Tennis Federation and became the co-tournament director for the annual Porsche Tennis Grand Prix WTA tournament in Filderstadt, Germany.

Personal life In April 2005, Huber gave birth to her first child, a boy, with her partner at the time, Roger Wittmann. A second, a girl, followed in October 2006.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: (1 runner–up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1996 Australian Open Hard Monica Seles 4–6, 1–6

Year-End Championships finals

Singles: (1 runner–up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1995 New York City Carpet (I) Steffi Graf 1–6, 6–2, 1–6, 6–4, 3–6

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 23 (12–11) Winner – LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–1)WTA Tour Championships (0–1)Tier I (1–1)Tier II (4–6)Tier III (4–1)Tier IV (2–0)Tier V (1–1) Finals by surfaceHard (2–6)Grass (1–0)Clay (4–1)Carpet (5–4)

Doubles: 4 (1–3) Winner – LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)WTA Tour Championships (0–0)Tier I (0–1)Tier II (1–2)Tier III (0–0)Tier IV (0–0)Tier V (0–0) Finals by surfaceHard (0–2)Grass (0–0)Clay (1–0)Carpet (0–1)

ITF finals Singles (2–0) Legend $25,000 tournaments$10,000 tournaments

ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1. 29 May 1989 Katowice, Poland Clay Nora Bajčíková 6–1, 6–2Win 2. 26 November 1989 Bulleen, Australia Hard Rennae Stubbs 6–4, 6–1

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Head-to-head record against other players in the top 10

Players who have been ranked world No. 1 are in boldface. Martina Hingis 1–12 Lindsay Davenport 2–10 Dominique Monami 2–1 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 2–12 Venus Williams 1–3 Steffi Graf 0–10 Kim Clijsters 1–2 Justine Henin 0–3 Amélie Mauresmo 2–3 Nadia Petrova 1–0 Monica Seles 0–9 Martina Navratilova 2–1 Conchita Martínez 6–2 Jennifer Capriati 1–7 Amanda Coetzer 4–3 Anna Kournikova 3–3 Mary Joe Fernández 3–4 Kimiko Date 1–2 Nathalie Tauziat 4–8 Jana Novotná 4–8 Irina Spîrlea 7–1 Gabriela Sabatini 3–4 Mary Pierce 5–6 Helena Suková 2–0 Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere 2–0 Elena Dementieva 1–3 Anastasia Myskina 1–0 Barbara Schett 6–2 Patty Schnyder 2-1 Zina Garrison 2-1 Lori McNeil 5-1 Iva Majoli 5-4 Katerina Maleeva 2-1 Magdalena Maleeva 6-3 Chanda Rubin 1-1 Sandrine Testud 5-2 Natasha Zvereva 6-1 Helena Sukova 2-0 Jo Durie 3-1 Julie Halard-Decugis 4-3 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 5-2 Pam Shriver 3-0 Barbara Paulus 2-1