Karen Cross

Karen Cross (born 19 February 1974) is a left-handed British former tennis player who competed at eight Wimbledon Championships during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as for the Great Britain Fed Cup team in both 1994 and 1998. During the course of her career Cross won six titles on the ITF circuit (3 in singles and 3 in doubles) and she achieved her highest Women's Tennis Association singles ranking of world number 134 on 22 June 1998. She is currently a part-time tennis coach at the Roehampton Club and since retirement from the professional circuit she has regularly competed on the ITF senior circuit, reaching a career-high ranking of world no.4 in the women's over-35's age group.

At the Grand Slams, Cross's best result came at Wimbledon in 1997 when she won three matches to qualify before defeating Linda Wild and María Sánchez Lorenzo to reach the third round where she was defeated by the reigning French Open champion, Iva Majoli, in three close sets.

Cross gained victories over a number of players who would go on to achieve (or had already experienced) great success on the WTA tour, the most notable being future two-time Australian Open champion and world number 2 Li Na (in December 1999) and future multiple Grand Slam doubles champion and doubles world number 1, Roberta Vinci (in July 2000). Other notable defeated opponents included future two-time WTA titlist and world number 19 Sybille Bammer, future world number 32 Jelena Kostanić, future one-time WTA titlist and world number 48 Milagros Sequera and former one-time WTA titlist and world number 56, Monique Javer.

ITF circuit finals

Singles (3–0) Finals by category$100,000 tournaments (0/0)$75,000 tournaments (0/0)$50,000 tournaments (0/0)$25,000 tournaments (0/0)$10,000 tournaments (3/0) Finals by surface Hard (0/0) Clay (2/0) Grass (1/0) Carpet (0/0)

Doubles (3–3) Finals by category$100,000 tournaments (0/0)$75,000 tournaments (0/0)$50,000 tournaments (0/0)$25,000 tournaments (1/0)$10,000 tournaments (2/3) Finals by surface Hard (1/1) Clay (1/1) Grass (1/1) Carpet (0/0)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Fed Cup 1994 Federation Cup Europe/Africa Zone Date Venue Surface Round Opponents Final match score Match Opponent Rubber score 20 Apr 1994 Bad Waltersdorf Clay RR 2–1 Doubles(with Julie Pullin) Lutrova/Panova 5–7, 5–7 (L) 1998 Federation Cup Europe/Africa Zone 14–16 Apr 1998 Murcia Clay RR 1–2 Singles Sofia Prazeres 6–2, 2–6, 4–6 (L) 1–2 Singles Magdalena Grzybowska 1–6, 2–6 (L) 3–0 Singles Faratiana Rasoarilalao 6–1, 6–3 (W)