Katie O'Brien

Katie Jill O'Brien (born 2 May 1986) is a British former professional tennis player from Beverley, Yorkshire. She was briefly the British No. 1 tennis player, and reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 84 on 1 February 2010. She won four singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

In 2007, she reached the second round of her home Grand Slam, Wimbledon, by beating Sandra Klösel in round one. She lost to the No. 31 seed, Michaëlla Krajicek, in the second round. In 2010, she replicated this achievement by beating Patricia Mayr to reach the second round of the Australian Open where she fell to eighth seeded Jelena Janković.

Personal life O'Brien's parents are Phil and Jill O'Brien. Her father is a quantity surveyor, and her mother is a nursery school teacher. She began studying business studies with the Open University in 2008, pursuing studies while competing professionally.

Career Junior (2000–2004) O'Brien played her first match on the ITF Junior Circuit in February 2000 and her last in June 2004. During her junior career, she won two titles—the Team Leschly Danish Junior Cup in February 2002 and the Vierumaki Junior Cup in October the same year. She also reached a total of five semifinals and three quarterfinals overall. Her best result in a junior Grand Slam tournament came in the 2003 Wimbledon Championships where she reached round three before losing to Emma Laine, 1–6, 5–7. Her career-high junior singles ranking was world No. 101, reached on 15 September 2003, and her overall win–loss record in singles was 44–34.

In addition to her singles success as a junior, she also won one doubles title, lost in the final of another, reached four doubles semifinals and seven doubles quarterfinals (one of which in the 2004 Wimbledon Championships, partnering compatriot Melanie South). She reached her career–high doubles ranking of world No. 201 on 3 February 2003, and ended her junior career with a win–loss record of 17–26.

One year later, in September 2002, she reached her first ITF quarterfinal as a qualifier in the $10k event in Sunderland and was beaten by fellow Brit Anne Keothavong, 6–0, 6–1. This was her only quarterfinal appearance in 2002 and she finished the year with a ranking of world No. 693. Following Wimbledon, she played twelve more tournaments on the ITF Circuit, reaching the final of one (Manchester, $10k), the semifinals of three of them and the quarterfinals of two more. Her end-of-year ranking was world No. 401.

Following Wimbledon she entered the $25k tournament in Felixstowe and reached the semifinals before losing to Jarmila Gajdošová, 4–6, 4–6. She competed in twelve more ITF tournaments that year (reaching the quarterfinals in six of them) and the qualifying tournament for the BGL-BNP Paribas Open Luxembourg where she reached the second round of qualifying. She finished the 2005 season with a ranking of world No. 263.

After this she lost to Monique Adamczak in the quarterfinals of the $25k event in Valladolid in July and she reached the final of the ITF tournament in Changsha ($25k) in August. Two consecutive $25k finals followed in September; the second of which she won. Her good form continued into October and November when she reached the quarterfinals, semifinals and quarterfinals of $25k tournaments in Glasgow, Istanbul and Jakarta respectively. Her final ranking of 2006 was world No. 193. before being demolished in the second round by 31st seed, Michaëlla Krajicek, 6–0, 6–1.

O'Brien spent August trying to qualify for the East West Bank Classic (Tier II), the Roger's Cup (Tier I) and the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open. She failed to win a match in any of these qualifying tournaments. In September she managed to reach the final round of qualifying in a Tier IV WTA tournament, the Slovenia Open in Portorož and just a few weeks later reached the quarterfinals of the main draw of a Tier IV event, the Tashkent Open, for the first time in her career before losing to Olga Govortsova, 2–6, 3–6. She played six more $25k tournaments that year, reaching the semifinals in four of them and the final of another. She finished 2007 with a ranking of world No. 134. O'Brien was forced to fight hard in her second qualifying match against Yanina Wickmayer. She eventually won, 4–6, 6–3, 8–6, to set up a final round qualifying match against the No. 11 seed in the qualifying tournament, Yuan Meng. O'Brien was defeated 6–4, 6–2. In early February, she competed as part of the Great Britain Fed Cup team in the Fed Cup and was given tough opponents. She challenged Patty Schnyder but eventually lost, 6–7, 5–7, and also lost to Ágnes Szávay and Caroline Wozniacki. However, she and Anne Keothavong managed to save Britain from relegation from the Europe/Africa Group I by winning two singles matches against Portugal. This was followed by O'Brien's first appearance on the ITF circuit in 2008 which came at the $75k event in Midland where she was the No. 5 seed. She faced the No. 2 seed, Laura Granville, in the quarterfinals and was beaten, 1–6, 6–3, 6–1. O'Brien then attempted to qualify for four consecutive WTA events, in Doha, Dubai, Bangalore and Indian Wells. She lost in round one of qualifying in each of them with the exception of Indian Wells where she lost in the round two of qualifying to Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. Over March and April she reached the quarterfinals of two ITF tournaments: Jersey ($25k) and Saint-Malo ($100k). In May, O'Brien entered the French Open qualifying draw and beat fellow Brit, Melanie South in the opening round. She fell in round two to Kristina Barrois, 4–6, 2–6, and then headed to the DFS Classic where she beat Alla Kudryavtseva in the first round before falling to Yaroslava Shvedova in round two. A wildcard allowed O'Brien entry into the International Women's Open (previously the Hastings Direct International) where she lost to Samantha Stosur. Shahar Pe'er beat O'Brien in the first round of Wimbledon.

Following the third Grand Slam of the season, O'Brien participated in the Internazionali di Palermo where Lourdes Domínguez Lino beat O'Brien in round one. Two weeks later she reached the second round of the Slovenia Open by beating No. 5 seed, Tsvetana Pironkova, in round one. She lost to Vera Dushevina in the second round. In August, she reached the second round of qualifying for the US Open before being knocked out by home favourite, Alexa Glatch. September saw O'Brien fall to Ioana Raluca Olaru in round one of the Tashkent Open and in October she reached the semifinals of the $50k in Barnstaple where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She reached two more ITF quarterfinals in 2008, in Phoenix and Saint-Denis, both $25k. Her year-end ranking was world No. 154. Following the Australian Open, O'Brien returned to ITF action as the No. 3 seed at the $25k event in Sutton. She won four matches in straight sets before defeating wildcard Johanna Konta, 3–6, 6–2, 6–4, in the final to win her first title since September 2006 and the third ITF singles title of her career. Between this and the French Open she reached the semifinals of ITF tournaments in Midland ($75k), Biberach ($50k) and Johannesburg ($100k) as well as reaching the quarterfinals of a $100k+H event in Torhout. She also won a $25k in Jersey and was the runner-up in another $25k event, this one in Minsk. In May she reached the final round of qualifying for the French Open before losing to Arantxa Rus, 4–6, 6–7, however she gained entry to the main draw as a lucky loser when No. 6 seed Vera Zvonareva withdrew from the tournament due to injury. O'Brien lost to Olga Govortsova 1–6, 1–6, in the first round.

O'Brien began her grass court season as the No. 5 seed in a $50k in Nottingham but she was beaten in the second round by Naomi Cavaday, 6–2, 6–3. She was then given a wildcard into the main draw of the Aegon Classic where she was drawn to face fellow British wild card, Melanie South. O'Brien eventually lost in three sets, 6–4, 1–6, 7–6. Immediately following this she went on to fall in the second round of qualifying for the Aegon International to the world No. 46, Ekaterina Makarova, 4–6, 2–6. Another wildcard then granted O'Brien entry to the main draw of Wimbledon where she lost, 2–6, 7–5, 4–6, in round one to world No. 35, Iveta Benešová. After Wimbledon, a number of first and second round defeats followed before O'Brien reached the final of another $25k in July. She was beaten in the final by fellow Brit Georgie Stoop. In August, O'Brien was the No. 3 seed in the qualifying tournament for the US Open but she was stopped in round two of qualifying by lower-ranked Anna Tatishvili. In late September, she reached the final of a $75k in Shrewsbury as the sixth seed where she came up against fellow Brit and fifth seed Elena Baltacha. O'Brien lost in three sets, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6, but this result was enough to move both finalists into the top 100 for the first time in their careers. Over the course of her final few tournaments of the year, O'Brien reached another $100k semifinal as well as the second round of the HP Open where she was swept aside 6–0, 6–1 by top seed Caroline Wozniacki. She finished the year inside the top 100 with a ranking of world No. 90. In the second round, O'Brien faced the eighth seed and former world number one, Jelena Janković, and put in a spirited performance but went down 2–6, 2–6. O'Brien is expected to move to a new career-high ranking after the Australian Open.

2011 O'Brien kicked off her 2011 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. Her ranking was not high enough for her to be directly accepted into the main draw so she entered the qualifying tournament. In the first round, she defeated Emily Fanning of New Zealand, 6–2, 6–2, and in the second round defeated No. 4 seed 7–5, 6–3, but lost to Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and did not win a place in the main draw.

O'Brien then got a wildcard into the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, where she faced Kimiko Date-Krumm in the first round. However, she lost in under an hour, and became the first player eliminated from the main draw in the tournament. On 12 August 2011, she announced her retirement at the age of 25.

ITF Circuit finals Singles: 15 (4 titles, 11 runner-ups) $100,000 tournaments (0–0)$75,000 tournaments (0–1)$50,000 tournaments (0–0)$25,000 tournaments (3–8)$10,000 tournaments (1–2) Finals by surface Hard (4–9) Clay (0–1) Grass (0–1) Carpet (0–0)

Doubles: 11 (2 titles, 9 runner-ups) $100,000 tournaments (0–0)$75,000 tournaments (0–0)$50,000 tournaments (0–1)$25,000 tournaments (2–6)$10,000 tournaments (0–2) Finals by surface Hard (2–8) Clay (0–0) Grass (0–1) Carpet (0–0)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Fed Cup Europe/Africa Group I Date Venue Surface Round Opponents Final match score Match Opponent Rubber score 21–23 April 2005 Antalya Clay RR 2–1 Doubles (with Jane O'Donoghue) Jacobsgaard/Jensen 3–6, 6–7(5–7) (L) 1–2 Doubles (with Jane O'Donoghue) Timotić/Zarić 6–2, 6–4 (W) PO(9th–12th) 1–2 Singles Valeria Bondarenko 6–3, 6–3 (W) Doubles (with Jane O'Donoghue) A.Bondarenko/V.Bondarenko 3–6, 2–6 (L) 30 January –2 February 2008 Budapest Carpet (i) RR 1–2 Singles Patty Schnyder 6–7(5–7), 5–7 (L) 1–2 Singles Ágnes Szávay 1–6, 2–6 (L) 1–2 Singles Caroline Wozniacki 2–6, 6–1, 2–6 (L)PO(Relegation) 2–0 Singles Magali de Lattre 6–4, 6–2 (W) 3–6 February 2010 Lisbon Hard (i) RR 3–0 Singles Ema Burgić 6–2, 6–0 (W) 2–1 Singles Olga Govortsova 3–6, 3–6 (L) PO(5th–8th) 1–2 Singles Arantxa Rus 5–7, 6–3, 4–6 (L) Doubles (with Sarah Borwell) Hogenkamp/Thijssen 2–6, 4–6 (L)