Tamira Paszek

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Tamira Paszek


nickname =
country = AUT
residence = Dornbirn, Austria
datebirth = birth date and age|1990|12|6
placebirth = Dornbirn, Austria
height = height|m=1.65
weight = convert|60|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro = October 26, 2005
retired =
plays = Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
careerprizemoney = $553,353
singlesrecord = 82–46
singlestitles = 1 WTA, 1 ITF
highestsinglesranking = No. 35 (July 9, 2007)
AustralianOpenresult = 2r (2007)
FrenchOpenresult = 2r (2007)
Wimbledonresult = 4r (2007)
USOpenresult = 4r (2007)
doublesrecord = 5–13
doublestitles = 0 WTA, 1 ITF
highestdoublesranking = No. 302 ( [September 15] , 2008)
updated = September 22, 2008

Tamira Shelah Paszek (born December 6 1990 in Dornbirn, Austria) is a professional tennis player from Austria. As of September 13, 2008, she is the second ranked tennis player from Austria in the WTA ranking, at No. 85.

She was introduced to tennis by her mother, Francoise Paszek, at age four-and-a-half. Her mother is Chilean born, and her father is Ariff Mohamed, who is Tanzanian-born, Kenya-raised and lived in Canada. Both her paternal grandparents are from India. She is currently being coached by Larri Passos (former coach of former ATP No.1 Gustavo Kuerten).

Tennis career

As a junior, she was a two time finalist in the 2005 Girl's Singles Championship at Wimbledon and at the US Open - Girls' Singles in 2006.

In September 2005 she won her first title at an ITF tournament in Sofia. In October of the same year she received a wild card to appear at her first WTA tournament in Linz; she defeated Elena Vesnina in the first round and lost to Ana Ivanović after a tough first set.

In 2006 she passed qualifications in Istanbul, where she lost in the second round to Catalina Castano; and in Portorož in the Banka Koper Slovenia Open, where she won her first WTA title by defeating Maria Elena Camerin from Italy 7–5 6–1. A month later, at the Zürich Open, she lost to Camerin in the second round of qualifying. She finished 2006 as No. 181 in the WTA rankings.

2007

She started the 2007 WTA Tour at the Australian Open, where she passed qualifications and defeated Top 40 player Séverine Brémond in straight sets in the first round, before losing to No.22 seed Vera Zvonareva.

The Austrian native is the winner of one Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title last year. This was a career-first Tour singles title in only her third Tour main draw. That title in Portoroz where she upset No 6 seed Camerin made her the youngest Tour singles titlist in 2006 and the seventh-youngest all-time.

After her loss to Na Li in the second round of the Miami Masters, she broke the top 100 of the WTA rankings. At the 2007 French Open she was defeated by Justine Henin in the second round 7–5 6–1 after being 5–0 down in the first set.

At Paszek's first grass tournament of her career, she reached the third round in Birmingham, losing to Maria Sharapova in a tight match 6–3 4–6 6–2. At the 2007 Wimbledon Championships she reached the fourth round after beating two seeded players, No.17 seed Tatiana Golovin and No.12 seed Elena Dementieva; she then eventually lost to No.5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets. The win pushed her up 19 spots from #54 to #35, a career high and only a few spots from a guaranteed seeding spot at the US Open.

She has also participated at the Fed Cup for Austria in 2007. She won her first two matches in the group stage against Australia but lost both her matches in the World Group play-offs against Israel; a singles match against Shahar Pe'er and a doubles match, partnering Melanie Klaffner.

She debuted on the 2007 U.S. Open, reaching fourth round, beating on the way #24 and #11 seed, Francesca Schiavone and Patty Schnyder. She lost to #6 seed, Anna Chakvetadze.

Paszek decided against defending her title in the Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz, Slovenia, in favour of the larger China Open tournament in Beijing. However, she was bundled out in the second round by fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva (whom she beat in Wimbledon) 6–2, 6–0 in less than an hour.

2008

At the 2008 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, Paszek made it to the semifinals, losing to veteran Lindsay Davenport 6–4, 6–3. In the first round of the 2008 Australian Open, Paszek played third-seeded Jelena Janković of Serbia in the first round. Paszek easily won the first set 6–2, and Janković went on to win the second set 6–2. In the deciding set, Paszek led 5–3 and had three match points before Janković came back to win the three-hour match 2–6 6–2 12-10.

Following this she lost in the first round of Doha to Patty Schnyder 6-4 6-0. Then she competed for the first time as a seed in a tier 1 tournament in Indian Wells retiring in the third round to Casey Dellacqua being down 6-1 4-0. Then in Miami she was defeated by Anna Chakvetadze in the second round 6-3 6-2.

This started a losing streak of 6 straight matches running through the French Open and Wimbledon.At Wimbledon she lost her second marathon match of the year to Francesca Schiavone 6-3 5-7 10-8. It came to an end in Los Angeles where she defeated Aiko Nakamura only to lose to Flavia Pennetta in the second round.

On July 31st, Paszek beat World no.1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal in three sets: 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, she played Victoria Azarenka who defeated her 6-4 7-5. Then she lost in the first round of Cincinnati to Petra Cetkovska. At the US Open she defeated the 23-seed Maria Kirilenko 6-3 3-6 6-4, only then to lose to a lower ranked opponent Magdalena Rybarikova.

Paszek has completed in Bali as runner up. she has reached the final after taking out the 7-seed Flavia Pennetta and the top seed Daniela Hantuchova. She lost the final against Patty Schnyder 3-6 and 0-6.

WTA Tour and ITF Circuit titles (3)

ingles wins (1 WTA, 1 ITF)

Doubles (1)

ingles performance timeline

"To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the Sep 15, 2008."
*¹ If ITF women's circuit (Clay: 15-3; Carpet: 2–1), qualifying, and Fed Cup (Clay: 4–5) participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 80-45.
*A = did not participate in the tournament
*NH = not held
*LQ = lost in the qualifying tournament
*- = tournament either not held or was not a Tier I tournament when it was held.

External links

*wta|id=313035|name=Tamira Paszek
* [http://www.itftennis.com/womens/players/player.asp?player=100048073 ITF profile]
* [http://www.tamira-paszek.org Tamira Paszek Fansite]
* [http://www.tpmanagement.at Tamira Paszek Management Group]