Corina Morariu

Corina Morariu

Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, Florida, United States
Born	January 26, 1978 Detroit, Michigan, United States
Turned pro	1994
Retired	2007
Prize money	$1,733,916
Singles
Career record	160–134
Career titles	1 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 29 (24 August 1998)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (1998)
French Open	2R (1998, 2000, 2003)
Wimbledon	3R (1998, 1999)
US Open	2R (1997)
Doubles
Career record	248–158
Career titles	13 WTA, 9 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (3 April 2000)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (2001, 2005)
French Open	SF (2005)
Wimbledon	W (1999)
US Open	QF (1999, 2002, 2005, 2007)

Corina Morariu (born January 26, 1978) is a retired Romanian American professional tennis player.

Morariu (pronounced: mo-RA-R'ju) was born in Detroit, Michigan, and turned professional in 1994. Mainly known as a doubles specialist, she won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1999 with Lindsay Davenport. She also won the mixed doubles title at the 2001 Australian Open with Ellis Ferreira. She reached the Australian Open women's doubles final with Davenport in 2005. She also reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles in 2000.^[1]

In 2001, Morariu was diagnosed with leukemia and began a program of chemotherapy.^[2] During this time, Jennifer Capriati dedicated her 2001 French Open victory to Morariu. She also received an inspirational letter from Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor.^[3] After recovering from cancer, along with shoulder surgery, Morariu was largely restricted to doubles play.^[1] The WTA then created the Corina Comeback Award, which was presented to Morariu by Capriati.^[4]

Morariu retired from the tour in 2007. She is an International Sports Ambassador for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and has released a memoir titled Living Through the Racket: How I Survived Leukemia...and Rediscovered My Self.^[4] Following her retirement, she began working as a commentator for Tennis Channel.^[5]

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 3 (1–2)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent in final	Score in final
Winner	1999	Wimbledon	Grass	Lindsay Davenport	Mariaan de Swardt Elena Tatarkova	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	2001	Australian Open	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–2, 2–6, 6–4
Runner-up	2005	Australian Open	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Svetlana Kuznetsova Alicia Molik	6–3, 6–4

WTA Tour finals

Corina Morariu hitting a forehand

Singles 4 (1–3)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam Title (0/0)
WTA Championship (0/0)
Tier I (0/0)
Tier II (0/0)
Tier III (0/1)
Tier IV (1/2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	April 28, 1997	Bol	Clay	Mirjana Lučić	7–5, 6–7^(7–9), 7–6^(7–5)
Runner-up	2.	April 19, 1998	Tokyo (Japan Open)	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	April 27, 1998	Bol	Clay	Mirjana Lučić	6–2, 6–4
Winner	1.	April 26, 1999	Bol	Clay	Julie Halard-Decugis	6–2, 6–0

Doubles 20 (13–7)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam Title (1/2)
WTA Championship (0/0)
Tier I (1/2)
Tier II (3/2)
Tier III (7/1)
Tier IV (1/0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	April 20, 1997	Tokyo (Japan Open)	Hard	Kerry-Anne Guse	Alexia Dechaume-Balleret Rika Hiraki	6–4, 6–2
Winner	1.	November 23, 1997	Pattaya City	Hard	Kristine Kunce	Florencia Labat Dominique Monami	6–3, 6–4
Winner	2.	January 9, 1999	Gold Coast	Hard	Larisa Neiland	Kristine Kunce Irina Spîrlea	6–3, 6–4
Winner	3.	April 18, 1999	Tokyo (Japan Open)	Hard	Kimberly Po	Kerry-Anne Guse Catherine Barclay	6–3, 6–2
Winner	4.	June 14, 1999	Birmingham	Grass	Larisa Neiland	Inés Gorrochategui Alexandra Fusai	6–4, 6–4
Winner	5.	July 4, 1999	Wimbledon	Grass	Lindsay Davenport	Mariaan de Swardt Elena Tatarkova	6–4, 6–4
Winner	6.	August 1, 1999	Stanford	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Anna Kournikova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–4
Winner	7.	August 8, 1999	San Diego	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Venus Williams Serena Williams	6–4, 6–1
Winner	8.	February 27, 2000	Oklahoma City	Hard (i)	Kimberly Po	Tamarine Tanasugarn Elena Tatarkova	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
Winner	9.	March 19, 2000	Indian Wells	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Anna Kournikova Natasha Zvereva	6–2, 6–3
Winner	10.	May 7, 2000	Bol	Clay	Julie Halard-Decugis	Katarina Srebotnik Tina Križan	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	May 14, 2000	Berlin	Clay	Amanda Coetzer	Aranxta Sánchez Vicario Conchita Martínez	3–6, 6–2, 7–6^(9–7)
Winner	11.	October 9, 2000	Tokyo (Japan Open)	Hard	Julie Halard-Decugis	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	3.	January 15, 2001	Australian Open	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–2, 2–6, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	November 7, 2004	Phildaelphia	Hard (i)	Liezel Huber	Lisa Raymond Alicia Molik	7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	January 17, 2005	Australian Open	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Svetlana Kuznetsova Alicia Molik	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	6.	February 1, 2005	Tokyo (Pan Pacific)	Carpet (i)	Lindsay Davenport	Janette Husárová Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–3
Winner	12.	January 17, 2006	Sydney	Hard	Rennae Stubbs	Paola Suárez Virginia Ruano Pascual	6–3, 5–7, 6–2
Winner	13.	September 17, 2006	Bali	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	Natalie Grandin Trudi Musgrave	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	7.	October 29, 2006	Linz	Hard (i)	Katarina Srebotnik	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	6–3, 6–0

Women's doubles performance timeline

Tournament	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	SR	W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	2R	2R	2R	SF	F	A	A	3R	F	1R	1R	0 / 9	19–9
French Open	A	1R	1R	3R	2R	A	A	A	1R	A	SF	A	1R	0 / 7	7–7
Wimbledon	A	1R	2R	2R	W	A	A	A	1R	A	2R	A	1R	1 / 7	9–6
US Open	A	3R	1R	1R	QF	A	A	QF	1R	2R	QF	2R	QF	0 / 10	16–10
Win–Loss	0–0	2–3	2–4	4–4	11–3	4–1	5–1	3–1	0–3	3–2	13–4	1–2	3–4	1 / 33	51–32
Year-End Championship
Tour Championships	A	A	A	A	SF	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1
Year-End Ranking
Ranking	187	81	66	49	6	14	57	78	156	24	15	34	76

Awards

• The Corina Comeback Award (established by the WTA and named after her; she was the first recipient)^[4]
• The 2002 WTA Tour Comeback Player of the Year Award^[4]

References

1. DeSimone, Bonnie (26 March 2007). "Corina Morariu happy to be on tour". ESPN. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
2. Banerjee, Sudeshna (28 July 2009). "Corina Morariu: The Braveheart Who Defied Death". Bleacherreport.com. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
3. DeSimone, Bonnie (26 May 2002). "She won't stay down for long". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
4. "WTA Profile". wtatennis.com. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
5. Thurmond, Sarah (12 February 2010). "Q&A With Corina Morariu, Cancer Survivor and Former Pro". tennis.com. Retrieved 19 March 2012.

External links

• Corina Morariu at the Women's Tennis Association
• Corina Morariu at the International Tennis Federation
• Corina Morariu at the Fed Cup