Jill Craybas

Jill Craybas

Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Huntington Beach, California
Born	July 4, 1974 Providence, Rhode Island
Height	1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Turned pro	1996
Retired	2013
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
College	University of Florida
Prize money	US$2,534,110
Singles
Career record	432–447
Career titles	1 WTA (4 ITF)
Highest ranking	No. 39 (April 17, 2006)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2004)
French Open	2R (2001, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Wimbledon	4R (2005)
US Open	2R (2004, 2005, 2006, 2009)
Doubles
Career record	161–240
Career titles	5 WTA (1 ITF)
Highest ranking	No. 41 (June 23, 2008)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2006–07, 2011)
French Open	QF (2004)
Wimbledon	3R (2007)
US Open	2R (2004–06, 2012)
Last updated on: May 27, 2013.

Jill N. Craybas (born July 4, 1974) is an American former professional tennis player. At 39 years of age, she was one of the oldest players on the WTA Tour, as well as the longest serving, having turned pro in 1996. From the 2000 US Open to the 2011 US Open, Craybas competed in 45 consecutive Grand Slam main draws, her best result coming in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships where she reached the fourth round which included wins over Marion Bartoli and Serena Williams.

Early years

Craybas was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Andy Brandi's Florida Gators women's tennis team in National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition from 1993 to 1996. As a senior in 1996, she won the NCAA women's singles tennis championship. She was the 1995–96 recipient of the Honda Sports Award for Tennis, recognizing her as the outstanding collegiate female tennis player of the year.^[1]

Craybas graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in telecommunications in 1996, and has said in interviews that she hopes to enter film or television production when her playing career ends. She was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2008.^[2][3]

Craybas credits her achievements to her long-time coach, Raja Chaudhuri. Chaudhuri has worked with her from the start of her tennis career.

Professional career

Craybas turned professional in 1996. She has won one WTA title at the Tokyo Japan Open. She beat Silvija Talaja in the final after trailing 4–0 in the third set. In the 2006 season, Craybas reached one quarterfinal at Hobart as the eighth seed, losing to unseeded Italian Mara Santangelo in three sets. She has also reached the semifinals of a Tier III event in Memphis, a fourth-round showing at the Tier I event in Key Biscayne, Florida and a further quarterfinal appearance at Stanford in late July.

Craybas is best known for her 2005 defeat of Serena Williams in the 3rd round of Wimbledon. She beat Williams 6–3, 7–6, then lost to Serena's older sister, and eventual champion, Venus Williams 6–0, 6–2.

On March 25, 2006, Craybas once again served up an early round defeat of a top seeded player. This time it was second-seeded Kim Clijsters in the second round of the NASDAQ-100 tournament. After having led in both the first and third sets, Clijsters eventually lost by a score of 7–5, 3–6, 7–5. It was Clijsters earliest ever exit from the NASDAQ-100, and Clijsters was the defending champion.

By that time Craybas, then a veteran on the tour, was thought to be playing the best tennis of her life. However, after having a successful start to 2006, she fell short of what was expected of her from her dramatically impressive start, losing to lower-ranked opponents in first rounds or having difficult first round draws against the top players in the world.

She began 2007 by reaching the semifinals of a Tier IV event in Auckland, New Zealand. She beat all of her opponents in straight sets before bowing out to Russian Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 7–5. She next took part in the Tier II event in Sydney, where she lost in the last round of qualifying to Russian Vera Dushevina 6–1, 3–6, 6–1. At the first Grand Slam tournament of the year at the Australian Open, she suffered a first-round loss to the tenth-seeded Nicole Vaidišová 6–4, 5–7, 6–1. Craybas bounced back into winning form at her next tournament in the U.S., at an ITF tournament in Midland, Michigan. As the top-seeded, she beat all of her opponents in straight sets until a hard-fought 2–6, 6–3, 6–3 victory over second-seeded and fellow American Laura Granville. Because of her lower ranking, she suffered in tough draws, not going further than the second round of any tournament since.

Jill Craybas at the 2008 US Open

At the start of 2008, Craybas entered the Pattaya Women's Open in Pattaya, Thailand, where, as the seventh-seed, she played some of the best tennis of her career and beat Olga Savchuk 6–1, 6–1 in the first round, Renata Voráčová 2–6, 6–1, 6–3 in the second round and Andreja Klepač 6–4, 6–4 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals she beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6–4, 6–0 and lost to the top seed Agnieszka Radwańska in a tie-break in the third set, 6–2, 1–6, 7–6. Craybas's ranking improved from World No. 77 to World No. 60 because of these results.

Craybas won the Istanbul Cup in doubles.

Craybas represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the tennis singles event. She became the last qualifier for the event, replacing Tamira Paszek of Austria.^[4] The opening came available when fellow American Ashley Harkleroad elected to skip the games after she became pregnant.^[5] At the US Open 2013, Craybas announced her retirement from tennis.

WTA career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (1–1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	October 6, 2002	Japan Open Tennis Championships, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Silvija Talaja	2–6, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	February 10, 2008	Pattaya Women's Open, Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Agnieszka Radwańska	2–6, 6–1, 6–7^(4–7)

Doubles: 14 (5 titles, 9 runners-up)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (5–9)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	May 19, 2003	WTA Madrid Open, Madrid, Spain	Clay	Liezel Huber	Rita Grande Angelique Widjaja	6–4, 7–6^(8–6)
Winner	2.	August 16, 2004	Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open, Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Marlene Weingärtner	Emmanuelle Gagliardi Anna-Lena Grönefeld	7–5, 7–6^(7–2)
Runner-up	1.	October 31, 2004	Fortis Championships Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Marlene Weingärtner	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez	1–6, 7–6^(7–1), 3–6
Runner-up	2.	September 26, 2005	Hansol Korea Open Tennis Championships, Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Natalie Grandin	Chan Yung-jan Chuang Chia-jung	2–6, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	January 9, 2006	Moorilla Hobart International, Hobart, Australia	Hard	Jelena Kostanić	Émilie Loit Nicole Pratt	2–6, 1–6
Runner-up	4.	June 18, 2006	DFS Classic, Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Liezel Huber	Jelena Janković Li Na	2–6, 4–6
Runner-up	5.	October 30, 2006	Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Alina Jidkova	Carly Gullickson Laura Granville	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	6.	September 10, 2007	Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Natalie Grandin	Ji Chunmei Sun Shengnan	3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	7.	April 28, 2008	ECM Prague Open, Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Michaëlla Krajicek	Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká	6–1, 3–6, [6–10]
Winner	3.	May 19, 2008	Istanbul Cup, Istanbul, Turkey	Clay	Olga Govortsova	Marina Erakovic Polona Hercog	6–1, 6–2
Winner	4.	October 4, 2008	AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Marina Eraković	Ayumi Morita Aiko Nakamura	4–6, 7–5, [10–6]
Runner-up	8.	November 2, 2008	Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Vania King	6–7^(3–7), 4–6
Runner-up	9.	July 17, 2010	Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, Palermo, Italy	Clay	Julia Görges	Alberta Brianti Sara Errani	4–6, 1–6
Winner	5.	June 17, 2012	Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria	Clay	Julia Görges	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Petra Martić	6–7^(4–7), 6–4, [11–9]

Grand Slam Singles Timeline

Tournament	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	W–L
Australian Open	A	A	A	1R	LQ	1R	2R	1R	3R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R	2R	LQ	11–13
French Open	A	A	A	LQ	A	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	2R		5–12
Wimbledon	A	A	A	LQ	LQ	1R	2R	1R	2R	4R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R	LQ	6–12
US Open	1R	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R		10–15
Titles–Finals	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–4	2–4	0–4	4–4	4–4	1–4	1–4	1–4	3–4	1–4	2–4	0–0	32–52

Grand Slam Doubles Timeline

Tournament	1998	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	W–L
Australian Open			1R	1R	2R	2R	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	5–10
French Open			QF	1R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R		1R	4–9
Wimbledon		2R	1R	1R	1R	3R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R		3–10
US Open	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R		2R	2R	5–11
Titles–Finals	0–1	1–2	4–4	1–4	2–4	3–4	0–4	1–4	0–4	1–3	2–3	2–3	17–40

See also

• Florida Gators
• List of Florida Gators tennis players
• List of University of Florida alumni
• List of University of Florida Olympians

References

Craybas announces retirement

1. Collegiate Women Sports Awards, Past Honda Sports Award Winners for Tennis. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
2. F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
3. "Nine Members Inducted Into University of Florida Athletics Hall of Fame," GatorZone.com (April 11, 2008). Retrieved May 23, 2011.
4. Olympic Tennis Event – Acceptance lists ITF Tennis, 6 August 2008
5. Ashley Harkleroad to skip Olympics USA Today, 3 June 2008

External links

• Jill Craybas at the Women's Tennis Association
• Jill Craybas at the International Tennis Federation