Anna Karolina Schmiedlova is a Slovak professional tennis player who was born on September 13, 1994, in Kosice, Slovakia. Born to parents Juraj and Martina, Schmiedlova started tennis at age 7 and fell in love with the sport by 12.
As a junior she knew a lot of success, reaching the final of the girl’s tournament at Roland Garros in 2012. Quick on the heels of this run, she broke through onto the main tour in 2013, bringing with it her main draw WTA debut.
After qualifying in Katowice, the Slovak beat number 5 seed Alize Cornet in straight sets before bowing out to Petra Martic in round two. Keen to follow on this form, she successfully qualified for Roland Garros and Wimbledon, as well as getting into the main draw of the US Open automatically, picking up her first wins at Grand Slam level on the way.
Come 2014, she was already reaching the third round of tournaments such as Roland Garros before going on to win her first WTA title in 2015 at the Katowice Open (beating Camila Giorgi in the final). She was not done there and claimed her second WTA crown at the Bucharest Open after overcoming Sara Errani in the final.
This meant she saw her ranking sky-rocket to a career-high world number 26. After a drop in form from 2016 onwards, Schmiedlova was back to her best and inside the Top 100 again come 2018.
Partly to thank for this revival was her third WTA title, which she claimed at the Bogota Open, beating Lara Arruabarrena in the final. By the start of the 2020s, the Slovak was back in full swing, getting back to her best at the Grand Slams.
Just a few years later, she was in her first-ever French Open fourth round. Despite heading towards the tail-end of her career, who knows what surprises the Slovak is yet to throw up following her revival?
