Timea Babos is a Hungarian professional tennis player who has competed on the WTA Tour since 2011.
Date of Birth: | 10 May 1993 |
Birthplace: | Sopron, Hungary |
Residence: | Sopron, Hungary |
Height: | 5'10" (179 cm) |
Weight: | 150 lbs (68 kg) |
Plays: | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Turned Pro: | 2011 |
Timea Babos was born in Sopron, Hungary, on May 10, 1993, to her mother, Zsuzsanna, and father, Csaba. Her father was a tennis coach at the local club and Babos developed an interest in the sport from a young age. Babos was originally a junior national swimming champion. However, she played tennis competitively after visiting her dad’s tennis club and showed immediate quality.
By age nine, Babos had won the Hungarian National Championship title. At Junior level, Babos peaked at number three in the official ITF rankings in 2009 after competing in events from the age of 13. Between 2007 and 2009, Babos won five titles at junior level. She also won three junior doubles Grand Slam titles in 2010 (Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open).
In 2009, she made the step up to the ITF circuit in the United Kingdom but made her WTA debut in 2010 at the Hungarian Open. However, Babos lost to Timea Bacsinszky in round one. 2011 brought more WTA-level experience as Babos made the Hungarian Open main draw again. She notched her first career win at a WTA event, beating Anna-Giulia Remondina.
The Hungarian player also reached the qualifying rounds of the US Open, but she couldn’t reach the main draw. Babos had her breakthrough year in 2012. She won her maiden WTA title in Monterrey and she climbed into the Top 100 for the first time in her career.
To cap a strong season, Babos reached her first-ever Grand Slam finals at the 2012 Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. At Wimbledon, she beat Melanie Oudin for her first major victory.
In 2013, Babos showed consistency on the WTA Tour and reached her first-ever Australian Open main draw. She also qualified for two more Grand Slam events during that season. A slight dip in form in 2014 was followed by a strong 2015 campaign in singles and doubles.
Babos reached another WTA final in Marrakech but lost against Elina Svitolina and she won the WTA 125K Series event in Taipei. Also, in doubles, the Hungarian player lifted three titles in Dubai, Marrakech, and Rome with partner Kristina Mladenovic. Babos climbed to a singles career high of 25th following a strong 2016 season.
The Hungarian went on deep runs at several events including a final appearance at Florianopolis. She also impressed with quarter-final runs in St Petersburg, Katowice, Cincinnati, and Moscow and a third-round stint at the US Open.
In 2017, Babos impressed in singles and doubles again. She lifted her second WTA title at the Hungarian Open and reached finals at Quebec City and Tashkent. Moreover, she notched six doubles titles throughout the campaign and won the WTA Finals title with partner Andrea Hlavackova.
Similar success came in 2018 as the Hungarian reached two more WTA finals, but lost both. However, she was more successful in doubles and won her maiden Grand Slam with Mladenovic. Babos became the number one doubles player in the world after a quarter-final run at Wimbledon in 2018.
Babos and Mladenovic became dominant in doubles between 2019 and 2020. The duo won back-to-back Roland Garros titles and lifted the 2020 Australian Open in this spell. However, due to her progress in doubles, Babos’ singles form suffered and she dropped out of the Top 100 in 2021.
In addition, she started playing ITF-level doubles in 2022 following a disrupted period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2023, Babos returned to WTA doubles events and she produced a third-round run at Wimbledon alongside Kirsten Flipkens.