Anke Huber
Encyclopedia
Anke Huber is a German retired professional tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open
1996 Australian Open
The 1996 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 84th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 15 through 28 January 1996.-Men's Singles:...

. Her career-high singles ranking was fourth, also in 1996.

Early life

Huber was born in Bruchsal
Bruchsal
Bruchsal is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany...

, Baden-Württemberg. She started playing tennis at the age of seven, after being introduced to the game by her father, Edgar. In junior competition, she won the under-12 German Championships in 1986, the under-14s in 1987, the under-16s in 1988, and the European Championships in 1989. She was also a semifinalist at Wimbledon's junior tournament in 1990.

Career

Huber made her Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...

 tournament debut at the 1990 Australian Open
1990 Australian Open
The 1990 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 78th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 15 through 28 January 1990.-Men's Singles:...

, a year before she graduated from high school. After defeating Maider Leval and Elise Burgin
Elise Burgin
Elise Burgin was an American tennis player. Her highest ranking was # 22.-Tennis career:Before playing professionally, Burgin was an outstanding singles and doubles player at Stanford University...

, she was defeated in the third round by 13th-seeded Raffaella Reggi
Raffaella Reggi
Raffaella Reggi is a former professional tennis player from Italy, known for her fiery on-court personality, expressiveness and gesticulations....

. In August 1990, she defeated Marianne Werdel Witmeyer
Marianne Werdel
Marianne Witmeyer Werdel is an American former professional tennis player.Werdel was born in Los Angeles and played on the WTA tour from 1982 to 1997. She is also known as Marianne Witmeyer, the name of her husband.-Singles 6:...

 to win the Schenectady tournament, a warm-up for the US Open. Jennifer Capriati
Jennifer Capriati
Jennifer Marie Capriati is a former world number one ranked professional tennis player, and the winner of three women's singles championships in Grand Slam tournaments. Capriati made her professional debut in 1990 at the age of 14 when she reached the finals of the hard court tournament in Boca...

 then defeated Huber in the first round of that tournament 7–5, 7–5. Huber was the runner-up in her next event, losing in Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...

 to Nathalie Tauziat
Nathalie Tauziat
Nathalie Tauziat is a former professional tennis player from France. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships. Her career-high singles ranking was third in 2000....

 in straight sets. She finished 1990 ranked World No. 34.

Huber became Germany's top female tennis player upon Steffi Graf's
Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player.In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24...

 retirement in 1999. Only two years later, however, it was Huber's turn to hang up her racquet. She cited a persistent ankle injury and the desire for a "normal life" as the reasons for her retirement. She originally planned to quit after the 2002 Australian Open
2002 Australian Open
List of the 2002 Australian Open champions:-Men's Singles: Thomas Johansson def. Marat Safin, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 7–6...

, her favorite tournament, but changed her mind when she unexpectedly qualified for the year-ending Sanex Championships
WTA Tour Championships
The WTA Tour Championships is a tennis tournament played annually at the end of the season for the top-ranked players on the Women's Tennis Association tour. The month, city and number of players has changed since the first edition in 1972...

 in Germany. "I thought there's nothing better than to celebrate saying goodbye in front of the home fans in your own country," said Huber. Huber's final match took place on 31 October 2001, against Justine Henin, in which she lost 6–1, 6–2.

During her twelve-year professional career, Huber reached 23 singles finals (winning twelve of them), 29 singles semifinals, and 50 singles quarterfinals. Her career record in singles was 447-225, and she amassed US$4,768,292 in career prize money.

Huber represented her country at three levels: the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 in 1992 in Barcelona
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...

 and in 1996 in Atlanta
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....

; the Fed Cup
Fed Cup
Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation...

 from 1990 through 1998 and in 2000 and 2001, helping Germany to victory in 1992 by beating Spain's
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 Conchita Martínez
Conchita Martínez
Inmaculada Concepción Martínez Bernat is a former professional tennis player from Monzón, Aragón, Spain. She is the only Spanish woman to have won the singles title at Wimbledon, when she beat Martina Navrátilová in the 1994 Women's Singles. She also was the singles runner-up at the 1998...

 in the final; and the Hopman Cup
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an annual international team tennis tournament held in Perth, Western Australia in early January each year, which plays mixed teams on a country by country basis...

, which she won with Boris Becker
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...

 in 1995.

Although she did not win a Grand Slam title, Huber felt proud of her accomplishments, especially because she had to walk in Graf's footsteps. "I recognised pretty early on that I would never have her success, but I was still always measured against her," she says. "So, whenever I got into the quarterfinals or the semis of a Grand Slam tournament, it counted for nothing. Sometimes it was good to have her, because she drew the attention away from me," Huber continued. "On the other side, there was always the pressure to be the second Steffi Graf."

In 2002, Huber accepted a role with the German Tennis Federation and became the co-tournament director for the annual Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is a tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany . Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest women's indoor tournament in Europe. Currently it is a Tier II tournament on the WTA Tour. The singles champion also receives a Porsche 911 Carrera sports car in addition...

 WTA
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...

 tournament in Filderstadt
Filderstadt
Filderstadt is a town in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located approximately 13 km south of Stuttgart.Filderstadt is located next to the Stuttgart Airport and the new Trade Fair...

, Germany.

Personal life

In April 2005, Huber gave birth to her first child, a boy (Moritz Luca), to her partner Roger Wittmann. A second, a girl (Laura Sophie), followed in October 2006.

Runner-up (1)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in Final Score in Final
Runner-up 1996
1996 Australian Open - Women's Singles
Mary Pierce was the defending champion, but she was defeated by Elena Likhovtseva in the second round.Monica Seles won the title, defeating Anke Huber in the final...

 
Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

 
Hard   Monica Seles
Monica Seles
Monica Seles is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, former Yugoslavia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007...

 
6–4, 6–1

Singles (12)

Legend
Tier I (1)
Tier II (4)
Tier III (4)
Tier IV & V (3)
Titles by Surface
Hard (2)
Clay (4)
Grass (1)
Carpet (5)
No. Date Tournament Name Location Surface Opponent in Final Score in Final
1. 26 August 1990 OTB International Open Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...

, U.S.
Hard   Marianne Werdel Witmeyer
Marianne Werdel
Marianne Witmeyer Werdel is an American former professional tennis player.Werdel was born in Los Angeles and played on the WTA tour from 1982 to 1997. She is also known as Marianne Witmeyer, the name of her husband.-Singles 6:...

6-1, 5-7, 6-4
2. 20 October 1991 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is a tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany . Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest women's indoor tournament in Europe. Currently it is a Tier II tournament on the WTA Tour. The singles champion also receives a Porsche 911 Carrera sports car in addition...

 (1)
Filderstadt, Germany
Filderstadt
Filderstadt is a town in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located approximately 13 km south of Stuttgart.Filderstadt is located next to the Stuttgart Airport and the new Trade Fair...

Carpet (I)   Martina Navratilova 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4)
3. 18 July 1993 Citroen Cup
WTA Austria
The WTA Austrian Open is a WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament held off and on from 1968. In the Open Era seven locations hosted the event: Pörtschach in 1968 and 1999; Kitzbühel from 1969 to 1977, from 1979 to 1983 and from 1990 to 1993; Vienna in 1978 and from 2001 to 2004; Bregenz from 1985 to...

 (1)
Kitzbühel, Austria
Kitzbühel
-Demographic evolution:-Personalities:*Karl Wilhelm von Dalla Torre , entomologist and botanist*Alfons Walde , expressionist painter and architect*Peter Aufschnaiter , mountaineer and geographer...

Clay   Judith Wiesner
Judith Wiesner
Judith Wiesner is a former professional tennis player from Austria. During her career, she won six top-level singles titles and three tour doubles titles. Her career high rankings were World Number 12 in singles , and World Number 29 in doubles...

6-4, 6-1
4. 31 July 1994 Styrian Open (2) Styria, Austria Clay   Judith Wiesner 6-3, 6-3
5. 16 October 1994 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (2) Filderstadt, Germany Hard (I)   Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce is a French-American tennis professional playing on the Women's Tennis Association tour. She is a citizen of France, Canada, and the United States but plays for France in team competitions and the Olympics.Pierce has won four Grand Slam titles, two in singles and two in doubles...

6-4, 6-2
6. 13 November 1994 Virginia Slims of Philadelphia
Advanta Championships Philadelphia
The Advanta Championships of Philadelphia was a WTA Tour professional tennis tournament for women played from 1971 through 2005 in Philadelphia, United States. The tournament was classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I event from 1993 through 1995. It was classified as a Tier II event in 1991,...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Carpet (I)   Mary Pierce 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-5
7. 1 October 1995 Sparkassen Cup
WTA Leipzig
The Sparkassen Cup is a defunct WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1990 to 2003. It was held in Leipzig in Germany and played on indoor carpet courts....

 (1)
Leipzig, Germany
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

Carpet (I)   Magdalena Maleeva
Magdalena Maleeva
Magdalena Maleeva is a Bulgarian former tennis player. She played on the WTA tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to June 2007. Her best position in the WTA Tour was no. 4 between January 29 to February 4, 1996....

walkover
8. 23 June 1996 Wilkinson Championships
Ordina Open
The Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, now sponsored by UNICEF and called the UNICEF Open, is a tennis tournament on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour held in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.-Singles:-Doubles:-Singles:-Doubles:-External links:*...

's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Grass   Helena Suková
Helena Suková
Helena Suková is a former professional tennis player from Czechia. During her career, she won 14 Grand Slam titles, 9 of them in women's doubles and 5 of them in mixed doubles...

6-4, 7-6(2)
9. 6 October 1996 Sparkassen Cup (2) Leipzig, Germany Carpet (I)   Iva Majoli
Iva Majoli
Iva Majoli Marić is a former professional tennis player from Croatia. She upset Martina Hingis to win the women's singles title at the French Open in 1997. Majoli also won eight singles titles and one women's doubles title during her career.-Career:Majoli turned professional in 1991 at the age...

5-7, 6-3, 6-1
10. 27 October 1996 SEAT Open Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Luxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...

Carpet (I)   Karina Habšudová
Karina Habšudová
Karina Habšudová is a former Slovak female professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as 10 in the world . Together with Karol Kučera she won the Hopman Cup in 1998....

6-3, 6-0
11. 16 April 2000 Estoril Open
Estoril Open
The Estoril Open is an ATP and WTA clay court tournament held in Jamor, Oeiras, Portugal . The men's tournament was created in 1990 and since its inception, every champion except 2004 champion Juan Ignacio Chela and 2009–2010 champion Albert Montañés has been in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings,...

Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

Clay   Nathalie Dechy
Nathalie Dechy
Nathalie Dechy is a French former professional tour tennis player.Dechy is a three-time doubles Grand Slam champion, winning the 2006 US Open women's doubles title with Vera Zvonareva, the 2007 French Open mixed doubles title with Andy Ram, and the 2007 US Open women's doubles title with Dinara...

6-2, 1-6, 7-5
12. 23 July 2000 Idea Prokom Open
Orange Warsaw Open
The Orange Warsaw Open is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Poland as part of the ATP Tour. The tournament is played on clay courts. From 1992 to 2007, the tournament was held in Sopot, before moving to Warsaw for 2008...

Sopot, Poland
Sopot
Sopot is a seaside town in Eastern Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000....

Clay   Gala León García
Gala Leon Garcia
Gala León García is a former professional tennis player from Spain.-Singles :-Grand Slam Singles performance timeline:-External links:...

7-6(4), 6-3

Doubles (1)

Legend
Tier II (1)
No. Date Tournament Name Tournament Location Surface Partner Opponents in Final Score in Final
1. 4 March 1997 Rexona Cup Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

Clay   Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce
Mary Pierce is a French-American tennis professional playing on the Women's Tennis Association tour. She is a citizen of France, Canada, and the United States but plays for France in team competitions and the Olympics.Pierce has won four Grand Slam titles, two in singles and two in doubles...

  Ruxandra Dragomir
Ruxandra Dragomir
Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie is a retired female tennis player from Romania, who won four singles and five doubles titles during her career. The right-hander reached her highest individual ranking on the WTA Tour on August 25, 1997, when she became the number 15 of the world...

 
  Iva Majoli
Iva Majoli
Iva Majoli Marić is a former professional tennis player from Croatia. She upset Martina Hingis to win the women's singles title at the French Open in 1997. Majoli also won eight singles titles and one women's doubles title during her career.-Career:Majoli turned professional in 1991 at the age...

2-6, 7-6(1), 6-2

Singles (11)

Grand slam events in boldface.

  • 1990: Bayonne (lost to Nathalie Tauziat
    Nathalie Tauziat
    Nathalie Tauziat is a former professional tennis player from France. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships. Her career-high singles ranking was third in 2000....

    )
  • 1993: Sydney (lost to Jennifer Capriati
    Jennifer Capriati
    Jennifer Marie Capriati is a former world number one ranked professional tennis player, and the winner of three women's singles championships in Grand Slam tournaments. Capriati made her professional debut in 1990 at the age of 14 when she reached the finals of the hard court tournament in Boca...

    )
  • 1993: Brighton (lost to Jana Novotná
    Jana Novotná
    Jana Novotná is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. She won the women's singles title at Wimbledon in 1998 and was runner-up in three previous Grand Slam tournaments...

    )
  • 1995: WTA Tour Championships (lost to Steffi Graf
    Steffi Graf
    Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player.In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24...

    )
  • 1996: Australian Open (lost to Monica Seles
    Monica Seles
    Monica Seles is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, former Yugoslavia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007...

    )
  • 1996: Manhattan Beach (lost to Lindsay Davenport
    Lindsay Davenport
    Lindsay Ann Davenport is a former World No. 1 American professional tennis player. She has won three Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. In 2005, TENNIS Magazine ranked her as the 29th-best player of the preceding forty years...

    )

  • 1996: Filderstadt (lost to Martina Hingis
    Martina Hingis
    Martina Hingis is a retired Swiss professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1. She won five Grand Slam singles titles...

    )
  • 1997: Paris (lost to Martina Hingis)
  • 1997: Toronto (lost to Monica Seles)
  • 2001: Paris (lost to Amélie Mauresmo
    Amélie Mauresmo
    Amélie Simone Mauresmo ; is a French former professional tennis player, and a former World No. 1. Mauresmo won two Grand Slam singles titles at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon....

    )
  • 2001: Strasbourg (lost to Silvia Farina Elia
    Silvia Farina Elia
    Silvia Farina Elia is a former female tennis player from Italy. She reached a career high of World No. 11 on 20 May 2002. She won her first ITF title at Caltagirone in 1991 and her first WTA tournament at Strasbourg in 2001...

    )


Doubles (3)

  • 1993: Brighton (with Larisa Savchenko Neiland
    Larisa Neiland
    Larisa Savchenko Neiland is a former tennis player who represented Latvia. A former number-one ranked doubles player, Neiland won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won two singles titles and sixty-five doubles titles.-Career:Neiland turned professional in 1983...

    )
  • 1999: Sydney (with Mary Joe Fernandez
    Mary Joe Fernández
    Mary Joe Fernández Godsick is an American former professional tennis player...

    )
  • 1999: Moscow (with Julie Halard)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Career SR
Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

3R QF QF 4R 3R 4R F 4R SF 2R 1R A 0 / 11
French Open A 3R 2R SF 4R 4R 4R 1R A A 4R 2R 0 / 9
Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...

2R 4R 3R 4R 2R 4R 3R 3R A 1R 4R 4R 0 / 11
US Open 1R 2R 1R 3R 2R 4R 1R 3R 1R QF QF 3R 0 / 12
SR 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 43

See also


External links

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