Lucie Safarova life and biography

Lucie Safarova is a professional Czech tennis player. She was born in Brno.

Šafářová has won four WTA tour singles titles and reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Australian Open, upsetting defending champion Amélie Mauresmo en-route.

CAREER:

Lucie Safarova, a lefty from the Czech Republic, achieved a career-high ranking of No. 22 in 2007. That year she reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where she beat world No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round, and the final at the Paris Indoors, where she beat Top 10 players Nicole Vaidisova, Justine Henin and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Safarova is perhaps best known for being ATP tour player Tomas Berdych’s longtime girlfriend.

2010:
Šafářová started the 2010 season by reaching the quarter-finals of the 2010 Brisbane International before losing to eventual champion Kim Clijsters 6-1, 0-6, 6-4.

She then suffered disappointing first round losses. Firstly at the 2010 Moorilla Hobart International, retiring against Kateryna Bondarenko at 2-6, 7-6(4), 2-3 and secondly at the 2010 Australian Open, losing to 6th seed Venus Williams 2-6, 2-6.

Šafářová made her first final of the year at the 2010 Open GDF Suez in Paris by defeating Flavia Pennetta in the semi-finals 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. She won the first set but could not hold on, falling 7-6, 1-6, 4-6 to top seed Elena Dementieva in the final.

Šafářová then suffered 2 more first round losses at the 2010 Monterrey Open, losing to Julie Coin 7-5, 4-6, 4-6, and the 2010 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, losing to Julia Görges 5-7, 6-3, 3-6.

At the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, Šafářová was unseeded and won her first round match, defeating Kaia Kanepi 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-3 and then defeated María José Martínez Sánchez in the second round 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 after being down match points at 5-2 in the second set. She will then fell to 4th seed Victoria Azarenka.

At the 2010 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Šafářová upset World No2 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round. She then fell, in three sets, to qualifier Anna Lapushchenkova in the quarterfinals.

Šafářová upset World No. 9 Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia but lost to eventual champion María José Martínez Sánchez 7-6 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Šafářová upset World No. 12 Maria Sharapova in the first round of the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open. She then defeated Olga Govortsova and Alexandra Dulgheru to advance to the quarterfinals where she beat World No. 18 Nadia Petrova. She retired from a thigh injury while trailing Aravane Rezaï 1-6 in the semifinals.

Šafářová is seeded 24th at the 2010 French Open. She defeated Jelena Dokić in the first round but was defeated by Polona Hercog 6-1, 6-2 in the second round.

2011:
Šafářová attended the 2011 Brisbane International and made it all the way to the quarterfinals with tough matches from Akgul Amanmuradova and Shahar Pe'er in between before losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3.

As the 31st seed at the 2011 Australian Open, Šafářová struggled through her first two rounds, defeating Shuai Zhang 7-5 4-6 6-1 in the first round, and Klára Zakopalová 6-3 6-7(2) 7-5 in the second. In the third round, she lost in two sets to World #2 Vera Zvonareva 6-4 7-6(9) having had set point in the second set.

Following the Australian Open, Šafářová defeated Daniela Hantuchová of Slovakia in the 2011 Fed Cup, but retired in her second rubber against Jana Čepelová.

Her next tournament was the 2011 Open GDF Suez where she fell to a resurgent Jelena Dokić in the first round 4-6 6-3 6-4. A week later at the 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships, Šafářová once again lost in the first round, this time to fellow Czech Klára Zakopalová 6-2 6-2. Her performance at the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open was more positive, as she defeated World #10 Agnieszka Radwańska 7-6(3) 6-3 before falling in 3 sets in the second round to Flavia Pennetta.

Šafářová had her best result in 2011 at the 2011 Malaysian Open, where she reached the final and held championship points against an in-form Jelena Dokić but succumbed 2-6 7-6(9) 6-4.

PERSONAL:

Coached by David Kotyza; physical trainer is David Vydra
Began playing at age 3
Favorite surface is clay
Father, Milan, used to be her coach; mother is Jana; has one sister, Veronika; also has one dog, Kuba
Admires Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport
Speaks Czech, German, English
Enjoys comedy movies; favorite actress is Angelina Jolie
Also likes playing basketball and table tennis and going swimming.

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