Kaia Kanepi

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**Kaia Kanepi**

Country	Estonia
Residence	Haapsalu, Estonia
Date of birth	June 10, 1985 (1985-06-10) (age 23)
Place of birth	Tallinn, Soviet Union
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	163 lb (74 kg/11.6 st)
Turned pro	2000
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$713,535
Singles
Career record:	203-124
Career titles:	0 WTA, 6 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 34 (June 9, 2008)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2r (2007)
French Open	QF (2008)
Wimbledon	2r (2007)
US Open	3r (2006)
Doubles
Career record:	23-35
Career titles:	0 WTA, 2 ITF
Highest ranking:	No. 320 (March 1, 2004)
Infobox last updated on: June 9, 2008.

Kaia Kanepi (pronunciation: KEYE-ah ka-NEP-I; born June 10, 1985 in Tallinn) is an Estonian professional female tennis player. Her career-high was No. 34 on June 9, 2008. She is right-handed and play two-handed backhand. Her favourite surface is clay. In her career, she has beaten Patty Schnyder, Flavia Pennetta and Anna Chakvetadze.

[edit] Career

Her father, Jaak (a real estate broker) and Mother Anne (a homemaker) played tennis. They introduced their daughters Kadri, who won a tennis scholarship to study in the U.S. and Karin, a dedicated horse rider. Kaia, who always watched her parents and sisters play, discovered her love for tennis at an early age. She started playing at the age of 8. Thanks to her family, who have always supported her desire to play pro tennis, she reached world No.1 on ITF Junior Rankings, before turning pro in 2000. She’s won six ITF singles titles on the way and is now top-ranked Estonian female tennis player followed by Maret Ani and Margit Rüütel.

Kaia’s dream is to be world No. 1 some day. She is a great admirer of Anna Kournikova, Martina Hingis, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. She currently lives in Haapsalu, Estonia. From the beginning of 2008 Kaia is coached by Pablo Giacopelli.

At the end of the 2006 season, she reached her very first WTA-tour final during the Gaz de France Stars tournament in Hasselt, Belgium. She came through three qualification rounds and beat players such as Anne Kremer, Nathalie Dechy, Eleni Daniilidou, Francesca Schiavone and Michaella Krajicek to eventually play the final against Kim Clijsters, where she lost, 3–6, 6–3, 4–6.

At 2007 Australian Open, Kaia struggled but defeated 28 seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy in straight sets 7–5, 7–6, before losing to Alicia Molik 6–1, 3–6, 2–6 in the second round. At Indian Wells she had a tough 1st round against wildcard Kristina Brandi but prevailed and won 3–6, 7–5, 6–0. In the 2nd round she came up against the 14th seed and eventual champion, Daniela Hantuchová. Kanepi went down in 3 sets, losing 2–6, 6–2, 6–1. At Miami, she stunned Patty Schnyder in the 2nd round before losing to qualifier Vera Dushevina in round 3.

In late July, Kanepi won though to the semi finals of the Bad Gastein tournament in Austria where she fell to Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6–4 6–2. This was her 3rd ever semi final and first of the year. Afterwards, she made her top 40 debut at #40.

Kanepi got another major scalp at the 2008 French Open where she managed to take out sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze in straight sets, 6-4 7-6(2). She defeated 29th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 for a place in the fourth round; outplaying unseeded Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 took her to the quarter finals, where she was finally defeated by 4th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-2.