Alison Riske

Alison Riske-Amritraj (née Riske; born July 3, 1990) is an American professional tennis player.

Educated by the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, she played during fall 2006 for Peters Township High School, where she led the girls' tennis team to the Pennsylvania State championship, and won the championship in singles.

The following year, she won the USTA National Collegiate Clay Court Championship to earn a spot in the US Open qualifying draw, where she won her first match over Sorana Cîrstea before losing to Julie Ditty.

She also won the ITA Summer Claycourt Championship and finished second at the USTA National Hardcourts that year.

In early 2008, she earned the No. 1 ranking in her country in Girls' 18s competition.

She got her first taste of the professional circuit later that year, when she served as a hitting partner for the United States Fed Cup team in their semifinal against Russia.

In her early career, Riske was coached by Janice Irwin, coach of the girls' tennis team at nearby Upper St. Clair High School.

She later began working with Yves Boulais, the husband of former professional Patricia Hy-Boulais, alongside her sister Sarah.

She briefly trained at the USTA training center in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as Van der Meer Tennis Academy in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Riske came into 2009 ranked 895 in the world.

A senior in the class of 2009, she had signed a letter of intent to play college tennis at Vanderbilt University.

In May, Riske began a run on the ITF Circuit.

As a qualifier, she reached the semifinals of a pro tournament in Indian Harbor Beach.

In June, she reached the finals of a tournament in Hilton Head, and again as a qualifier, reached the semifinals of a tournament in Boston.

Her form continued as she reached another semifinal, this time in Atlanta.

By the time of the US Open, her ranking had improved to 344, over 500 places from when she started the year.

She was granted a wildcard into the qualifying tournament of the US Open, but fell in three sets to Yulia Fedossova.

Before the US Open, Riske made the decision to give up her scholarship to Vanderbilt University and turn professional largely in part due to her breakthrough year.

Riske continued her form to the end of the year where she broke through at an ITF tournament in Troy, Alabama.

Again as a qualifier, she defeated compatriot Christina McHale to take the title there.

She finished 2009 ranked at No. 232.

Riske began 2010, her first full season as a professional, by reaching the semifinals of an ITF event in Rancho Mirage, California.

She played in several qualifying tournaments for WTA Tour events with little success until June, when she qualified for the grass-court Birmingham Classic, and went on to have her professional breakthrough, earning wins over Aleksandra Wozniak, Anna Chakvetadze and Yanina Wickmayer before losing in three sets to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

This led to her being offered a main draw wildcard to Wimbledon, her Grand Slam debut, where she lost in a rematch against Wickmayer in the first round.

In October, Riske completed an impressive run of winning a $75k, a $50k and a $50k, in three straight weeks.

In 2011, Riske reached the finals of $50k in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida.

A few weeks later, she had success on grass reaching the semifinals of Nottingham and quarterfinals of the WTA Tour event Birmingham Classic.

Riske completed 2011 with a successful run in Europe winning in Joué-lès-Tours and Limoges, and finishing the year ranked 136.

At the US Open, Riske caused a big upset when she defeated former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the third round, before she lost in the following round to former world No. 5, Daniela Hantuchová.

She trained with Yves Boulais at the end of 2012.

She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in November 2019 and won her first WTA Tour title in October 2014 at the Tianjin Open.

She has won three WTA singles titles, as well as nine singles titles and one doubles title on the ITF Circuit.

In late July 2019, just a few weeks after reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon, Alison married her long-term partner Stephen Amritraj (nephew of Vijay Amritraj and son of Anand Amritraj) in her hometown, Pittsburgh.

Her best singles performances at Grand Slam tournaments include reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2020, the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2019 (where she defeated world No. 1 and reigning French Open champion, Ashleigh Barty, in the fourth round) and the fourth round of the US Open in 2013.

Despite having not won a WTA doubles title, Riske-Amritraj has had success in doubles at the Grand Slam-level, reaching the 2019 Australian Open semifinals with Jennifer Brady and the 2020 US Open quarterfinals with Gabriela Dabrowski, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 40 on January 13, 2020.

She has had numerous career wins over current and former top 10-players such as Barty, Elina Svitolina, Sloane Stephens, Petra Kvitová, Agnieszka Radwańska, Kiki Bertens, Naomi Osaka, Belinda Bencic, Flavia Pennetta, Garbiñe Muguruza, Daria Kasatkina, Angelique Kerber, and Julia Görges.

The daughter of Al and Carol Riske, she first played tennis at the age of three, after her dad took her out to hit.

Her father worked in the Secret Service and later as an FBI investigator, while her mother was a school teacher, but both are now retired.

Her sister, Sarah, who is also a tennis player, played for Vanderbilt University and had a brief professional career, rising as high as No. 372.

Her brother, Dan, played college tennis for West Liberty State, and is now an accountant.