Sybille Bammer

Sybille Bammer (born 27 April 1980) is a former professional tennis player from Austria.

Born in Linz, Bammer made her WTA Tour main-draw debut as a wildcard in 2000 at the Klagenfurt event where she lost to German player Andrea Glass.

She failed to qualify for Wimbledon, the US Open and her home tournament in Linz.

She was the first Austrian since Barbara Schett in 2000 to make it to the quarterfinals there.

After her impressive run in Linz, she reached a new career-high of No. 77.

During 2001 she took a break from tennis to give birth to her daughter, Tina.

Ranked No. 238 at the time of her retirement, she believed her tennis career was over.

She stayed in the Austrian village of Ottensheim for a year to care for her daughter.

The baby's father, boyfriend Christophe Gschwendtner, offered to take a break from his engineering career to take care of Tina so that Bammer could return to the tour.

Upon her post-pregnancy comeback in 2002 she cruised to win her first career singles title at the $10k event in Grenoble.

She won another two in the same year at Mostar and Innsbruck, both $25k events on the ITF Circuit.

During 2003, she picked up another four $25k singles titles.

She also made her debut for Austria in their Fed Cup team.

Her daughter, Tina, was a frequent regular in the crowd.

Bammer said of her daughter, "She is always telling other people to be quiet because mommy is concentrating."

In 2005, Bammer made her career breakthrough, soaring into the top 100 in the rankings, including making her Grand Slam main draw debut at the US Open, where she fell in the first round to Martina Suchá as a qualifier.

At the Tier-III event in Kolkata, Bammer reached her first-ever WTA quarterfinal event, and then reached her second at the Tier-II event in Linz as a wildcard, defeating Virginie Razzano and Vera Dushevina.

At the start of 2006, she achieved her best-ever Grand Slam performance in only her second-ever Grand Slam main draw, making the third round.

Two weeks later, she reached her first WTA Tour semifinal at Pattaya City, falling to eventual champion Shahar Pe'er.

Her career-high ranking is No. 19, which she achieved on 17 December 2007.

She was one of three mothers on the WTA Tour, having taken time off at age 21 to have her daughter Tina before returning to the tour.

When she won the 2007 Pattaya Open, it was the first time in 18 years that a mother won on tour, after Laura Arraya in 1989.

In February 2007, she finally won her first WTA Tour title ten years after turning professional, beating Vasilisa Bardina in the first round to avenge her semifinal loss to her at Hobart, Anastasia Rodionova, Martina Suchá, Peng Shuai and topping it off with a victory over Gisela Dulko in the final, saving three match points en route to victory.

At Indian Wells, she became the No. 33 seed after Elena Dementieva withdrew.

She made the most of her luck, stunning everyone by making the semifinals of the Tier I event, her first-ever semifinal at this level.

In the fourth round, she stunned No. 10 seed Ana Ivanovic, and beat No. 13 seed Tatiana Golovin in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, her fairytale came to an end in the semifinals losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova, the second seed, with a result of 7–6, 4–6, 1–6.

Due to this amazing run, she rose to a new career high of No. 30.

She lost early in Miami to tricky French left-hander Émilie Loit, and then moved onto the green clay of Amelia Island.

She reached the third round in Indian Wells before losing to 19th seed Martina Hingis, and the second round in Charleston, losing to top seed Justine Henin-Hardenne.

During the Fed Cup, she fell 0–3 in Austria's 5–0 defeat to Spain.

She made her top-50 debut at No. 42 following a third-round appearance at Berlin, losing to sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In her first Wimbledon main-draw showing, she reached the third round, notching her best career win thus far over Nathalie Dechy, then ranked No. 23.

This was followed by a poor U.S. hardcourt season, falling in the first round at four events and reaching the second round in three, including the US Open.

She then reached her third career quarterfinal in Bangkok, once again beating Nathalie Dechy before falling to Tamarine Tanasugarn, the eventual runner-up.

She finished the season ranked No. 53, her best year-ending ranking thus far.

After losing in the first round of Gold Coast to eventual runner-up Martina Hingis, 0–6, 2–6, the following week at Hobart, a Tier-IV event, she raised several eyebrows by issuing a quarterfinal defeat to then eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, who was playing her first tournament since the US Open.

With this victory, she became one of the very small number of players that have a winning head-to-head record over Williams.

She lost easily in the semifinals to Vasilisa Bardina, 3–6, 1–6.

She then lost 4–6, 5–7 in the first round of the Australian Open to Anna Chakvetadze, after leading 5–2 in the second set.