Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Bethanie Mattek-Sands ( Bethanie Lynn Mattek; born March 23, 1985) is an American professional tennis player.

She has won nine Grand Slam titles (five in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles), and an Olympic gold medal, and is a former world No. 1 in doubles.

In 1999, Mattek played her first WTA Tour event in Philadelphia where she received a wildcard into the qualifying.

She lost in the first round of qualifying to Nana Miyagi.

It was the only tour match of the year for Mattek.

Mattek also played World TeamTennis for the Hartford FoxForce in 2000, the Sacramento Capitals in 2006, and the New York Sportimes in 2008.

Mattek-Sands has also won five singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

Then in 2000, she received a wildcard into qualifying at the International Players Championships in Key Biscayne but lost in the first round to Anca Barna.

Later in the year, she played in her first major event at the US Open.

She was handed a wildcard into the qualifying, but she lost in the first round to Gisela Rivera.

In 2001, Mattek again received a wildcard into the qualifying at the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, but lost in the second round of qualifying to Sandra Cacic.

Mattek received direct entry into the ITF event Boynton Beach due to a wildcard.

She defeated top-seeded Elena Likhovtseva in the first round and Jennifer Hopkins in the second round, but lost in the quarterfinals against Åsa Carlsson.

As a result, her ranking rose up to world No. 343.

Mattek received direct entry into the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Florida, thanks to a wildcard.

However, she lost to fellow American Jill Craybas in the first round.

Mattek played another ITF event, the Bronx Open, as a wildcard, but lost in the first round to Sylvia Plischke.

She played her first main draw as a wildcard at a Grand Slam tournament in the US Open but lost to Australia's Alicia Molik in the first round.

Mattek ended the year ranked world No. 338.

Her best performance was at Wimbledon where she reached the fourth round, claiming her first top-10 win over 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, Marion Bartoli.

She then lost in the round of 16 to fellow American Serena Williams.

At the LA Championships, Mattek made it to the semifinals before losing to tenth-seeded Flavia Pennetta.

In November, she reached her first ever WTA tournament final at the Bell Challenge in Canada, before losing to the top seeded Nadia Petrova.

Her best results in singles on the WTA Tour are reaching the fourth round of two major events (Wimbledon in 2008 and the French Open in 2013), the semifinals of the tournaments in Cincinnati in 2005 and Birmingham in 2008, and the final of the Bell Challenge in 2008 and 2010.

In 2008, Mattek reached a then career-high singles ranking of No. 38 on November 3, 2008, and a then career-high ranking of No. 24 in doubles.

At the major tournaments, she did not qualify for the Australian Open, but reached second rounds of the French Open and US Open.

In 2009, she had to pull out of the Australian Open in January with a hip injury.

She later made her season debut at the Indian Wells Open and reached the second round before losing to Gisela Dulko.

She also entered the doubles event with Mashona Washington, where she reached the third round.

She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 30 in the world on July 11, 2011.

In January 2011, Mattek-Sands got the biggest win of her career by defeating world No. 7, Francesca Schiavone.

Mattek-Sands has also found great success in mixed doubles; she won the 2012 Australian Open with and the 2015 French Open and a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In women's doubles, Mattek-Sands has won 29 career titles, including five Grand Slam titles at the 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, 2016 US Open, 2017 Australian Open and 2017 French Open, all partnering Lucie Šafářová.

The pair also were the runners-up of the 2016 WTA Finals.

In 2016, hacked documents from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed that Mattek-Sands had twice applied for a therapeutic-use exemption for hydrocortisone and DHEA.

Both times the request was granted by the International Tennis Federation before being revoked by WADA, but an application for exemption for hydrocortisone alone was eventually approved.

Mattek-Sands has refused to comment on the exemption.

Mattek-Sands became the world No. 1 in doubles on January 9, 2017, and held the top ranking for 32 consecutive weeks.

Mattek-Sands then suffered a major knee injury in 2017 that required surgery and a year away from competition to heal, but eventually came back to win the 2018 and 2019 US Open mixed doubles titles, both partnering Jamie Murray.

At the Wimbledon Championships, she lost in the first round to the 18th seed Samantha Stosur.