Julia Abe (born 21 May 1976) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from Germany.

Biography

A right-handed player from

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

, Abe was coached during her career by her father Wolfgang. Abe turned professional at the age of 19 and won two ITF singles titles in her first year on the ITF circuit in 1996. Her best performances on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

were quarterfinals appearances at the 1998 Intersport Grand Prix in Hamburg and the 1999 Nokia Cup in Prostějov, both as a qualifier. Ranked a career best 111 in the world at the beginning of 2000, she received direct entry into the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

main draw, where she lost in the first round to

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as ...

. At the

2000 French Open The 2000 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 29 May until 11 June. It was the 99th staging of the French Open, and the second Gra ...

she had to compete in qualifying and made her way through to the main draw. She defeated Marion Maruska in the first round, then challenged top seed

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...

in the second round, before going down 4–6, 5–7, having served for the second set. This was her final appearance on tour.

ITF finals

Singles (3–3)

Doubles (4–1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, Julia 1976 births Living people German female tennis players Sportspeople from Bielefeld Tennis players from Detmold (region)