Marianne Werdel (born October 17, 1967) is an American former professional tennis player.
Werdel was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and played on the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tou ...
from 1982 to 1997. She is also known as Marianne Witmeyer or Werdel-Witmeyer.
She won 19 national junior titles. In 1988 Werdel suffered a partially herniated disc, forcing a two-month absence from the tour.
At the
1995 Australian Open, unseeded Marianne Werdel defeated fifth-seeded
Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina in a first-round match. Werdel won the first set, but Sabatini raced out to a 3–0 lead in the second set before twice losing her serve. Werdel won four consecutive games to close out the match in straight sets, dismissing Sabatini 6–4, 6–4.
Werdel had also beaten Sabatini two years earlier at a tournament in Japan. After she had disposed of Sabatini, Werdel continued to work her way through the draw beating
Park Sung-hee,
Elena Makarova,
Barbara Paulus
Barbara Paulus (born 1 September 1970) is a former professional top-ten tennis player from Austria. She began playing on the WTA Tour in 1986 and retired in 2001. During her career, she won a total of seven WTA tournaments (six singles titles, on ...
and
Angélica Gavaldón en route to a semifinal encounter with the top-seed and world No. 1
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Ol ...
. In their two previous meetings, Werdel had lost both times to Sánchez Vicario. This time proved no different as Sánchez Vicario defeated Werdel in two sets. In reaching the semifinals, the 1995 Australian Open proved to be the best result Werdel would have in Grand Slam singles competition. She defeated Sánchez Vicario two months later in the third round of the
Lipton Championships in
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne ( es, Cayo Vizcaíno, link=no) is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies sou ...
.
Werdel was coached by
Woody Blocher.
[
On 21 November 1992, she married ]Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player Ron Witmeyer.[
]
WTA career finals
Singles: 6 runner-ups
Doubles: 6 runner-ups
References
External links
*
*
1967 births
Living people
American female tennis players
Tennis players from Los Angeles
21st-century American women
{{US-tennis-bio-stub