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Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired 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. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Finals. Huber won 12 singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. She finished inside the top 20 for 10 seasons and achieved a career-high ranking of four in October 1996.


Early life

Huber was born in Bruchsal,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...
. She started playing tennis at the age of 7 after being introduced to the game by her father Edgar. In junior competition, she won the under-12 German Championships in 1986, the under-14s in 1987, the under-16s in 1988, and the European Championships in 1989. She was also a semifinalist at Wimbledon's junior tournament in 1990.


Career

Huber made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 1990 Australian Open, a year before she graduated from high school. After defeating Maider Laval and Elise Burgin, she was defeated in the third round by 13th-seeded
Raffaella Reggi Raffaella Reggi (; born 27 November 1965) is an Italian TV pundit and former professional tennis player. Career As a junior, Reggi won the Orange Bowl 16 and under in 1981. She was a member of the Continental Players Cup Team in 1982. Reggi ...
. In August 1990, she defeated Marianne Werdel Witmeyer to win the Schenectady tournament, a warm-up for the US Open. Jennifer Capriati then defeated Huber in the first round of that tournament 7–5, 7–5. Huber was the runner-up in her next event, losing in Bayonne to Nathalie Tauziat in straight sets. She finished 1990 ranked world No. 34. Huber became Germany's top female tennis player upon
Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...
's retirement in 1999. Two years later, Huber retired, citing a persistent ankle injury and the desire for a "normal life" as the reasons for her retirement. She planned to quit after the 2002 Australian Open, her favorite tournament, but changed her mind when she unexpectedly qualified for the year-ending Sanex Championships in Germany. "I thought there's nothing better than to celebrate saying goodbye in front of the home fans in your own country", said Huber. Huber's final match took place on 31 October 2001 against
Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...
, which she lost 6–1, 6–2. During her 12-year career, Huber reached 23 singles finals (winning 12 of them), 29 singles semifinals, and 50 singles quarterfinals. Her career record in singles was 447–225, and she earned
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4,768,292 in career prize money. Huber represented her country at three levels: the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
in 1992 in
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and in 1996 in
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; the
Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
from 1990 through 1998 and in 2000 and 2001, helping Germany to victory in 1992 by beating Spain's Conchita Martínez in the final; and the Hopman Cup, which she won with
Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...
in 1995. Although she did not win a Grand Slam title, Huber felt proud of her accomplishments, especially because she had to walk in Graf's footsteps. "I recognised pretty early on that I would never have her success, but I was still always measured against her", she said. "So, whenever I got into the quarterfinals or the semis of a Grand Slam tournament, it counted for nothing. Sometimes it was good to have her because she drew the attention away from me...On the other side, there was always the pressure to be the second Steffi Graf." In 2002, Huber accepted a role with the German Tennis Federation and became the co-tournament director for the annual Porsche Tennis Grand Prix WTA tournament in Filderstadt, Germany.


Personal life

In April 2005, Huber gave birth to her first child, a boy, with her partner Roger Wittmann. A second, a girl, followed in October 2006. (in German)


Major finals


Grand Slam finals


Singles: (1 runner–up)


Year-End Championships finals


Singles: (1 runner–up)


WTA Tour finals


Singles: 23 (12–11)


Doubles: 4 (1–3)


ITF finals


Singles (2–0)


Grand Slam singles performance timeline


Head-to-head record against other players in the top 10

''Players who have been ranked world No. 1 are in boldface.'' * Martina Hingis 1–12 * Lindsay Davenport 2–10 * Dominique Monami 2–1 *
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 ...
2–12 * Venus Williams 1–3 *
Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...
0–10 * Kim Clijsters 1–2 *
Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...
0–3 * Amélie Mauresmo 2–3 *
Nadia Petrova Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova ( ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing s ...
1–0 *
Monica Seles Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
0–9 *
Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...
2–1 * Conchita Martínez 6–2 * Jennifer Capriati 1–7 * Amanda Coetzer 4–3 * Anna Kournikova 3–3 * Mary Joe Fernández 3–4 * Kimiko Date 1–2 * Nathalie Tauziat 4–8 * Jana Novotná 4–8 * Irina Spîrlea 7–1 * Gabriela Sabatini 3–4 * Mary Pierce 5–6 * Helena Suková 2–0 * Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere 2–0 *
Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...
1–3 * Anastasia Myskina 1–0 * Barbara Schett 6–2 *
Patty Schnyder Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011
is a Swiss reti ...
2-1 * Zina Garrison 2-1 *
Lori McNeil Lori McNeil (born December 18, 1963) is an American tennis coach and former top 10 player. McNeil was a singles semifinalist at the US Open (tennis), US Open in 1987 and The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon in 1994, a women's doubles finalis ...
5-1 * Iva Majoli 5-4 * Katerina Maleeva 2-1 * Magdalena Maleeva 6-3 * Chanda Rubin 1-1 * Sandrine Testud 5-2 * Natasha Zvereva 6-1 * Helena Sukova 2-0 * Jo Durie 3-1 *
Julie Halard-Decugis Julie Halard-Decugis (born 10 September 1970) is a French former professional tennis player. Tennis career Halard-Decugis lived in La Baule, France, during the initial stages of her career and later moved to Pully, Switzerland. She turned profe ...
4-3 * Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 5-2 * Pam Shriver 3-0 * Barbara Paulus 2-1


See also

* Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huber, Anke 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Bruchsal Tennis players from Karlsruhe (region) German female tennis players Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for Germany Hopman Cup competitors West German female tennis players