Catalina Castaño Álvarez (; born 7 July 1979) is a Colombian former
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. Her highest singles
ranking
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...
is world No. 35 which she achieved July 2006.
In her career, she won ten titles on the
ITF Women's Circuit
The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players.
History
It serves as a developmenta ...
, six in singles and four in doubles, as well as one doubles title on both 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 ...
and
Challenger Tour.
Castaño defeated top-20 players such as
Nicole Vaidišová,
Anna-Lena Grönefeld
Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional tennis player.
Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2006 M ...
,
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
,
Paola Suárez
Paola Suárez (; born 23 June 1976) is a retired tennis player from Argentina. She was one of the most prominent women's doubles players throughout the early and mid-2000s, winning eight Grand Slam titles, all of them with Virginia Ruano Pascua ...
,
Li Na
Li Na (born 26 February 1982) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association. Li won nine WTA Tour-level singles titles, including two Grand Slam (t ...
and
Lucie Šafářová
Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles.
She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
. She was coached by Peruvian-born British citizen Pablo Giacopelli since 2004.
Career summary
1999–2004
In 1999 she won her first
ITF title in Santiago. The following year she won two ITF titles in Midlothian and Cali. In 2001, she reached the quarterfinals in her home tournament of Bogotá, Colombia (Tier III). In 2002, Castaño advanced the semifinals in Bogotá. She reached four ITF finals, winning two of them - in Gorizia and Campobasso. She won 39 matches in the year and lost 18. In 2004, she reached the quarterfinals in Bogotá for the third time. She was the last player to be defeated by
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 ...
at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
in the ladies singles, losing the match 0–6, 1–6. She won her sixth ITF title in Orbetello.
2005
In April, she won five matches in Miami (Tier I) including back-to-back wins over world No. 19,
Paola Suárez
Paola Suárez (; born 23 June 1976) is a retired tennis player from Argentina. She was one of the most prominent women's doubles players throughout the early and mid-2000s, winning eight Grand Slam titles, all of them with Virginia Ruano Pascua ...
, and world No. 13,
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
, before falling to world No. 9,
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been 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 11 wee ...
, in three sets in the round of 16. In May, she won four matches in Rome (Tier I) before losing to world No. 10,
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Igorevna Zvonareva ( rus, Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, p=ˈvʲerə ˈiɡərʲɪvnə zvənɐˈrʲɵvə, a=Vera zvonareva.ogg; born 7 September 1984) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ran ...
, in the round of 16. In August, she reached her first ever
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 ...
final in Budapest. She lost to the top seed
Anna Smashnova
Anna Aleksandrovna Smashnova (, ; born July 16, 1976) is a Soviet-born Israeli former tennis player. She retired from professional tour after Wimbledon 2007.
Smashnova reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 15 in 2003. She reached ...
in the final, in straight sets. In October, she reached the semifinals in Seoul (Tier IV) but lost to the eventual champion
Nicole Vaidišová.
2006
She commenced January with a semifinal showing in Canberra (Tier IV) and passed the first round of the Australian Open for the first time. In
Charleston in mid-April, Catalina reached her first Tier I quarterfinal, after defeating
Ashley Harkleroad, Nicole Vaidišová and
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007 Wimbledo ...
. Her two-sets win over Vaidišová, who was ranked 14 at the time, was her best win of the year. The following week in Berlin, Catalina beat
Anna-Lena Grönefeld
Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional tennis player.
Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2006 M ...
, who was ranked 14 at the time. It was her second win over a top-15 player in as many weeks. In May, she reached the quarterfinals in Istanbul (Tier III) for the first time. She reached her highest ranking of No. 35 on July 16.
2007
Catalina commenced the new season with a solid start, recording two quarterfinal appearances at the Gold Coast and Hobart in January. At the Gold Coast, she defeated Li Na who was ranked 21 at the time.
2014
Castaño retired from professional tennis after a diagnosis of
breast cancer
Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
.
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 1 (runner-up)
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
WTA Challenger finals
Singles: 1 (runner-up)
Doubles: 1 (title)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles (6–7)
Doubles (4–3)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Head-to-head record
''Players who have been ranked world No. 1 are in boldface.''
*
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 ...
- 0–1
*
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 ...
- 0–1
*
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an 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 (WT ...
- 0–1
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Castano, Catalina
1979 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Pereira, Colombia
Colombian female tennis players
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Olympic tennis players for Colombia
Tennis players at the 2011 Pan American Games
Pan American Games bronze medalists in tennis
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Colombia
Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games
20th-century Colombian women
21st-century Colombian sportswomen