Jenifer Widjaja (born 7 December 1986) is a Brazilian 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.

Biography

Widjaja, a right-handed player, is originally from São Roque near the city of São Paulo and is of Indonesian descent. Coached by her father Tony, she was only 14 when she began competing in local

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 ...

tournaments. In 2004, she had her breakthrough year when she won three $10k events in the space of a month, at

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La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

and Asuncion. Her biggest tournament win was a $25k tournament in San Luis Potosi in 2006. She featured in a

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 ...

main draw for the first time at the 2007 Copa Colsanitas (Bogota), in the women's doubles with

Larissa Carvalho Larissa Carvalho (born 9 March 1985) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. Biography Carvalho, a right-handed player from Brasília, was a top-50 ranked junior. From 2004 to 2007, Carvalho appeared in eleven Fed Cup The Billi ...

. They were defeated in the first round by

Flavia Pennetta Flavia Pennetta (; born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis pla ...

and

Roberta Vinci Roberta Vinci (; born 18 February 1983) is an Italian former tennis player. In doubles tennis, she is a Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Grand Slam, Career Grand Slam champion having won all Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments and reac ...

. Straight after that, she travelled to Acapulco and made the singles main draw of the Abierto Mexicano, as a lucky loser from qualifying, where she was beaten again in the opening round, by sixth seed

Gisela Dulko Gisela Dulko (; born 30 January 1985) is an Argentine former tennis player. Although she enjoyed modest success in singles, reaching a career-high ranking of world No. 26 and winning four WTA Tour, WTA titles, her speciality was doubles, where s ...

. She played in the singles qualifying draws for the

2007 French Open The 2007 French Open (Roland Garros) was held in Paris, France from 27 May through to 10 June 2007. Rafael Nadal became the first man to win the tournament 3 times consecutively since Björn Borg, 1978–81; and maintained his unbeaten run at Rola ...

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

and

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major events, as well as competing for Brazil at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

in Rio de Janeiro. Despite ending 2007 at a career-best of No. 186 in the world, she decided to retire from professional tennis. Over the next few years, she instead attended college in the United States and played collegiate tennis for the

Pacific Tigers The Pacific Tigers represent the University of the Pacific (United States), University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, in intercollegiate athletics. The Tigers compete in NCAA Division I, and are currently in their second stint as members ...

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. She represented

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in a total of ten

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 ...

ties for a 6–4 overall record, with all six wins coming in singles.

ITF finals

Singles (5–5)

Doubles (2–6)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Widjaja, Jenifer 1986 births Living people Brazilian female tennis players Tennis players from São Paulo Pacific Tigers women's tennis players Pan American Games competitors for Brazil Tennis players at the 2007 Pan American Games Brazilian people of Indonesian descent Sportspeople of Indonesian descent College women's tennis players in the United States Brazilian expatriate tennis players in the United States South American Games medalists in tennis South American Games silver medalists for Brazil Competitors at the 2002 South American Games 20th-century Brazilian women 21st-century Brazilian sportswomen People from São Roque, São Paulo