Kathy Rinaldi-Stunkel (born March 24, 1967) is an American former professional

tennis player 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 ...

, who retired in September 1997. In her career she won three singles and two doubles titles 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 ...

, and reached the semifinals of the 1985 Wimbledon Championships.

Career

Rinaldi reached her highest career ranking on May 26, 1986, when she was ranked world No. 7. The recipient of WTA Most Impressive Newcomer Award in 1981 and WTA Comeback Player of the Year Award in 1989, she had career wins over top players such as

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 ...

Jana Novotná Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in 1997, and as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 67 weeks. ...

Sue Barker Susan Barker (born 19 April 1956) is a British former television presenter and professional tennis player. During her playing career, Barker won 15 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 1976 French Open. She reached a career- ...

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach. She was ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and List of W ...

Hana Mandlíková Hana Mandlíková (born 19 February 1962) is a Czech–Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 3 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in the mid-1980s. Mandíková won 27 WTA Tour-level sin ...

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, (born 26 November 1952) is an Australian retired tennis player. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runner-u ...

Manuela Maleeva Manuela Georgieva Maleeva (; born 14 February 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour between 1982 and 1994. Through her marriage, Maleeva began representing Switzerland officially from January 1990 ...

Dianne Fromholtz Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat (née Fromholtz; born 10 August 1956) is an Australian former professional tennis player who reached a highest singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1979. Career Fromholtz began playing tennis at the age of seven. She ...

Helena Suková Helena Suková () (born 23 February 1965) is a Czech former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and No. 4 in singles. Suková won 14 major titles: nine in wo ...

Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Claudia Kohde-Kilsch ( Kohde; born 11 December 1963) is a former German tennis player and member of the Die Linke. During her tennis career, she won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won eight singles titles and a total of 25 dou ...

Zina Garrison Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963) is an American former professional tennis player. Garrison was the runner-up in singles at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, a three-time major mixed doubles champion, and an Olympic gold and bronze ...

Sylvia Hanika Sylvia Hanika (born 30 November 1959) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. She is remembered for finishing as the runner-up at the French Open in 1981 and for winning the Year End Championships in 1982. She was ranked as high as ...

, Kathy Jordan,

Jo Durie Joanna Mary Durie (born 27 July 1960) is a former world No. 5 tennis player from the United Kingdom. During her career, she also reached No. 9 in doubles, and won two Grand Slam titles, both in the mixed doubles with Jeremy Bates. Born in Bri ...

, and

Natasha Zvereva Natalya "Natasha" Maratovna Zvereva (born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. Zver ...

. In 1981, Rinaldi became the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon (14 years, 91 days), a record that stood until 1990. After the 1987 French Open, she suffered a freak injury in Monte Carlo, slipping on stairs, and in trying to catch herself, fracturing her right thumb. This injury sidelined her for the rest of the year. She was a member of the US Wightman Cup Team in 1983, 1985, and 1986.

Fed Cup

In December 2016, Rinaldi was appointed as the captain of the United States Fed Cup team, succeeding Mary Joe Fernandez. In her first year as Fed Cup captain, the U.S. won the

2017 Fed Cup The 2017 Fed Cup was the 55th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. The final took place on 11–12 November and was won by the United States . World Group Seeds Draw Final Belarus v ...

Family

Rinaldi married Brad Stunkel, her high school sweetheart, on December 11, 1993, and adopted his surname. She gave birth to a son, Bradley Benton Stunkel Jr., on February 8, 1995. The family currently resides in

Palm City, Florida Palm City is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Martin County, Florida, United States. The population was 25,883 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Palm City i ...

Awards and recognitions

* 1981: WTA Most Impressive Newcomer of the Year * 1989: WTA Comeback of the Year

WTA career finals

Singles: 7 (3–4)

Doubles: 12 (2–10)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rinaldi, Kathy 1967 births Living people American female tennis players American people of Italian descent People from Palm City, Florida Sportspeople from Martin County, Florida Tennis players from Florida 21st-century American women 20th-century American sportswomen