Sabine Appelmans (born 22 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Belgium. She was Belgium's

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 chan ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

from 2007 until 2011.

Career

Appelmans started playing at the neighbour's court at the age of seven. Her first trainer, Fred Debruyn, saw immediately that she was very talented. Although right-handed, she played left-handed; at a children's tennis training session she claimed to be left-handed so she could stay with her friend in the left-handed group. Appelmans turned pro in 1988, and won her first title against

Chanda Rubin Chanda Rubin (born February 18, 1976) is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world ...

in Scottsdale in 1991. She made her first

appearance in 1988, with a 1–2 loss against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. In 1997, she married Serge Haubourdin. Throughout her career, she won seven singles and four doubles titles. She participated three times in the Olympics (in 1992, 1996 and 2000) - at the 1992 Games in Barcelona she reached the quarterfinals in singles. Her best result in the Grand Slam tournaments is reaching the quarterfinals at the 1997 Australian Open after defeating then world No. 3, Conchita Martínez. Her highest spot on the WTA rankings is the 16th place, which she reached in November 1997. In the doubles she reached, together with Miriam Oremans, the semi-finals of

1997 Wimbledon The 1997 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 111th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and was held ...

. In February 2007, she was appointed captain of Belgium's Fed Cup squad in replacement of Carl Maes, leading the team to a semifinal in 2011. That year, she was replaced herself in October 2011 by Ann Devries.

Awards

Appelmans was elected as the Belgian Sportswoman of the year 1990 & 1991. She was nominated for the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award in 1994 & 1995.

WTA career finals

Singles: 12 (7 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Doubles: 14 (4 titles, 10 runner-ups)

ITF finals

Singles: 4 (1–3)

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Singles performance timeline

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Appelmans, Sabine 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Aalst, Belgium Belgian female tennis players Flemish sportspeople Olympic tennis players of Belgium Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics