Sunitha Rao (born October 27, 1985) is an Indian-American 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, who represented India in international tournaments. She won eight doubles titles on the ITF Circuit in her career. On July 7, 2008, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 144. On May 19, 2008, she peaked at No. 108 in the doubles rankings. Playing for India Fed Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 5–6. Rao also is the fourth female tennis player in history representing India to enter the top-200 world rankings, after Nirupama Sanjeev, Shikha Uberoi, and

Sania Mirza Sania Mirza (; born 15 November 1986) is an Indian former professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she won six major titles – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles ...

Personal life

Rao was born in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

in 1985 and was raised by her Telugu Indian immigrant parents Manohar and Savithri, who were from

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Career

2002–2007

Rao played her first

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 ...

match at the 2002 Brasil Open, where she defeated Vanessa Henke in the first round. She was beaten by

Anastasia Myskina Anastasia Andreyevna Myskina ( ; born 8 July 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Myskina won the 2004 French Open singles title, becoming the first Russian woman to win a major singles title. Due to this victory, she rose to ...

in the second round. Rao played at the 2004 Korea Open where she was beaten by

Miho Saeki (born 18 March 1976) is a Japanese former tennis player, winner of professional tournaments in doubles and singles, and a representative of Japan in the Fed Cup, Federation Cup. Career Saeki's career began officially in April 1994. As a junior f ...

in the first round. Rao participated at the 2005 Internationaux de Strasbourg, but was overpowered by Iveta Benešová in the first round. Then she played at the Sunfeast Open where she beat Neha Uberoi in the first round before falling to

Elena Likhovtseva Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva ( ; born 8 September 1975) is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi she won the Wimbledon Mixed doubles in 20 ...

. She took part at the 2006 Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, where she lost to Angelique Widjaja in the first round. She also suffered a first-round defeat at the 2006 Sunfeast Open to Nicole Pratt. Rao defeated Sandy Gumulya in the first round of the 2007 Sunfeast Open to advance to the second round where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She then lost in the first round of the 2007 Challenge Bell to Alina Jidkova.

2008

Rao received an entry into the PTT Pattaya Open via a lucky loser spot. She beat Junri Namigata before losing to Ekaterina Bychkova. Then, at the Copa Colsanitas, she lost to Edina Gallovits in the first round. Rao received the best result of her WTA career at the 2008 DFS Classic in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. She beat

Petra Kvitová Petra Kvitová (; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 31 career singles titles, including two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major titles ...

(who would be the future world No. 2 and Wimbledon titlist) in the first round and

Naomi Cavaday Naomi Kathleen Cavaday (born 24 April 1989) is a British people, British former professional tennis player from Sidcup, London. She retired in April 2011 to take up a coaching role with the Lawn Tennis Association. At the time of her retirement ...

in the second before falling to

Alona Bondarenko Alona Volodymyrivna Bondarenko Dyachok (; born 13 August 1984) is a Ukrainian former tennis player. Her sisters Valeria and Kateryna Bondarenko are also tennis players. Her career-high singles ranking is No. 19, achieved on 14 April 2008. Alo ...

in the third round. She partnered with

, representing India in the women's doubles event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. They got a walkover in round one, but lost to

Svetlana Kuznetsova Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Kuznetsova won 18 singl ...

and

Dinara Safina Dinara Mubinovna Safina (, ; ; born April 27, 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina ...

of Russia in round two. Rao announced retirement from tennis in 2009. She graduated from the

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

in 2014 and works in the real estate business.

ITF finals

Singles (0–7)

Doubles (8–7)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Sunitha 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Jersey City, New Jersey Tennis players from Bradenton, Florida Tennis players from New Jersey American female tennis players Indian female tennis players Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for India American tennis players of Indian descent American people of Telugu descent American expatriates in India Babson College alumni 21st-century American sportswomen