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Babes of the 2009 French Open
Elena Dementieva
WTA Ranking: 04
Age: 27
Nationality: Russia
If you like to mix money and women, place your bets on this ravishing Russian winning the whole damn thing. She earned her first international title at age 13; went pro in ‘98, top 100 in ‘99. In 2008, Elena won the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (and $1.5 million), her first Tier II title since ‘06. Despite repeatedly making it to many final rounds in ‘08 and ‘09, we think she’s got another win up her sleeve, shorts–she’s got it hidden there, somewhere.
Jelena Jankovic
WTA Ranking: 05
Age: 24
Nationality: Serbia
Jelena Jankovic might be the most badass chick playing in the French Open, having been ranked No. 1 in 2008 for 17 weeks, before being taken out by Serena Williams. But despite that little “upset,” this grand-slammer wins matches, and that’s that. Oh yeah, and she looks ridiculously smokin’ in little shorts. Who would’ve guessed she’d win in that category, too…
Ana Ivanovic
WTA Ranking: 08
Age: 21
Nationality: Serbia
She may be younger than you, but Ana Ivanovic has been making moves in the tennis world since the age of five. In addition to being the reigning 2008 French Open singles champion, this sexy Serb has topped numerous lad mag lists, most notably FHM. Let’s be honest, you’ve never even met a woman this good at anything, ever.
Victoria Azarenka
WTA Ranking: 09
Age: 19
Nationality: Belarus
Eighteen-year-old Azarenka won a junior world championship in 2005 and the U.S. Open mixed doubles title, with her partner Max Mirny, in 2007. Although she was born in Russia, Azarenka now loves in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. You know – paradise…
Agnieszka Radwanska
WTA Ranking: 12
Age: 20
Nationality: Poland
This 20-year-old cutie became the first Polish player in history to win a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title after winning the Nordea Nordic Light Open in 2007, as well as the first Polish woman to win a Grand Salm singles quarterfinal during the open era and the first to pass the $1 million mark in career prize money.
Flavia Pennetta
WTA Ranking:14
Age: 26
Nationality: Italian
This Italian hottie has dominated multiple world number ones and Grand Slam winners, beating Justine Henin at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 2005, Martina Hingis in Gold Coast 2006 season and Venus Williams at the 2007 PTT Bangkok Open. We think she wins, too.
Jie Zheng
WTA Ranking: 15
Age: 25
Nationality: China
After her WTA debut in 2000, Jie Zheng became the first Chinese player to ever reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament after kicking ass at Wimbledon 2008. Since then, she’s worked her way up in the rankings and is currently the highest-ranked women’s singles player in all of Asia. Beat that!
Patty Schnyder
WTA Ranking: 17
Age: 30
Nationality: Switzerland
Having been a WTA player since 1993, Patty Schnyder has beat 12 World No. 1 players, including Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. She’s reached the Grand Slam singles quarterfinals four times and the semifinals once, and has won 11 WTA singles titles and 5 doubles titles, earning her more than $7.6 million in prize money. So no, she will not date you.
Dominika Cibulkova
WTA Ranking: 20
Age: 20
Nationality: Slovakia
Before going pro in 2005, this smokin’ Slovakian stunner is a former World-ranked No. 3 at the junior level. However, Dominika has had limited success in her pro career, with no WTA or ITF titles yet in the bag, though she did beat Jelena Jenkovik at the 2008 Rogers Cup in Montreal. And she lists “hard” as one of her favorite surfaces, which doesn’t make us want to make a penis joke at all…
Alize Cornet
WTA Ranking: 21
Age: 19
Nationality: France
With a ton of Juniors titles under her belt, having won the 2007 Girls Singels at Roland Garros. She also scored a payday of $50,000 after winning the 2007 ITF tournament in Dnepropetrovsk. But at 2007’s US Open, she lost to Jelena Jankovic in the third round. In 2008, she came back to reached the third round with a win over Camille Pin. We’re guessing she used her clever shirt technique to distract her.
Anna Chakvetadze
WTA Ranking: 27
Age: 22
Nationality: Russia
A relative new-comer, Anna starts the US Open ranked at 11th in the world, with no World Championships under her waistband, yet. She peaked last year, landing the 5th in the world spot after the ‘07 US Open. And she reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the French Open, also in 2007. It was a rough year for Anna in 2008, but she still sits as one of the best prospect players to hit the court.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
WTA Ranking: 28
Age: 17
Nationality: Russia
Currently the youngest player in the WTA, Anastasia made waves in the tennis world after beating super-hottie Caroline Wozniacki to win the 2006 junior Australian Open. That same year, she went on to win the US Open junior title, then returned to Australia to successfully defend her title against Tamira Paszek. So it seems we’ll be seeing a lot of this one for some time to come. Our only hope is that we never have to try to pronounce her last name in public.
Sybille Bammer
WTA Ranking: 29
Age: 29
Nationality: Austria
One of only two mothers on the WTA tour, Sybille Bammer (awesome name, BTW) took a break in 2001 to birth her daughter, Tina. Upon her return to the circuit in 2002, she won her first singles title at Grenoble, followed by wins at Mostar and Innsbruck. By 2005, she’d broke through rankings into the top 100 and made the top 50 in 2006.
Samantha Stosur
WTA Ranking: 31
Age: 25
Nationality: Australia
Stosur is a former world No. 1 on WTA Tour in doubles, together with Lisa Raymond from the United States. In 2007, she contracted Viral Meningitis, through being bitten by a tick–and had to put tennis on the back burner. Now she is back and looking strong. And also has a vivid fear of ticks. (We’re guessing…)
Iveta Benesova
WTA Ranking: 33
Age: 26
Nationality: Czech
Iveta earned her first WTA title in 2004, and beat 5th seed Mary Pierce in the 2006 Australian Open–but lost to Martina Hingis in the next round. But you know what? With looks like that, she could think a tennis racket is for making waffles and we’d still be into her.
Alona Bondarenko
WTA Ranking: 39
Age: 24
Nationality: Ukraine
Though Alona’s professional career began slowly in 2005, she comes into Wimbledon with a recent win in the ‘08 Australian Open doubles category…with her sister Kateryna, giving proof for the existence of God another solid argument.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands
World Rank: 45
Age: 24
Nationality: United States
I’ll give you one guess what Bethanie Mattek-Sands is known for. Yep, it’s her boobs! (high five!) On top of having the tastiest ta-tas in tennis, Bethanie is also one of the sports craziest dressers. Oh yeah, and she’s won has won five ITF singles and three doubles titles, and plays for the New York Sportimes for World Team Tennis. Did we mention her boobs?
Maria Kirilenko
WTA Ranking: 47
Age: 23
Nationality: Russia
In 2002, Maria Kirilenko became one of the youngest winners of the Canadian Open and the US Open Juniors. She won the doubles title in Estoril om 2008, partnering Flavia Pennetta, and her fourth WTA title in Barcelona. Tell us she isn’t the next big thing.
Anna-Lena Groenefeld
WTA Ranking: 50
Age: 24
Nationality: Germany
After going pro in 2003, Groenefeld became the number one tennis player from Germany. She won the French Open Junior title to become the first German since 1957 to do so, and was the Singles Champion at both Belgium and Frankfurt International Championships in 2002. And after some rough times in 2007, she made her comeback in 2008, winning several ITF events in both singles and doubles. We wouldn’t mind winning with her in doubles either…
Maria Sharapova
WTA Ranking: 65
Age: 21
Nationality: Russia
If you don’t know who Sharapova is then you need to flip through Sports Illustrated’s 2006 Swim Suit issue, now. As one of the best tennis players in the world, this 21-year-old hottie has won three of four Grand Slam titles and banked over $12 million in prize money in her young career. After 10 months on the DL, Sharapova is hungry for another Grand Slam title and as we’re sure you will agree, we’re happy to have her back.
Pauline Parmentier
WTA Ranking: 77
Age: 23
Nationality: France
This 23-year-old French stunner has four ITF singles titles and two ITF doubles titles under her belt, along with two WTA Tour tiles. And she won her first WTA Tour Title at the 2007 Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan, where I bet you had no idea they even had tennis.
Edina Gallovits
WTA Ranking: 78
Age: 24
Nationality: Romania
Twenty-four-year-old brunette beauty Edina Gallovits comes into the 2009 French Open having reached the WTA tour finals twice in her career. Her best Grand Slam performance came at the 2007 French Open and 2008 Australian Open, having made the second round in each tournament. OK, so that doesn’t sound very impressive. But you probably can’t even play ping-pong without breaking a sweat, so whatever…
Petra Cetkovska
WTA Ranking: 82
Age: 24
Nationality: Czech Republic
After turning professional in 2000, Petra went on to win 15 ITF singles titles and 16 IFT doubles titles. In 2007, she won her first WTA doubles title at the ECM Prague Open, and debuted her skills at the US Open, beating out Jill Craybas, but eventually losing in the second round.
Julia Goerges
WTA Ranking: 87
Age: 20
Nationality: Germany
One of the youngsters at the French Open, Julia Goerges made waves after qualifying for the main draw at the 2007 US Open, but lost in the first round to No. 1-ranked Justine Nenin. Sure, that kinda sucks. But when your name sounds like “gorgeous”, then you’re already starting out better than most people.
Marta Domachowska
WTA Ranking: 92
Age: 23
Nationality: Poland
Not only is 23-year-old Domachowska a junior star but she is also super smart and fluent in three languages. And in 2008, she hit her career high ranking at No. 49. Now she looks to put an exclamation point on her young career with her first pro title. And we’re going to have to start putting exclamation points after everything if she keeps do that with her skirt!
Klara Zakopalova
WTA Ranking: 116
Age: 27
Nationality: Czech Republic
This blond Czech hottie has had an up-and-down career, having peaked at No. 27 in world rankings in 2006 and dropping ever since. Having reached eight singles finals with two wins, Klara won the biggest match of her career this year after beating 10-time grand slam champion, Serena Williams to win the 2009 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Spain.
Maret Ani
WTA Ranking: Unranked
Age: 27
Nationality: Estonia
This super-smokin’ 27-year-old Estonian first started playing tennis at the age of 14. Three years later, she moved to Italy after finding sponsorship, to begin her professional career. She’s was the top-ranked player in Estonia in 2006, before losing that spot to pro, Kaia Kanepi. But when you’re this fly, we don’t hold that kind of thing against you.