Mirjana LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni (; ; born 9 March 1982) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. She enjoyed a meteoric rise on the WTA Tour in the late 1990s, during which she set various "youngest-ever" records. She captured the women's doubles title at the 1998 Australian Open when she was 15 years old, partnered with Martina Hingis. She also won the first ever professional tournament she entered, the 1997 Croatian Ladies Open, and defended it the following year at age 16, making her the youngest player in history to successfully defend a title. She then reached the semifinals of the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, beating world No. 4 Monica Seles and eighth seed Nathalie Tauziat, the previous year's finalist, before she lost to Steffi Graf in three sets.
After toiling on the ITF Women's Circuit through much of the next decade, LuÃÂiàre-emerged as a WTA regular following the 2010 season. In September 2014, she upset world No. 2 Simona Halep in the third round of the US Open. The following week, she beat Venus Williams at the Tournoi de Québec final to claim the title, which set the record for the longest gap between titles in the Open Era. In January 2017, almost 18 years after her first Grand Slam semifinal, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, upsetting two top-5-ranked players before losing to Serena Williams. Three months later, she entered the singles rankings' top 20 for the first time in her career. However, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni has been inactive since January 2018 due to a shoulder injury.
LuÃÂiÃÂ began playing tennis at age 4 by hiding in the car when her older sister went to tennis classes and then sneaking into the lessons herself. As a junior player, she won the girls' singles title at the US Open in 1996, and singles and doubles crowns at the Australian Open in 1997, becoming the third player in the Open Era to win two junior Grand Slam singles titles before her 15th birthday (others being Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati).
LuÃÂiÃÂ turned professional in April 1997 at the age of 15. One week after turning pro, she won the first WTA Tour event she played in at Bol. She then reached the final of her second career event in Strasbourg, where she lost to Steffi Graf.
In 1998, playing in her first tour doubles event, LuÃÂiÃÂ became the youngest player in history to win a title at the Australian Open at the age of 15 years, 10 months and 21 days, when she and Hingis won the women's doubles title. The win made LuÃÂiÃÂ the first player to win both the first singles and doubles events they had ever played in on the WTA Tour. She went on to win the second doubles event of her career when she partnered with Hingis to win the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. Later that year, LuÃÂiÃÂ defended her singles title at Bol, becoming the youngest player ever to defend a tour title at age 16 years, one month and 24 days. Partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi, she also finished runner-up in the 1998 mixed-doubles event of Wimbledon.
In 1999, LuÃÂiÃÂ achieved her career-best Grand Slam singles performance when she reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, before losing in three sets to Graf. She beat Erika deLone and Mariana DÃÂaz Oliva before she beat world No. 4 and nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles in the third round. She saw off Tamarine Tanasugarn and then beat 1998 Wimbledon finalist Nathalie Tauziat in the quarterfinals, after Tauziat served for the match twice in the third set.
After 1999, LuÃÂiÃÂ suffered a series of personal and financial problems and failed to make any further significant impact on the tour. She said that she had been abused by her father, Marinko, from early childhood. She continued to compete until the 2003 US Open, then proceeded to take an extended hiatus from competition; her career-high rankings were world No. 32 in singles and No. 19 in doubles (both achieved in 1998). She played only two tournaments in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 seasons combined.
LuÃÂiàgave an interview in the New York Daily News in April 2006, explaining why she stopped playing and describing her life with an abusive father, vowing that would not stop her and she would continue to fight to the end. She had been training with a new coach, Ivan Beroà ¡, and said she was fit and ready to continue tennis.
As a wildcard in the qualifying draw of the Cellular South Cup in Memphis in February, LuÃÂiÃÂ won one match (defeating Melanie Oudin) before losing in the second round to Natalie Grandin. She was also awarded a wildcard to the Indian Wells Open in March, where she again won her first match before losing in the second round.
She also received a wildcard to the Tiro A Volo tournament in Rome, where she lost in the first round to Karin Knapp. That was her third tournament within the previous 12 months, and she received her first WTA ranking (No. 524) since her return to the professional tour.
Even though she lost the first round to Knapp in the $100k Rome Challenger, she received a qualifying wildcard for the WTA Tour tournament in May at the same city and beat the 65th-ranked player in the world, Elena Vesnina. She then went on to lose to Catalina Castaño in the second round. Her ranking fell to 444 with the result.
LuÃÂiÃÂ played a mixture of ITF and WTA qualifiers in 2008, her best result reaching the quarterfinals in Florence in May. In September 2008, Mirjana started working with her new coach Alberto Gutierrez, planning to play a full schedule the following year.
In the 2009 season, she was given a wildcard into the Auckland Open in New Zealand. In her first WTA Tour main-draw match since 2007 Indian Wells, she lost to Anne Keothavong in the first round.
LuÃÂiàthen continued to toil on the ITF Circuit for several years prior to mounting somewhat of a comeback in the 2010 season. During that year, LuÃÂiàwon her first title in 12 years at a $25k event in Jackson, Florida on 11 April. Shortly after, LuÃÂiàqualified for the WTA event in Birmingham, going on to win her first main-draw match since 2007 in Indian Wells, this time over Colombian Mariana Duque. She continued her good form as she defeated fellow Croatian player Karolina à  prem in the second round. She was beaten by top-20 player Aravane Rezaï of France in the third round. LuÃÂiàthen competed in the Wimbledon qualifying tournament in Roehampton. She won her first two rounds and beat Michaëlla Krajicek in the third round to qualify for the main draw of Wimbledon, her first Grand Slam since the 2002 US Open. After a good showing, she fell to 14th seed Victoria Azarenka in the first round on centre court.
After Wimbledon, LuÃÂiàmoved onto the European summer clay-court events. She failed to qualify for the Swedish Open in BÃÂ¥stad but the following week came through three rounds of qualifying at Palermo event, and won her first round match, defeating Pauline Parmentier recovering from a 0âÂÂ4 third set deficit and saving three match points. She then fell to third seed Sara Errani in the second round recovering a 2âÂÂ4 deficit to force a tie-break before falling 0âÂÂ6, 6âÂÂ7. Her ranking rose to No. 151.
Following Palermo, LuÃÂiàreturned to the United States for the summer hard-court season. Her first event was the Premier event in Stanford, the Silicon Valley Classic. Seeded fifth in the qualifying draw, LuÃÂiàdefeated both Heidi El Tabakh and Tamaryn Hendler in straight sets, before repeating her Wimbledon victory over Michaëlla Krajicek with a straight-sets win to qualify for the main draw where she lost to Maria Kirilenko.
In the US Open, after winning three qualifying matches to enter the main draw, she beat Alicia Molik to set up a second round clash with No. 4 seed Jelena JankoviÃÂ. LuÃÂiÃÂ lost in three sets. Even with this defeat, this was her best performance in a Grand Slam championship for nearly a decade.
LuÃÂiÃÂ started out the 2011 season poorly with a string of early losses on both the WTA Tour and ITF Circuit early in the year. Her fortunes began to change during the clay court season where LuÃÂiÃÂ reached her first WTA quarterfinal in over ten years at the Strasbourg event, losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues. She married restaurateur Daniele Baroni in December 2011.
LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni began the new season losing in qualifying at Brisbane and Sydney in January. She also failed to qualify for the Australian Open. She struggled to find her form, losing early at the tournaments in Midland and Memphis, as well as the Premier line-up events of Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston. She also lost in the first round at Roland Garros to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni had a breakthrough run at Wimbledon, reaching the third round as a qualifier. She stunned ninth seed Marion Bartoli en route to the second round. However, her run was ended by Roberta Vinci in a tight match.
At the Wimbledon Championships, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni faced former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the first round but lost to the Belarusian in straight sets, after having set points in the second set.
A few weeks later, a resurgent LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni made major waves at the US Open. She defeated No. 25 seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round, and Shahar Pe'er in the second round to gain a berth in the third round for the first time since 1998. She then pulled off a huge upset, stunning second-seed Simona Halep in straight sets to win a spot in the round of 16âÂÂthe best result of her career at this tournament, and her best showing at a Grand Slam since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1999. She went on to lose this round to 13th seed Sara Errani in three sets.
However, only two weeks later, she entered the Quebec City event and reached the singles final, where she pulled off another major upset by beating Venus Williams on 14 September, setting a record for the longest gap between titles in WTA history, as her previous win happened 16 years and four months earlier at the 1998 Bol Ladies Open. In addition, paired with Czech player Lucie Hradecká, she won the doubles final of the tournament on the same day.
In 2015, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni had a second consecutive finish in the top 100 of the WTA rankings, ending the season ranked No. 67. Her best performance was reaching the semifinals in Québec City, losing to sixth seed and eventual champion Annika Beck in three sets.
In 2016, she reached the final at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she lost in straight sets to 10th seed Caroline Garcia.
Entering ranked 79 in the world at the Australian Open, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni defeated Wang Qiang, third seed Agnieszka Radwaà Âska, Maria Sakkari, qualifier Jennifer Brady and fifth seed KarolÃÂna PlÃÂà ¡ková to make her first Australian Open semifinal and her first semifinal appearance at a major since for 18 years ago. She lost in the last four to six-time champion and second seed Serena Williams.
In March, as top seed she reached the semifinals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, retiring due to illness after losing the first five games of her match against seventh seed and eventual champion Lesia Tsurenko.
The following month at the Charleston Open, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni made it through to the semifinals, at which point she was defeated by Jeüena Ostapenko in three sets.
On 1 May, she entered the WTA top-20 for the first time.
At the Brisbane International, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni lost in the second round to Alizé Cornet. Seeded 28th, she defeated Shelby Rogers in the first round at the Australian Open, before losing to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
In March 2021, LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni announced her continued plans for a comeback in order to conclude her career on her own terms.
<small>WinâÂÂloss includes only WTA Tour and Grand Slam tournaments main-draw results.</small>
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