Joannette Kruger

Joannette Kruger (born 3 September 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Johannesburg, South Africa. Her career-high in singles is No. 21 in the world, a ranking she achieved on 4 May 1998.

Kruger turned professional in 1989, but it was not until 1992 that she finally broke into the world's top 100. In 1995, she had her breakout season winning her first WTA Tour title in San Juan where she beat Kyoko Nagatsuka in the final. She also recorded her first two top ten wins over Anke Huber and Lindsay Davenport.

After an injury-plagued 1996 season, she won her second career title in 1997 in Prague, Czech Republic by defeating Marion Maruska in the final. Other highlights included the quarterfinals of the Tier I in Rome, defeating Brenda Schultz-McCarthy and Karina Habšudová en route, both top twenty players, and reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at the US Open, beating Barbara Paulus in the first round.

She continued her success in 1998, reaching her third WTA Tour final at Oklahoma City, beating Serena Williams in the quarterfinals but losing to her sister Venus Williams in the final. Her win over Serena was the most lopsided defeat of Williams' career, losing just two games (only Annie Miller of the US finished with such a scoreline in Quebec City in 1995). At the Indian Wells Open, she upset Amanda Coetzer for the first top five win of her career. On 4 May 1998, she reached her career high of No. 21.

At the Qatar Telecom German Open in 2000, she achieved the biggest win of her career by taking down world number three Nathalie Tauziat with the loss of just two games and then went on to make her first Tier I semifinal. The following year she reached her fourth WTA Tour final at the Wismilak International, beating Grand Slam champion Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in semifinals before losing to Angelique Widjaja. She also reached two doubles finals in this year, winning Sopot with Francesca Schiavone and finishing runner-up at Basel with Marta Marrero.

Kruger's last year on the Tour was in 2003, where she used a special ranking. She went 0–5 during this year with her last match being a 6–2, 6–1 loss to Jennifer Capriati at the French Open.

WTA career finals

Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Legend
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III (1–2)
Tier IV & V (1–0)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–1	Mar 1995	Puerto Rico Open	Hard	Template:Flagicon Kyōko Nagatsuka	7–6(7–5), 6–3
Win	2–0	Jul 1997	Prague Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Marion Maruska	6–1, 6–1
Loss	2–1	Feb 1998	Cellular South Cup, U.S.	Hard	Template:Flagicon Venus Williams	3–6, 2–6
Loss	2–2	Sep 2001	Bali Classic, Indonesia	Hard	Template:Flagicon Angelique Widjaja	6–7(2–7), 6–7(4–7)

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	May 1998	Bol Ladies Open, Croatia	Clay	Template:Flagicon Mirjana Lučić-Baroni	Template:Flagicon Laura Montalvo Template:Flagicon Paola Suárez	w/o
Win	1–1	Jul 2001	Polish Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Francesca Schiavone	Template:Flagicon Yulia Beygelzimer Template:Flagicon Anastasia Rodionova	6–4, 6–0
Loss	1–2	Aug 2001	Swiss Indoors	Clay	Template:Flagicon Marta Marrero	Template:Flagicon María José Martínez Sánchez Template:Flagicon Anabel Medina Garrigues	6–7(5–7), 2–6

ITF Circuit finals

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Singles: 5 (4–1)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1.	6 November 1989	Haifa, Israel	Hard	Template:Flagicon Yael Segal	0–6, 4–6
Win	1.	14 May 1990	Bournemouth, United Kingdom	Clay	Template:Flagicon Anna Benzon	7–6, 6–1
Win	2.	11 May 1992	Bournemouth, United Kingdom	Hard	Template:Flagicon Amy van Buuren	6–2, 6–2
Win	3.	14 June 1992	Modena, Italy	Clay	Template:Flagicon Alexandra Fusai	6–4, 6–3
Win	4.	5 July 1992	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Template:Flagicon Lubomira Bacheva	6–1, 6–0

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1.	4 August 1992	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Template:Flagicon Elena Pampoulova	Template:Flagicon Eva Martincová Template:Flagicon Pavlína Rajzlová	4–6, 0–6

Best Grand Slam results details

	Australian Open
1998 Australian Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Template:Flagicon Angélica Gavaldón	6–0, 2–0 ret.
2R	Template:Flagicon Sonya Jeyaseelan	6–3, 6–2
3R	Template:Flagicon Anke Huber (10)	7–6(7–4), 3–6, 2–6

	French Open
1994 French Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Template:Flagicon Eugenia Maniokova	4–6, 6–0, 6–3
2R	Template:Flagicon Radka Zrubáková (Q)	4–6, 7–5, 6–3
3R	Template:Flagicon Steffi Graf (1)	0–6, 6–4, 2–6

	Wimbledon Championships
1997 Wimbledon
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Template:Flagicon Stephanie Devillé	7–6(7–3), 6–3
2R	Template:Flagicon Anke Huber (7)	2–6, 0–6

	US Open
1997 US Open
Round	Opponent	Score
1R	Template:Flagicon Barbara Paulus (14)	6–1, 6–7, 6–1
2R	Template:Flagicon Henrieta Nagyová	6–4, 7–6
3R	Template:Flagicon Tamarine Tanasugarn	6–7, 7–5, 6–4
4R	Template:Flagicon Venus Williams	2–6, 3–6

External links

• Template:WTA
• Template:ITF
• Template:Fed Cup player