Lucic ends 13-year Paris wait
Print Edition
MIRJANA Lucic-Baroni, one of tennis’s hottest properties in the 1990’s before her life was engulfed by desperate personal trauma, reached the French Open second round yesterday, 13 years after her last success.
The 33-year-old Croatian goes on to face Romanian third seed Simona Halep for a place in the last 32, admitting it’s “crazy” that it had taken since 2002 for her to achieve another win at Roland Garros.
Lucic-Baroni, who reached a career high of 32 back in 1998, set a series of records in the 1990’s.
She won the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open in 1998 with Swiss Martina Hingis when she was only 15.
She also won the first ever professional tournament she entered, the 1997 Croatian Open, and defended it the following year at 16, making her the youngest player in history to successfully defend a title.
At Wimbledon in 1999 she reached the semifinals. Just 17 and ranked 134 at the time, it took Steffi Graf to beat her.
But as her relationship with her father Marinko deteriorated — with claims of violence and abuse — her career slumped and for the best part of four years she didn’t play at all, even missing the French Open for eight years.
“It’s crazy,” said the United States-based Lucic-Baroni, after seeing off American Lauren Davis 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 yesterday.
“If you had asked me in 2002 would I still be playing in 2015, I would not have expected to be still here. But my body is holding up well and I am still enjoying it. So why not keep playing?”
Lucic-Baroni’s last win in Paris before yesterday came against Stephanie Cohen-Aloro which was quickly followed by defeat to Jennifer Capriati.
Her next match this time around will be against 2014 runner-up Halep whom she beat on her way to the US Open fourth round last year.
Lucic-Baroni still has the mass of blonde hair she sported back in the 1990s but these days it’s severely and neatly tied back to prevent it getting caught in her racquet.
“People say I look like the old lady at the club,” she joked while admitting that she has to make certain concessions to age, including wearing dark glasses on court.
“I hate the look. But I started wearing the (tinted) glasses about three years ago when I was playing in a Challenger and I missed two overheads. I didn’t touch the ball.”
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