Gisela Dulko

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Gisela Dulko
2009 Italian Open
Country (sports) Argentina
ResidenceBuenos Aires, Argentina
Born (1985-01-30) 30 January 1985 (age 39)
Tigre, Argentina
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned proJanuary 2001
Retired18 November 2012[1]
PlaysRight–handed (two–handed backhand)
Prize money$4,246,105
Singles
Career record309–242
Career titles4
Highest rankingNo. 26 (21 November 2005)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open3R (2010)
French Open4R (2006, 2011)
Wimbledon3R (2004, 2006, 2008, 2009)
US Open4R (2009)
Doubles
Career record305–182
Career titles17
Highest rankingNo. 1 (1 November 2010)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenW (2011)
French OpenQF (2007, 2010)
WimbledonSF (2010)
US OpenQF (2010)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour FinalsW (2010)
Team competitions
Hopman CupF (2005)

Gisela Dulko (Spanish pronunciation: [xiˈsela ˈðulko];[2] born 30 January 1985) is an Argentine former tennis player. Although she enjoyed modest success in singles, reaching a career-high ranking of world No. 26 and winning four WTA titles, her speciality was doubles, where she achieved the world No. 1 ranking and won 17 WTA titles. Partnering with Flavia Pennetta, Dulko won the 2010 WTA Tour Championships and the 2011 Australian Open. She also reached the mixed-doubles final at the 2011 US Open, with Eduardo Schwank. During her career, Dulko upset a number of top players on the tour, including Maria Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon in 2009, Samantha Stosur in the third round of Roland Garros in 2011, and Martina Navratilova in the second round of Wimbledon in 2004 and in Navratilova's final Grand Slam singles match.

Dulko retired from professional tennis on 18 November 2012, aged 27.[3]

Early life

Gisela was born and raised in

Miami, Florida, to pursue a professional tennis career.[4]

Career

1999–2008

As a junior, she won three Grand Slam events in doubles: the 2000 US Open with María Emilia Salerni, the 2002 Australian Open with Angelique Widjaja, and the 2001 Wimbledon Championships with Ashley Harkleroad.[6]

On 29 April 2007, she won her first WTA title by defeating

Tier-IV event, defeating Virginie Razzano. On 4 May 2008, she won her third WTA title at the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem Tier-IV event, defeating Anabel Medina Garrigues.[6]

2009

Dulko at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships

In January, she played at the

Madrid Open and the Aegon International
.

She reached the third round in the next two Grand Slams, losing to Dominika Cibulková at the French Open, and then to Nadia Petrova at Wimbledon after she had upset the 24th seed, Maria Sharapova, in three sets in the second round.

At the

Kateryna Bondarenko 0–6, 0–6 in just 47 minutes. Her last tournament of the year was at the Toray Pan Pacific Open
, where she reached the second round before losing to Benešová in three sets.

2010

Dulko at the 2010 US Open

She again played at the

Edina Gallovits. She then played in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel as the third seed, but lost to the fifth-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro
in the semi-finals.

Seeded 31st at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, she gained the biggest victory of her career by defeating the former world No. 1, Justine Henin. In the third round, she lost to the No. 5 seed, Agnieszka Radwańska.

Unseeded at the Sony Ericsson Open, Dulko reached the third round by defeating Olga Govortsova and the No. 21 seed Alona Bondarenko. She then lost to Marion Bartoli. In the doubles, Dulko and Flavia Pennetta won their first WTA Premier title, beating Petrova and Samantha Stosur in three sets.

Dulko and Pennetta also won the

Internazionali d'Italia in Rome, and extended their winning streak to 19 matches before losing in the final of the Madrid Open
to Serena and Venus Williams.

Dulko caused the first upset of the French Open with a first round victory over the No. 10 seed, Victoria Azarenka. Dulko was then defeated by Chanelle Scheepers in the second round.[8] Dulko lost in the first round of her Wimbledon campaign by Monica Niculescu. She and Pennetta reached the semi-finals of the doubles event.

Dulko then played at the

Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová
.

Dulko and Pennetta won a marathon doubles final at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, beating Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, for their fifth title of the season. Their next event together was the US Open, in which they were the top seeds but lost in the quarter-finals to Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova, the eventual champions. In the singles, Dulko reached to the third round before losing to the No. 20 seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.[9]

At the

Chan Yung-jan, and then won their sixth event of the season at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.[10] Dulko and Pennetta were invited to the Tour Championships in Doha as the top seeds, and defeated Peschke and Srebotnik in the final to win the year-end championship.[11]

On 1 November 2010, Dulko became the world No. 1 ranked doubles player.[12]

2011–2012

Dulko in 2012

Dulko and Pennetta to won their first Grand Slam event title at the 2011 Australian Open, defeating Azarenka and Kirilenko 2–6, 7–5, 6–1 in the final.[13]

Dulko reached her first singles final of the year at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, where she was the fourth seed. There she defeated Arantxa Parra Santonja to win her fourth career singles title. She struggled in her next few tournaments, losing in the first rounds of Miami, Madrid, and Rome, and only reaching the second round at the BNP Paribas Open, but found form again at the French Open, advancing to the fourth round by defeating the 2010 finalist Stosur in three sets. However, she was forced to retire due to a leg injury in the second set of her match against Bartoli.[14]

Career statistics

Main article: Gisela Dulko career statistics

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 2011 Australian Open Hard Italy Flavia Pennetta Belarus Victoria Azarenka
Russia Maria Kirilenko 		2–6, 7–5, 6–1

Mixed doubles: 1 (0–1)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 2011 US Open Hard Argentina Eduardo Schwank United States Melanie Oudin
United States Jack Sock 		7–6(7–4), 4–6, [10–8]

Doubles performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
Tournament 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A 2R 2R QF 3R 1R 2R QF W 3R 19–8
French Open A 2R 3R 2R 3R QF 1R 2R QF QF 2R 17–10
Wimbledon
 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R SF A A 6–9
US Open A 1R 1R 3R 1R 3R 2R 3R QF 3R A 12–8
Win–loss 0–1 1–3 5–4 4–4 5–4 7–4 2–4 5–4 13–4 9–1 3–2 54–35
Year-end championships
WTA Finals A A A A A A A A W SF A 2–1
Titles/Runner-ups 0–1 1–0 0–2 3–1 2–2 0–0 0–0 2–3 8–2 1–0 0–0 17–11
Year-end ranking 125 96 34 26 29 23 132 27 1 9 46 N/A

Personal life

Dulko was married to the Argentinian international footballer Fernando Gago.[15] The couple has two sons[16] and a daughter.[17] The couple separated in 2021, after he had an affair with one of her friends.[18][19]

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Últimas noticias de Últimas noticias de Deportes - LA NACION". La Nación.
  2. ^ In isolation, Dulko is pronounced [ˈdulko].
  3. ^ "Gisela Dulko to retire from pro tennis". USA Today. 18 November 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Antes que tener la fama de Kournikova prefiero ganar muchos torneos". Sergio Oviedo. Gente. 13 July 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Gisela Dulko". Women's Tennis Association. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  6. ^ a b "Gisela Dulko | Player Stats & More – WTA Official". Women's Tennis Association. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  7. ^ "Gisela Dulko". TennisTemple (in German). Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  8. ^ Tennis.com. "'Auntie' Dulko matches best result at French Open". Tennis.com. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  9. ^ Tennis.com. "Dulko upsets Azarenka". Tennis.com. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  10. ^ "Chuang/Govortsova claim women's double title at China Open". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  11. ^ Farthing, Tim (8 November 2018). "Dulko & Pennetta claim Doha doubles crown". Tennishead. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  12. ^ "From Martina to Hsieh: All 25 WTA Doubles Year-End No.1s". Women's Tennis Association. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  13. ^ "Flavia & Gisela's Missing Piece". Women's Tennis Association. 28 January 2011. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  14. ^ Tennis.com. "Dulko retires, France's Bartoli into quarterfinals". Tennis.com. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  15. ^ "La tenista Gisela Dulko y el futbolista Fernando Gago se casarán en julio". EFE. 27 March 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  16. ^ "Nació Mateo, hijo de Gago y Gisela Dulko". Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  17. ^ "Nació Antonella, la segunda hija de Gisela Dulko y Fernando Gago".
  18. ^ "Separado de Gisela Dulko, Fernando Gago ya estaría viviendo con su amante" (in Spanish). Infobae. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  19. ^ "Gisela Dulko y Fernando Gago: la historia de amor que terminó en escándalo". El País (in Spanish). 1 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gisela Dulko.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by WTA Doubles Team of the Year
(with Italy Flavia Pennetta)
2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
United States Serena Williams &
United States Venus Williams
 ITF Doubles World Champion
(with Italy Flavia Pennetta)
2010 		Succeeded by
Slovenia Katarina Srebotnik &
Czech Republic Květa Peschke
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