Mirjana Lučić

Mirjana Lučić-Baroni

Lučić-Baroni at the 2016 French Open
Full name	Mirjana Lučić-Baroni
Country (sports)	Croatia
Residence	Sarasota, Florida, United States
Born	(1982-03-09) 9 March 1982 (age 34) Dortmund, West Germany
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	26 April 1997
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$ 2,631,632
Singles
Career record	357–287
Career titles	3 WTA, 4 ITF
Highest ranking	32 (11 May 1998)
Current ranking	79 (16 January 2017)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2017)
French Open	3R (2001, 2015)
Wimbledon	SF (1999)
US Open	4R (2014)
Doubles
Career record	76–76
Career titles	3 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	19 (26 October 1998)
Current ranking	118 (16 January 2017)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1998)
French Open	3R (2013, 2016)
Wimbledon	QF (2013)
US Open	3R (2013)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	14–3
Last updated on: 8 February 2016.

Mirjana Lučić-Baroni (née Lučić; born 9 March 1982) is a professional Croatian tennis player. She enjoyed a promising career on the WTA Tour in the late 1990s, during which she set several "youngest-ever" records, won the Grand Slam women's doubles title at the Australian Open in 1998 when she was only 15 years old, partnered with Martina Hingis; won the first ever professional tournament she entered, the 1997 Croatian Bol Ladies Open, and defended it the following year at age 16, making her the youngest player in history to successfully defend a title. She reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999, beating World No. 4 Monica Seles en route. Following a series of personal problems from 2000 onwards, she faded from the scene.

After toiling on the ITF circuit through much of the next decade, Lučić re-emerged as a WTA regular following the 2010 season. She married Daniele Baroni on 15 November 2011. 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 singles final to claim the title (also winning the doubles event), which set the record for the longest gap between titles in the Open Era. At the 2015 French Open's 2nd round, Lučić-Baroni upset Halep once again, who was the previous year's finalist and ranked No. 3, by a score of 7–5 6–1.

Lučić began playing tennis at age four 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 the girls' singles and doubles crowns at the Australian Open in 1997, becoming only the third player in the Open Era to win two junior Grand Slam singles titles by the age of 14 (the others being Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati).