88 Facts About Sesil Karatantcheva

1.

Sesil Radoslavova Karatantcheva is a Bulgarian tennis player.

2.

In 2021, Sesil Karatantcheva established her own tennis academy in Sofia.

3.

Sesil Karatantcheva began playing tennis at the age of five.

4.

In 2001,12-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva won the Orange Bowl tournament for her age group, defeating Alisa Kleybanova in the final.

5.

Sesil Karatantcheva played her first professional tournament in September 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria at the age of 14.

6.

Sesil Karatantcheva went on to win two other ITF titles in 2003.

7.

In 2004, Sesil Karatantcheva began her season at the WTA tournament in Indian Wells, where she defeated Alexandra Stevenson in the first, and upset the 17th seed Magui Serna in the second round.

8.

Sesil Karatantcheva started off the year at the tournament in Gold Coast, Australia by qualifying, and then defeating the tournament's No 7 seed Elena Likhovtseva before falling in the quarterfinals.

9.

Sesil Karatantcheva became the youngest female to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament since Martina Hingis in 1996.

10.

In 2005, Sesil Karatantcheva won a European club championship in Rennes as a member of the Cherno More Elite team.

11.

Sesil Karatantcheva's teammates were Virginiya Trifonova, Maria Penkova and Tsvetana Pironkova.

12.

Sesil Karatantcheva was honoured by the Bulgarian Tennis Federation as the "Best female tennis player of the year".

13.

On December 20,2005, the French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported that Sesil Karatantcheva had failed a drug test earlier in the year at Roland Garros, and that she had appeared in front of a three-person panel of judges to explain the results.

14.

The newspaper claims that Sesil Karatantcheva said she was pregnant at the time of the test, which would explain the high levels of nandrolone in her system.

15.

Sesil Karatantcheva did not play any matches in 2006 or 2007 following her drug ban.

16.

Sesil Karatantcheva won three matches in one day to win the event and thus won a wildcard for the qualifying draw, in which she beat Susanna Lingman, Maria Kondratieva, and Kristina Kucova.

17.

Sesil Karatantcheva attracted criticism from the Bulgarian tennis federation for competing at La Quinta in preference to participating in Bulgaria's Federation Cup tie scheduled the same week.

18.

Sesil Karatantcheva then attempted to qualify for the WTA Tier III event in Memphis but lost in the first round of qualifying to Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic.

19.

Sesil Karatantcheva received a wildcard into the qualifying event for the Tier I event at Indian Wells but lost in the first round of qualifying to Evgeniya Rodina.

20.

On 10 January 2009, it was announced that Sesil Karatantcheva would take Kazakh citizenship and compete for the Kazakhstan Fed Cup team.

21.

Sesil Karatantcheva did not participate in Fed Cup competitions for Kazakhstan during 2009.

22.

Sesil Karatantcheva then lost in the second round to Peng Shuai.

23.

At the Pattaya Open, Sesil Karatantcheva reached her first WTA semifinal, before losing to Tamarine Tanasugarn.

24.

Sesil Karatantcheva failed to qualify in Brisbane, Melbourne, Pattaya, and Monterrey.

25.

Sesil Karatantcheva reached the final of a $25k event in Clearwater, Florida, losing to Ajla Tomljanovic.

26.

Sesil Karatantcheva returned at the WTA Palermo, where she qualified for the main draw.

27.

Sesil Karatantcheva drew second seed Roberta Vinci in the first round.

28.

Sesil Karatantcheva then failed to qualify for the US Open, marking the first year since 2009 that she had not competed in the main draw of a major.

29.

Sesil Karatantcheva began to improve her game by advancing to the semifinals of a $50k event in Troy, Alabama.

30.

Sesil Karatantcheva then competed in a $25k tournament in Rock Hill, losing in the quarterfinals.

31.

Sesil Karatantcheva won the title dropping only two sets the entire tournament, defeating a seeded player along the way.

32.

Sesil Karatantcheva failed to qualify in Brisbane and at the Australian Open.

33.

Sesil Karatantcheva then competed in the $100k tournament in Cali.

34.

Sesil Karatantcheva then played at the Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas and Monterrey Open.

35.

Sesil Karatantcheva then competed at the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open, losing in the first round of qualifying for both tournaments.

36.

Sesil Karatantcheva then lost in the first round of qualifying of the Madrid Open.

37.

Sesil Karatantcheva played Timea Babos in the first round and won in two easy sets.

38.

Sesil Karatantcheva opened her grass-court season at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham.

39.

Sesil Karatantcheva entered the qualifying draw and defeated local girl Francesca Stephenson, but fell to Thailand's Noppawan Lertcheewakarn in the final round.

40.

Sesil Karatantcheva faced another Thai player, Tamarine Tanasugarn, defeating her in straight sets.

41.

Sesil Karatantcheva's run was ended in the second round by eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova.

42.

Sesil Karatantcheva then lost in the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon.

43.

Sesil Karatantcheva then played at the Bank of the West Classic.

44.

Sesil Karatantcheva was points away from winning, but was finally beaten by Melinda Czink in the first round.

45.

Sesil Karatantcheva then competed at the second annual Washington Open where she lost to Sloane Stephens in the first round.

46.

Sesil Karatantcheva then continued her hardcourt season at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

47.

Sesil Karatantcheva lost to 16th seed Lucie Safarova in the second round in straight sets.

48.

Sesil Karatantcheva's ranking climbed to No 92, her highest ranking since 2005.

49.

Sesil Karatantcheva lost to Lourdes Dominguez Lino in the first round.

50.

Sesil Karatantcheva continued by then losing in the qualifying draw of the next four events in Tokyo, Beijing, Linz, and Moscow.

51.

Sesil Karatantcheva suffered a shock straight set loss to world No 217 Shelby Rogers in the first round.

52.

Sesil Karatantcheva began the season at the Australian Open, losing to 6th seed Li Na in the first round.

53.

Sesil Karatantcheva then played at the WTA 125,000 event in Cali, losing in the quarterfinals to Catalina Castano in three sets.

54.

Sesil Karatantcheva then lost in Memphis qualifying before losing to Francesca Schiavone in the second round at Acapulco.

55.

Sesil Karatantcheva lost in the final round to Silvia Soler Espinosa.

56.

Sesil Karatantcheva closed the hard court season with a first round loss in Osprey to Olga Puchkova.

57.

Sesil Karatantcheva opened her clay court season by falling in the qualifying rounds in Charleston and Oeiras.

58.

Sesil Karatantcheva then won only two matches in her next four tournaments before heading to Wimbledon, where she lost in the final round of qualifying to Austrian Yvonne Meusburger in a close three-set match.

59.

Sesil Karatantcheva played the qualifying draw and won three consecutive matches against Chieh-yu Hsu, Katalin Marosi, and Ivana Lisjak for a spot in the main draw.

60.

Sesil Karatantcheva's ranking plummeted to No 163 as a result of her failure to defend 2012's second round points.

61.

At the US Open, Sesil Karatantcheva played the qualifying draw and won two matches before losing out to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets.

62.

Sesil Karatantcheva beat Elisabeth Fournier, Petra Rampre, and CoCo Vandeweghe to enter the main draw.

63.

Sesil Karatantcheva played fellow qualifier Amra Sadikovic and beat the Swiss in straight sets.

64.

Sesil Karatantcheva returned to the United States to compete in two ITF Circuit events in Albuquerque and Las Vegas, losing in the first round of both tournaments.

65.

Sesil Karatantcheva made her 2014 debut at the Hobart International, losing in the first round of qualifying to Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck.

66.

Sesil Karatantcheva's run was ended in the first round by Kiki Bertens.

67.

Sesil Karatantcheva proceeded to compete in Osprey, but lost to Gioia Barbieri in the first round.

68.

Sesil Karatantcheva next played at the Dothan Pro Tennis Classic, but suffered another loss, going down to world No 125 Michelle Larcher de Brito in the first round.

69.

Sesil Karatantcheva elected to skip all grass court events before Wimbledon, and suffered another Grand Slam defeat, this time at the hands of young Estonian Anett Kontaveit in the second round of qualifying.

70.

Sesil Karatantcheva entered the inaugural Bucharest Open, winning three qualifying matches before losing to Silvia Soler Espinosa in the first round.

71.

Sesil Karatantcheva then played qualifying at the Istanbul Cup but was beaten in the first round by Ana Konjuh of Croatia.

72.

Sesil Karatantcheva returned to the ITF Circuit at the $50k Powiat Poznanski Open in Sobota, advancing to the final having only dropped a set, but suffered a disappointing three-set loss there after winning the first set.

73.

Sesil Karatantcheva returned to action at the Canadian Open as a direct entrant in the main draw.

74.

Sesil Karatantcheva began with a win over Sanaz Marand in the first round and squared off against third seeded Kristina Mladenovic in the second, edging the Frenchwoman in a match that lasted over two-and-a-half hours.

75.

Sesil Karatantcheva subsequently moved on to the quarterfinals but was defeated there by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who would go on to win the tournament.

76.

Sesil Karatantcheva then eliminated Marie Bouzkova, Kiki Bertens and Monica Puig to secure herself a place in the semifinals for the second time in her career.

77.

Sesil Karatantcheva subsequently lost to fifth seed Timea Bacsinszky in two sets.

78.

Sesil Karatantcheva then suffered a defeat in straight sets to CoCo Vandeweghe.

79.

At the French Open, Sesil Karatantcheva was seeded 3rd in the qualifying draw and she qualified for the main draw.

80.

Sesil Karatantcheva played at Sydney, starting from the qualifications, defeating Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round, but then succumbing in straight sets to Magdalena Rybarikova.

81.

At the qualifying competition for the Australian Open Sesil Karatantcheva was seeded fourth.

82.

Sesil Karatantcheva did not manage to reach the main draw of the 2016 French Open, losing to Maryna Zanevska in three sets after taking the first one in the second round of qualifying, for which she was not among the seeds.

83.

At the qualifying competition for the US Open, Sesil Karatantcheva posted a win in three sets against Rebecca Sramkova in the first round, but was then defeated by Elise Mertens in another three-setter match.

84.

Sesil Karatantcheva entered the Australian Open qualifying, taking the first set against American Asia Muhammad, but eventually lost the other two.

85.

Sesil Karatantcheva is the daughter of former rower and member of parliament as part of the Bulgarian Business Bloc, Radoslav Karatantchev.

86.

Sesil Karatantcheva has three sisters, one of whom, Gabriel Karatantcheva, was active as a professional tennis player from 2014 to 2017.

87.

Sesil Karatantcheva married long-time boyfriend and former footballer Georgi Dolmov in November 2017.

88.

Sesil Karatantcheva debuted for the Bulgaria Fed Cup team in 2004, winning her singles match in the tie against the Estonia Fed Cup team.