Tennis Career
Bammer made her WTA Tour main draw debut as a wildcard in 2000 at the Klagenfurt event. She lost to German player Andrea Glass at this event. She failed to qualify for Wimbledon, US Open and her home tournament in Linz.
During 2001 she took a break from tennis to give birth to her daughter Tina. Her boyfriend Christophe Gsthwendtner took a break from his engineering career to take care of Tina. Given that she was still to break into the top 200 at the time, this was a courageous decision for the young couple. It wasn't until two years later that she would break into the top 150.
Upon her post-pregnancy comeback in 2002 she cruised to win her career-first singles title at the $10k event in Grenoble. She won another two in the same year at Mostar and Innsbruck, both $25k events on the ITF Tour. During 2003, she picked up another four $25k singles titles. She also made her debut for Austria in their Fed Cup team.
In 2005, Bammer made her career breakthrough, soaring into the top 100 on the rankings, including making her Grand Slam main draw debut at the US Open, where she fell in the first round to Martina Suchá as a qualifier. At the Tier III in Kolkatta, Bammer reached her first ever WTA Tour quarterfinal event, and then reaching her second at the Tier II event in Linz as a wildcard, defeating Virginie Razzano and Vera Dushevina. She was the first Austrian since Barbara Schett in 2000 to make it to the quarterfinals there. After her impressive run in Linz, she reached a new career high of No.77.
At the start of 2006, she got her best ever Grand Slam performance in only her second ever Grand Slam main draw, making the third round. Two weeks after, she reached her first career first Tour semifinal at Pattaya City, falling to the eventual champion Shahar Pe'er. She reached the third round in Indian Wells before losing to 19th seed Martina Hingis, and the second round in Charleston losing to top seed Justine Henin-Hardenne. During the Fed Cup, she fell 0–3 in Austria's 5–0 defeat to Spain.
She made her top 50 debut at No.42 following a third round appearance at Berlin, losing to No.6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. In her first Wimbledon main draw showing, she reached the third round, notching her best career win thus far over Nathalie Dechy, then ranked No.23. This was followed by a poor US hardcourt season, falling first round at four events and reaching the second round in three, including the US Open. She then reached her third career quarterfinal in Bangkok, once again beating Nathalie Dechy before falling to Tamarine Tanasugarn, the eventual runner-up. She finished the season ranked No.53, her best year-ending ranking thus far.
Read more about this topic: Sybille Bammer
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