The 21st century
Slovakia · born Poprad, Czechoslovakia, 1983 · Wimbledon mixed doubles champion 2001 with Leoš Friedl · Birmingham singles champion 2013
All playersBack to the rankings
2001
Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Leoš Friedl, won as an unseeded pair
4
Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, a career set completed in 2005
2
Birmingham titles: doubles in 2005 with Ai Sugiyama, singles in 2013
5
Career-high singles ranking, January 2003
2002
Wimbledon singles quarter-final, her best run in the ladies' singles
Hantuchová was born in Poprad, in what was then Czechoslovakia, on 23 April 1983. Her grandmother Helena, a former Slovak national champion, introduced her to tennis; she also studied classical piano from six to 14 and trained at the Bollettieri Academy from 16 to 18. She turned professional in 1999, was the WTA's Newcomer of the Year in 2001 and its Most Improved Player in 2002, when she won Indian Wells, beating Martina Hingis in the final, reached the Wimbledon and US Open quarter-finals and helped Slovakia win the Fed Cup. In January 2003 she reached No. 5.
The next year was hard: she later spoke of a very public struggle with the pressure of her rapid rise. She recovered to win seven singles titles in all, including Indian Wells again in 2007 and Birmingham in 2013, and reached the Australian Open semi-finals in 2008. She won nine doubles titles and four Grand Slam mixed titles: Wimbledon 2001 with Leoš Friedl, the Australian Open 2002 with Kevin Ullyett, and the French and US Opens in 2005 with Fabrice Santoro and Mahesh Bhupathi, completing the career set.
She announced her retirement at Wimbledon in July 2017 and has since worked as a commentator and analyst, in Slovak, Czech, English and German. In 2019 she received the Order of Ľudovít Štúr, First Class, a Slovak state honour.
| Wimbledon 2001 mixed | Unseeded with Leoš Friedl, beat the top seeds Todd Woodbridge and Rennae Stubbs in the second round and Mike Bryan and Liezel Huber 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final on No. 1 Court |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2002 mixed final | With Kevin Ullyett lost to Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 |
| Eastbourne 2004 | Reached the singles final and served for the title at 6-2, 6-5 before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova |
| Birmingham | Won the doubles with Ai Sugiyama in 2005, lost the singles final in 2011 and won the singles in 2013, unseeded, beating Donna Vekić in the final; her second-round win over Laura Robson there was the 500th match win of her career |
| Invitation doubles | Runner-up in the ladies' invitation doubles at Wimbledon in 2019 with Marion Bartoli and in 2022 with Laura Robson |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Mixed doubles | with Leoš Friedl |
| Birmingham | ||
| 2005 | Women's doubles | with Ai Sugiyama |
| 2013 | Women's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"But those are the moments that actually made me really strong. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it was not for those times."
The person behind the player.
Childhood
Tennis came through her grandmother Helena, a former Slovak national champion. Her father, Igor, was a computer scientist and her mother, Marianna, a toxicologist; Daniela studied classical piano from six to 14 and qualified for a top Slovak university before deferring it for tennis.
Source: WTAWimbledon 2003
After her breakthrough in 2002 she struggled publicly in 2003, ending with a tearful defeat on court at Wimbledon. Announcing her retirement in 2017, she said: "You have an unbelievable year, everything goes so fast, so obviously the year afterwards is going to be a tough one."
Source: AFP, Gulf Times, 2017Wimbledon 2017
She announced her retirement during the 2017 Championships. "Tennis has been the biggest love of my life so far," she said. "I hope the next one will be the real one, in a different way."
Source: Tennis Now, 2017July 2017
On her first full day of retirement she talked about the small freedoms: "Suddenly I can plan holidays. I can think about where I'm going to spend Christmas, something I've not been able to do all my life." There was, she added, "zero chance" of her going into coaching.
Source: AFP, Gulf Times, 2017Commentary box
Since retiring she has worked as a commentator and analyst in Slovak, Czech, English and German, and she runs a charity, the DH Foundation, which supports health and wellbeing causes in Slovakia and abroad.
Source: WTAFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
Join freePage updated 4 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.
