The 21st century
Slovakia · born Bratislava, 1989 · right-handed · Eastbourne champion in 2016 and three times a Wimbledon quarter-finalist
All playersBack to the rankings
2016
Eastbourne singles champion, her first grass title
3
Wimbledon quarter-finals, 2011, 2016 and 2018
8
WTA singles titles, the last the 2016 WTA Finals
No. 4
Career-high ranking, 20 March 2017, the highest by a Slovak woman
9-7
Final set of her 2016 Wimbledon win over Agnieszka Radwańska, after saving a match point
Dominika Cibulková was born in Bratislava in 1989. At 1.60 m she was often told as a junior that she was too small; she made up for it with speed, power and a fierce competitive temperament, and turned professional in 2004.
She reached the French Open semi-finals in 2009, the US Open quarter-finals in 2010 and, in 2014, the Australian Open final, which she lost to Li Na; she was the first Slovak woman to reach a Grand Slam singles final. Her best season was 2016, after surgery on her left Achilles tendon in 2015: she won Katowice, Eastbourne and Linz and then, on her debut, the WTA Finals in Singapore, beating the world No. 1 Angelique Kerber in the final. She reached a career-high No. 4 in March 2017.
She won eight WTA singles titles and played Fed Cup for Slovakia in 12 years. She played her last match at the 2019 French Open, losing to Aryna Sabalenka, and announced her retirement in Bratislava on 12 November 2019, aged 30, on the day her memoir, Tennis Is My Life, was published.
| Eastbourne 2016 | Seeded 12th, beat the top seed Agnieszka Radwańska on the way and Karolína Plíšková 7-5, 6-3 in the final, a year after returning from Achilles surgery |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon quarter-finals | 2011: beat the world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, then lost to Maria Sharapova. 2016: beat Radwańska 6-3, 5-7, 9-7, then lost to Elena Vesnina. 2018: unseeded at No. 33, after losing her seeding to the returning Serena Williams, she reached the last eight again |
| 's-Hertogenbosch doubles | Finals in 2011 and 2013, both lost in a match tiebreak; won in 2017 with Kirsten Flipkens, beating Kiki Bertens and Demi Schuurs 4-6, 6-4, 10-6, her only WTA doubles title |
| Wimbledon invitation | Won the Mixed Invitation Doubles in 2024 with Mark Woodforde, beating Nenad Zimonjić and Barbara Schett 6-3, 6-2 |
| Eastbourne | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Women's singles | |
| 's-Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen) | ||
| 2017 | Women's doubles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | with Kirsten Flipkens |
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
"If I would win tomorrow, then we will change it. Then we will postpone it, because it will be a lot of rush."
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon, July 2016
She had booked her wedding to Miso Navara for Saturday 9 July, the day of the women's final, because she liked the number nine. After beating Radwańska she said she would postpone it if she kept winning. She had invited Marion Bartoli.
Source: Associated Press via Sports IllustratedEastbourne, June 2016
Surgery on her Achilles tendon in 2015 cost her the spring hard-court and clay seasons; she came back on grass that summer. A year later she won Eastbourne, her first grass title, serving out the final against Plíšková from 5-3.
Source: Tennis.comMelbourne, 2014
"Pome", a Slovak word she shouted on court, became her trademark cry. After the 2014 Australian Open final, strangers in a lift recognised her and shouted it back at her.
Source: WTABratislava, childhood
"When I started to play tennis, people would tell me, 'No, Domi. You are too little,'" she recalled. She reached No. 4 in the world.
Source: WTAWimbledon, 2018
Ranked 33rd, she lost her seeding when the All England Club seeded the returning Serena Williams. She reached the second week anyway, beating Elise Mertens in the third round, and went on to the quarter-finals.
Source: WTABratislava, November 2019
She announced her retirement at 30 at an event in her home city, on the day her memoir was published. It was written with a novelist rather than a journalist, which she felt made it of interest beyond tennis.
Source: WTAFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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