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Ashley Harkleroad Profile |
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Birth Date: May 2, 1985
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Birth Place: Rossville, Georgia, USA
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Birth Name: Ashley Harkleroad
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Height: 5'5"
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Biography |
Ashley Harkleroad is an American tennis player. She reached
a career-high ranking of No. 39 on June 9, 2003. She is
currently ranked 61 in singles and 168 in doubles, as well
as 68 in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships. Her
career prize money to date is $927,881.
Ashley Harkleroad turned pro on June 12, 2000, and was
quickly billed as the next American tennis superstar. Her
debut was at the ITF tournament in Largo, Florida, in 1999.
The following year she played her first WTA qualifying event
in Miami, Florida and her first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open.
In 2001, she returned to the same events while improving her
status on the ITF Circuit. In 2002 she won her first tour
matches, reaching the second round at San Diego, Hawaii, and
Bratislava, where she made her first doubles semi-final with
partner Maria Emilia Salerni. She ended 2002 in the top 200
for the first time.
Her breakthrough year was in 2003, when at Charleston she
defeated three top 20 players at the time (No.16 Elena
Bovina, No.19 Meghann Shaughnessy, and No.9 Daniela
Hantuchová), losing just 11 games along the way to reach her
first tour semifinal before losing to Justine
Henin-Hardenne. She became the lowest-ranked semifinalist
(No. 101) in the event's history since unranked Jennifer
Capriati reached the finals in 1990.
After that performance, on April 14, 2003 she broke out from
No. 101 to climb to a No.56 ranking. Subsequently she
reached the semifinals again at Strasbourg and scored her
second Top 10 win and second over Daniela Hantuchová at
Roland Garros while reaching the 3rd round and for the
second time winning past the first round at a grand slam. On
June 9, 2003 she soared into the Top 50 at No. 39 and
reached the final in doubles at the Japan Open in Tokyo.
In 2004, she made her career first Tour final (at Auckland)
before losing to defending champion Eleni Daniilidou. For
most of the 2005 season, Harkleroad sat out due to various
injuries and an illness in the family, but the time she was
on court was spent on the ITF Women's circuit winning 2
titles. She did however reach a tour doubles final at Quebec
City.
Harkleroad started playing tennis at age four. She is
currently coached by Chuck Adams and formerly coached by
Jose Luis Clerc and Jay Berger. Her father, Danny, works in
the printing industry and played college football at the
University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Her mother, Tammy, is a
school teacher, and played college tennis at Freed-Hardeman
University in Henderson, Tennessee. Ashley got the nickname
'Pebbles' while living in Flintstone, Georgia, a small town
that has one traffic light. She lists her tennis aspiration
as becoming a Top 10 pro with an eye on No.1. Ashley married
ATP pro Alex Bogomolov, Jr. in December 2004 but they
divorced in October 2006. She is currently engaged to former
ATP Pro Chuck Adams.
After losing a tennis match to Serena Williams on May 25,
2008 at the French Open, Ashley told reporters she would
appear in the August 2008 issue of Playboy, a decision she
made while convalescing from ovarian cyst surgery in March,
2008. |
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since August 7, 2008