Sesil Karatantcheva

At a glance

Source: Wikipedia: Sesil Karatantcheva¹

Early career

Karatantcheva began playing tennis at five. In 2001, aged 12, she won the Orange Bowl tournament for her age group. She played her first professional tournament in Sofia in 2003, aged 14, and won an ITF event in Greece the following week as an unranked qualifier. She collected two further ITF titles that year.¹

In 2004, she won the French Open junior title without losing a set. The following year brought her strongest Grand Slam result. At Roland Garros, she beat Venus Williams in the third round and reached the quarter-finals, where she lost to Elena Likhovtseva. She became the youngest female quarter-finalist at a Grand Slam since Martina Hingis in 1996.¹

Tour career

In November 2005, Karatantcheva reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 35. In January 2006, the International Tennis Federation imposed a two-year ban after two positive tests for nandrolone. Karatantcheva denied the allegations and said one test result was connected to pregnancy. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected her appeal in July 2006. She did not play in 2006 or 2007.¹

After returning in 2008, she represented Kazakhstan from 2009 to 2014, before switching back to Bulgaria. Her career included a WTA semi-final at Pattaya in 2010 and nine ITF singles titles. In 2015, she reached the semi-finals in Acapulco and the second round of the French Open. Her best Grand Slam result remained the 2005 quarter-final.¹

Later years

Karatantcheva returned to competition in 2023. She won a qualifying match at the French Open and played in qualifying for the US Open, where she lost in the first round. She retired in September 2023, and her last match was that month.¹

Her father, Radoslav Karatantchev, was also her coach. She married former footballer Georgi Dolmov in November 2017 and gave birth to her first child in August 2021. In 2021, she established her own tennis academy in Sofia.¹

She retired from professional tennis in September 2023.¹