Michaëlla Krajicek (; born 9 January 1989) is a Dutch former tennis player. She won three singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one WTA 125 doubles title, and 14 singles and 22 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 11 February 2008, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 30. On 23 March 2015, she peaked at No. 23 in the doubles rankings.
Personal life
Michaëlla Krajicek, born in Delft, is the younger half-sister of former world No. 4 and Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek. She is therefore nicknamed Kleine Kraai, which means "little crow" in Dutch ("kraai" is a Dutch heterograph of the Czech origin surname "Krajicek" and has long been Richard's nickname). Austin Krajicek is her distant cousin.
An article in a Dutch newspaper with statements from the Fed Cup captain Manon Bollegraf caused Krajicek to stop participating for the Dutch team. Bollegraf commented on Krajicek's relationship with her coach Allistair McCaw. In April 2010, Krajicek confirmed she was in a relationship with McCaw who started as her fitness coach in 2007. In 2011, she returned in the Fed Cup team, after having resolved her differences with Bollegraf.
She lives in Prague, Czech Republic, her parents' native homeland.
In September 2013, she started dating German doubles player Martin Emmrich. They met at the combined ATP/WTA event in Rosmalen that year. One year later in 2014 at the same tournament in Rosmalen, the two got engaged on 16 June, when Emmrich proposed to Krajicek on centre court after her first-round win against Jana Čepelová, and got married in July 2015. However, they separated in mid-2017 and announced their divorce via Twitter in May 2018.
Career
Juniors (2002–2004) In 2002, the 13-year-old Krajicek was included in the Dutch team for the Cesky Telecom World Junior Tennis final. She was the number-one-ranked junior player in Europe at the time. Krajicek led her country to victory over Poland in the final, winning both her singles and doubles matches en route to a 3–0 win for the Netherlands.
Krajicek won the first Grade-A tournament of 2003 (the Yucatán Cup in Mexico), making it her fourth victory in the seven tournaments she had entered. Her record stood at 33–3. Krajicek won her second Grade-A tournament at the Italian Open taking her to the No. 2 ranking in the world. At the French Open Krajicek lost in the semifinals to Vera Douchevina and reached the final of the doubles with Kateřina Böhmová, losing to Marta Fraga Pérez & Adriana González Peñas in straight sets. Prior to Wimbledon, Krajieck was expected to be one of the main challengers but she lost a three set match 6–8 in the third to Anna Chakvetadze, which ended at 8.50 pm. She got to her second successive Grand Slam junior doubles final with Böhmová, but they lost to scratch pairing Alisa Kleybanova & Sania Mirza in three sets. At the US Open, Krajicek was the favourite, alongside recent Wimbledon winner Kirsten Flipkens. The draw went to form and they met in the final, with Flipkens winning 6–3, 7–5. Krajicek was in tears afterwards and said that she was happy to reach the final but blamed the loss on tiredness and inferior conditioning. In September, Krajicek was named in the Dutch Junior Fed Cup team, a competition the Netherlands had not won since 1990. Despite a persistent nosebleed which threatened her to retire in the semifinals Krajicek was undefeated throughout the tournament as the top-seeded Dutch team won, beating Canada 2–1 in the final. She needed a win in the final event of the year to end 2003 the No. 1 junior in the world but lost in the second round of the Orange Bowl International to Neha Uberoi. She ended the year ranked No. 2 behind Flipkens.
Krajicek had a knee injury at the beginning of 2004 and did not play until late February. At the French Open Krajicek & Böhmová finally won their first Grand Slam Junior Doubles title, beating Irina Kotkina & Yaroslava Shvedova 6–3, 6–2. Krajicek had lost in the quarterfinals of the singles to Timea Bacsinszky 6–8 in the third set. At Wimbledon, Krajicek reached the semifinals of the singles and doubles, losing to eventual champion Kateryna Bondarenko in the singles and alongside new doubles partner Shahar Pe'er falling to Victoria Azarenka & Olga Govortsova. It was at this point that Krajicek started playing ITF tournaments on a regular basis.