Aleksandra Wozniak (; born September 7, 1987) is a Canadian former tennis player. She turned professional in November 2005, and achieved a career-best ranking of No. 21 in June 2009, making her the fifth highest-ranked Canadian singles player of all time. She won one WTA and eleven ITF tournaments. At the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford in 2008, she became the first Canadian in 20 years to capture a WTA singles title and the first Quebecer in history to have accomplished such a feat. She reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 3 on January 31, 2005. Wozniak was named Female Player of the Year by Tennis Canada five times (2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012).
Early life
Wozniak's family immigrated to Canada from Poland in 1983, before she was born. She speaks Polish, English and French fluently. She has an elder sister, Dorota, who also played tennis. Aleksandra started playing tennis at the age of three. She was inspired to pick up a racquet by her sister and Monica Seles, her idol growing up, and was coached by her father Antoni.
Tennis career
2002–2007: early years
In 2002, as a 14-year-old, Wozniak won the Canadian Indoors Under-16 and Under-18 championships. She won the Kentucky International Junior Tennis Derby in 2004, and in 2005, she reached No. 3 in the juniors' ranking. She also won the Tevlin Challenger 25k tournament in Toronto, the Hamilton Challenger 25k in Canada, the Victoria Challenger 25k and the Junior Casablanca Cup (as well as the doubles) in Mexico, and the Junior Del Cafe Cup (as well as the doubles) in Costa Rica.
In 2006, Wozniak won the Pittsburgh Challenger (defeating Belarusian Victoria Azarenka), and the Ashland Challenger (defeating Hungarian Ágnes Szávay). Wozniak also won the Challenger in Hamilton the same year. In February she beat her first top-100 player, world No. 63 Li Na, in Thailand. In November 2006, she defeated her first top-50 player, world No. 40, Olga Puchkova, in Pittsburgh.
2008: breakthrough and first WTA title
At the French Open, Wozniak made it to the third round of a Grand Slam championship for the first time in her career before losing to 11th seed Vera Zvonareva. By achieving this feat, she became the first Québécoise singles player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since 2002.
In July, Wozniak won her first, and what would be her only, WTA singles title at the Stanford Classic. During the tournament she beat world No. 20, Francesca Schiavone, world No. 29, Sybille Bammer, and world No. 5, Serena Williams (who had to retire in the match), en route to defeating sixth seed Marion Bartoli in the final. Because she needed to earn a spot in the tournament by winning through pre-tournament qualifying rounds, she had to win three qualifying matches followed by five main-draw matches for a combined total of eight match wins in nine days. Wozniak became the first Canadian in 20 years to win a WTA Tour singles title. The victory vaulted her WTA ranking by 40 spots, as she jumped from No. 85 to No. 45 in the world. In August 2008, she was presented with key to the city in Blainville, Québec, by the mayor; they renamed it "Wozniakville" for 24 hours commemorating her achievement as the first time a woman from Québec had won a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title (when she won Stanford in July).
She also received an award from the National Assembly of Québec in October 2008 for her career-high ranking of No. 37 and first WTA singles title.
2009: continued good form and career-high ranking of No. 21
Wozniak was upset by German Sabine Lisicki, also of Polish heritage, in the first round of the Australian Open where Wozniak was the 30th seed. Wozniak joined up with compatriot Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles, where they made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi.
In March, she defeated world No. 48, Lucie Šafářová, in Indian Wells. That month she moved up to a career-best world No. 29. She reached her third singles final in April in the Ponte Vedra Beach, beating world No. 10, Nadia Petrova, in the semifinals, but was then defeated by world No. 12, Caroline Wozniacki. In May, she upset world No. 13, Marion Bartoli, at the Madrid Open.