i seem to remember an easy-on-the-eye teenager making it all the way to semi-finals of wimbledon way back when.

Mirjana Lucic was her name. a record-breaking prodigy in her day and seemingly destined for greatness. and then it all went wrong. plagued by injury she disappeared.

but apparently she fancies a comeback and after years and years she's been granted a wildcard for the pan pacific open next week.

i hoped she does well. on a completely unrelated note, she's still easy on the eye. ;)

oops, pacific life open i mean.

This is from Wikipedia! But from the sounds of it she seemed so promising! Seemed to have the potential to have numerous grand slams!

Mirjana Luèiæ (born in March 9, 1982, in Dortmund, Germany) is a professional tennis player from Croatia. She enjoyed a brief but promising career on the WTA Tour in the late-1990s, during which she set a few "youngest-ever" records and won one Grand Slam women's doubles title at the Australian Open in 1998, partnering Martina Hingis. But following a series of injury problems from 2000 onwards, she faded from the scene.

Luèiæ began playing tennis at age four by hiding in the car when her older sister went to tennis classes and then sneaking into the lessons herself. As a junior player, she won the girls' singles title at the US Open in 1996, and the girls' singles and doubles crowns at the Australian Open in 1997, becoming only the third player in the Open Era to win two junior Grand Slam singles titles by the age of 14 (the others being Hingis and Jennifer Capriati).

Luèiæ turned professional in April 1997 at the age of 15. One week after turning pro, she won the very first WTA Tour event she played in at Bol. She then reached the final of her second career event in Strasbourg, where she lost to Steffi Graf.

In 1998, playing in her very first tour doubles event, Luèiæ became the youngest player in history to win a title at the Australian Open at age 15 years, 10 months and 21 days, when she and Hingis won the women's doubles title. The win made Luèiæ the first player to win both the very first singles and doubles events they had ever played in on the WTA Tour. And she went on to win the second doubles event of her career when she partnered Hingis to win the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. Later that year, Luèiæ defended her singles title at Bol, becoming the youngest player ever to defend a tour title at age 16 years, 1 month and 24 days. She also finished runner-up in the 1998 mixed doubles event at Wimbledon, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.

In 1999, Luèiæ achieved her career-best Grand Slam singles performance when she reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, before losing in three sets to Graf 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3. In the 3rd round, she stunned World No. 4 and 9 time Grand Slam champion, Monica Seles 7-6, 7-6.

After 1999, Luèiæ's suffered a series of injury problems and she failed to make any further significant impact on the tour. She then proceeded to take an extended hiatus from competition; her career-high world rankings were World No. 32 in singles and World No. 19 in doubles (both achieved in 1998). Since then, she has returned to the WTA tour and won her first qualifying match in the 2007 Region championships. Her last appearance on the tour before that was in 2003.

On February 21, 2007, the Pacific Life Open WTA Tour Event announced that it had given Luèiæ a wild card to enter the event. Sports Illustrated tennis writer Jon Wertheim called it "early in the comeback, but ... a story worth following."

and she wins her comeback match against qualifier lindsey nelson in straight set 6-4 7-6.

well impressive given her circumstances. :ok:

What a story! She has won a fan in me :bow:
I wish her the best in her "come back" :D
Can anyone post her pic, please?

Yea I remember her too. Well, Lucic was one of the hopefuls that never managed to fulfil their potentials, that includes Jelena Dokic, Alexandra Stevenson, Karolina Sprem, Ahsley Harkleroad. Good luck to her!

gallant effort against chakvetadze in the second round.

she broke chav 3 times in the 2nd set including when the russian served for the match 1st time. but she just couldn't hold serve.

nonetheless lucic has shown enough to indicate that she can make a dignified comeback if she's motivated enough. i wish her well. i think she's a cut above the other flash-in-the-pan wta players.

I remember Lucic's Wimbledon run as well. Didn't she have (the seemingly late 1990's pre-requisite for upcomers on the wta tour) parent problems?

Chakvetadze beat her thats all I know her about her :bow:

I don't remember her looking like this?
Looks like it could be taken from a porn movie!

Amazing to think she's still only 25.

LOL!!!!!

I remember Lucic, a tremendous ball striker, forehand uncannily like Graf's( almost a double-take in their Wimby semi). Unfortunately family turmoil and lack of fitness contributed to a substantial downfall. I remember her playing Venus at the US Open in 2002, and she could barely breathe on court, she was so unconditioned.

She looks in great shape now though, and she's loving what she's doing. Very courageous and endearing :ok:

nice little article here about lucic's efforts:


http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?fil...3115&sec=sports

I remember het playing with an ugly balloon shaped Prince raquet.She had a big serve and big groundies.

Very talented!