Danka Kovinić

Danka Kovinić

Kovinić at the 2021 French Open
Country (sports)	Montenegro
Residence	Herceg Novi, Montenegro
Born	(1994-11-18) 18 November 1994 (age 29) Cetinje, Republic of Montenegro, FR Yugoslavia
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned pro	2010
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Marcos Espacia
Prize money	US$ 3,108,194
Singles
Career record	372–296 (55.7%)
Career titles	0 WTA, 14 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 46 (22 February 2016)
Current ranking	No. 249 (1 April 2024)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2022)
French Open	3R (2022)
Wimbledon	1R (2015, 2016, 2017)
US Open	2R (2015, 2020)
Doubles
Career record	138–131 (51.3%)
Career titles	1 WTA, 4 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 67 (20 June 2016)
Current ranking	No. 441 (1 April 2024)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2016, 2017, 2021)
French Open	1R (2016, 2020, 2021)
Wimbledon	1R (2016)
US Open	2R (2016, 2021)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	21–7 (75.0%)
Medal record Games of the Small States of Europe 2015 Reykjavík Singles 2015 Reykjavík Mixed doubles
Last updated on: 31 March 2024.

On 22 February 2016, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 46, and on 20 June 2016, she peaked at No. 67 in the WTA doubles rankings.

2010–2013: WTA Tour debut and quarterfinal

Kovinić started playing as a professional in 2010. Her first WTA Tour tournament in singles was the 2013 Budapest Grand Prix, where she became the first Montenegrin to reach the quarterfinals of a WTA event.

2015: First major wins, first WTA Tour singles final and doubles title

Her first major match wins in singles came at the 2015 French Open and the 2015 US Open. In October 2015, she reached her first WTA Tour singles final at the Tianjin Open.

Her first match in doubles on the WTA Tour was at Bogotá, in April 2014. She won her first WTA Tour doubles title with Stephanie Vogt, in July 2015 at Bad Gastein.

2016: Top 50 debut

Kovinić started the season at the Auckland Open where she lost in the first round to third seed Caroline Wozniacki. In doubles, she and Barbora Strýcová reached the final which they lost to Elise Mertens and An-Sophie Mestach. At the Hobart International, Kovinić was defeated in the first round by Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell. At the Australian Open, Kovinić made it to the second round and lost to 14th seed and two-time champion, Victoria Azarenka.

Seeded third at the Rio Open, Kovinić advanced to the quarterfinals where she was defeated by wildcard Sorana Cîrstea. Seeded seventh at the Abierto Mexicano, she lost in the second round to Christina McHale. Seeded seventh at the Monterrey Open, she was defeated in the first round by qualifier Nicole Gibbs. At the Indian Wells Open, Kovinić faced eighth seed Petra Kvitová in the second round. She pushed Kvitová to three sets but ended up losing the match. At the Miami Open, Kovinić was defeated in the second round by 24th seed Johanna Konta.

2020: Return to majors

At the Australian Open, Kovinić lost in the first round to 16th seed Elise Mertens.

At the Mexican Open, she was defeated in the first round by Kateryna Bondarenko. At the Monterrey Open, she lost in the first round to top seed and eventual champion Elina Svitolina.

In August, Kovinić played at the Cincinnati Open where she was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Vera Zvonareva. At the US Open, she made it to the second round and lost to 24th seed Magda Linette.

2021: WTA 500 final

In January, she started her Australian tour at the Gippsland Trophy with a win against Tamara Zidanšek, before losing to Jeļena Ostapenko in the next round. After that, she played at the Australian Open where she lost in the first round against top seed and world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty. Her next tournament was the Phillip Island Trophy where she played against 13th seed Marie Bouzková and retired during the second set, after winning the first.

In March, Danka made the round of 16 at the Abierto Zapopan in Guadalajara, Mexico where she was defeated in straight sets by Lauren Davis. During the tournament, she suffered a back injury and had to pull out of Monterrey Open and Miami Open.

In April, Kovinić made it into the quarterfinals of the Charleston Open by beating third seeded Petra Kvitová in straight sets in the round of 16. It was her third victory over a player who was ranked inside top 10. In the next round, she defeated 11th seed Yulia Putintseva to reach her first WTA 500 semifinal. After that, she beat 12th seeded Ons Jabeur in straight sets, to book a place in her third career final which she lost to Veronika Kudermetova.

After that, she entered the MUSC Health Open in Charleston where she reached her second consecutive WTA semifinal by beating Viktoriya Tomova in straight sets, seventh seeded Lauren Davis in the round of 16, and Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals. She then lost to the top seed Ons Jabeur.

2022: Historic Grand Slam third round

In January, she started her Australian tour at the Melbourne Summer Set with a straight-sets win in qualifying against Alexandra Osborne, before withdrawing due to injury in the next round. At Adelaide, she lost in the first round to Maddison Inglis, in three sets.

At the Australian Open, she won in the first round against Jang Su-jeong, before she defeated reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu in three sets to reach the third round, her best result at a Grand Slam. In the next round, she was defeated by the former world No. 1, Simona Halep. With this result, she became the first player from Montenegro to reach the third round of a Grand Slam championship.

In Indian Wells, Kovinić beat Jil Teichmann in the first round, while in the second round she had a surprising top-10 win over seventh seed Karolína Plíšková, before losing to Ludmilla Samsonova in the third round.

At Roland Garros, she avenged her loss in Indian Wells and beat 25th seed Ludmilla Samsonova in the first round. She managed to beat Anna Karolína Schmiedlová in straight sets, before losing to top seed and world No. 1, Iga Świątek, in the third round.

Kovinić was supposed to play at Wimbledon against Sonay Kartal in the first round, but was forced to withdraw at the very last moment, due to low back problems.

Kovinić lost in the first round of the US Open to Serena Williams, in the last professional tournament of her career.

In October, she reached semifinals of the Emilia-Romagna Open by beating Océane Dodin, Jasmine Paolini and Sloane Stephens. However, she lost her semifinal match to top seed Maria Sakkari.

2023–2024: Semifinals of Auckland Open, hiatus

In January, Kovinic reached the semifinals of the Auckland Open, after beating Nao Hibino in straight sets in the first round. In the round of 16, she defeated Lauren Davis in three sets, while in the quarterfinals she managed to beat Viktória Kužmová in straight sets. In her semifinal match, she lost to the top seed Coco Gauff.

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, Hopman Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Singles

Current after the 2023 Guadalajara Open.

Doubles

Singles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Oct 2015	Tianjin Open, China	International	Hard	Agnieszka Radwańska	1–6, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Apr 2016	İstanbul Cup, Turkey	International	Clay	Çağla Büyükakçay	6–3, 2–6, 3–6
Loss	0–3	Apr 2021	Charleston Open, United States	WTA 500	Clay (green)	Veronika Kudermetova	4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2015	Gastein Ladies, Austria	International	Clay	Stephanie Vogt	Lara Arruabarrena   Lucie Hradecká	4–6, 6–4, [10–3]
Loss	1–1	Jan 2016	Auckland Open, New Zealand	International	Hard	Barbora Strýcová	Elise Mertens   An-Sophie Mestach	6–2, 3–6, [5–10]
Loss	1–2	Apr 2016	İstanbul Cup, Turkey	International	Clay	Xenia Knoll	Andreea Mitu   İpek Soylu	w/o
Loss	1–3	Jul 2018	Bucharest Open, Romania	International	Clay	Maryna Zanevska	Irina-Camelia Begu   Andreea Mitu	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1–4	Sep 2018	Guangzhou Open, China	International	Hard	Vera Lapko	Monique Adamczak   Jessica Moore	6–4, 5–7, [4–10]

Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2019	Bastad Open, Sweden	Clay	Misaki Doi	4–6, 4–6
Loss	0–2	Nov 2022	Buenos Aires Open, Argentina	Clay	Panna Udvardy	4–6, 1–6

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Mar 2019	Bastad Open, Sweden	Clay	Alexa Guarachi	Misaki Doi   Natalia Vikhlyantseva	5–7, 7–6(7–4), [7–10]
Loss	0–2	Nov 2019	Taipei Open, Taiwan	Carpet (i)	Dalila Jakupović	Lee Ya-hsuan   Wu Fang-hsien	6–4, 4–6, [7–10]

Singles: 22 (14 titles, 8 runner–ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 2010	ITF Dobrich, Bulgaria	10,000	Clay	Isabella Shinikova	6–4, 6–3
Loss	1–1	Jun 2011	ITF Nyíregyháza, Hungary	10,000	Clay	Simona Dobrá	4–6, 2–6
Win	2–1	Jun 2011	ITF Balş, Romania	10,000	Clay	Alice-Andrada Radu	6–0, 6–1
Loss	2–2	Sep 2011	Royal Cup, Montenegro	25,000	Clay	Paula Ormaechea	1–6, 1–6
Win	3–2	Apr 2012	ITF Tlemcen, Algeria	10,000	Clay	Alexandra Romanova	6–2, 6–2
Win	4–2	Jul 2012	Bella Cup Toruń, Poland	25,000	Clay	Paula Kania	6–3, 4–6, 6–3
Win	5–2	Jun 2013	ITF Ystad, Sweden	25,000	Clay	Melanie Klaffner	6–3, 6–3
Win	6–2	Jun 2013	ITF Kristinehamn, Sweden	25,000	Clay	Jasmina Tinjić	6–1, 7–5
Win	7–2	May 2014	Open Saint-Gaudens, France	50,000	Clay	Pauline Parmentier	6–1, 6–2
Loss	7–3	Mar 2015	ITF Curitiba, Brazil	25,000	Clay	Lourdes Domínguez Lino	6–4, 2–6, 3–6
Win	8–3	May 2015	Empire Slovak Open, Slovakia	100,000	Clay	Margarita Gasparyan	7–5, 6–3
Win	9–3	Jun 2016	Open de Marseille, France	100,000	Clay	Hsieh Su-wei	6–2, 6–3
Loss	9–4	Jun 2017	Hódmezővásárhely Ladies Open, Hungary	60,000	Clay	Mihaela Buzărnescu	2–6, 1–6
Loss	9–5	Jul 2017	Budapest Ladies Open, Hungary	100,000	Clay	Jana Čepelová	4–6, 3–6
Loss	9–6	Aug 2017	Vancouver Open, Canada	100,000	Hard	Maryna Zanevska	7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Loss	9–7	Mar 2019	ITF São Paulo, Brazil	25,000	Clay	Louisa Chirico	0–6, 2–6
Win	10–7	Mar 2019	ITF Campinas, Brazil	25,000	Clay	Julia Grabher	6–2, 3–6, 6–3
Win	11–7	Jun 2019	ITF Ystad, Sweden	25,000	Clay	Richèl Hogenkamp	2–6, 6–3, 6–3
Loss	11–8	Jul 2019	Open de Biarritz, France	80,000	Clay	Viktoriya Tomova	2–6, 7–5, 5–7
Win	12–8	Oct 2019	Kiskút Open, Hungary	100,000	Clay (i)	Irina-Camelia Begu	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Win	13–8	May 2022	Wiesbaden Open, Germany	100,000	Clay	Nastasja Schunk	6–3, 7–6(7–0)
Win	14–8	April 2023	Oeiras Ladies Open, Portugal	100,000	Clay	Rebeka Masarova	6–2, 6–2

Doubles: 11 (4 titles, 7 runner–ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2011	Royal Cup, Montenegro	25,000	Clay	Danica Krstajić	Corinna Dentoni   Florencia Molinero	4–6, 7–5, [5–10]
Loss	0–2	Oct 2011	Lagos Open, Nigeria	25,000	Carpet (i)	Elina Svitolina	Melanie Klaffner   Ágnes Szatmári	0–6, 7–6, [5–10]
Loss	0–3	Apr 2013	ITF Mamaia, Romania	25,000	Clay	Tadeja Majerič	Elena Bogdan   Raluca Olaru	6–7(4), 3–6
Loss	0–4	Sep 2012	ITF La Marsa, Tunisia	25,000	Clay	Laura Pigossi	Réka Luca Jani   Eugeniya Pashkova	3–6, 6–4, [5–10]
Win	1–4	May 2012	ITF Caserta, Italy	25,000	Clay	Renata Voráčová	Elena Bogdan   Cristina Dinu	6–4, 7–6(3)
Win	2–4	Feb 2015	ITF São Paulo, Brazil	25,000	Clay	Andreea Mitu	Tatiana Búa   Paula Cristina Gonçalves	6–2, 7–5
Win	3–4	Jul 2015	Contrexéville Open, France	100,000	Clay	Oksana Kalashnikova	Irina Ramialison   Constance Sibille	2–6, 6–3, [10–6]
Loss	3–5	Mar 2018	Zhuhai Open, China	60,000	Hard	Nao Hibino	Anna Blinkova   Lesley Kerkhove	5–7, 4–6
Loss	3–6	Mar 2018	Pingshan Open, China	60,000	Hard	Wang Xinyu	Anna Kalinskaya   Viktória Kužmová	4–6, 6–1, [7–10]
Loss	3–7	Jun 2018	Hódmezővásárhely Ladies Open, Hungary	60,000	Clay	Nina Stojanović	Réka Luca Jani   Nadia Podoroska	4–6, 4–6
Win	4–7	Mar 2019	ITF Campinas, Brazil	25,000	Clay	Laura Pigossi	Carolina Alves   Gabriela Cé	6–3, 6–2

Singles

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Gold	2015	Games of the Small States of Europe	Clay	Kathinka von Deichmann	6–0, 6–1

Top 10 wins

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score
2016
1.	Roberta Vinci	No. 8	Madrid Open, Spain	Clay	1R	6–4, 6–2
2020
2.	Belinda Bencic	No. 10	Italian Open, Italy	Clay	2R	6–3, 6–1
2022
3.	Karolína Plíšková	No. 8	Indian Wells Open, U.S.	Hard	2R	2–6, 7–5, 6–4