ITF W50 - Murska Sobota 03/29 09:00 27 Katy Dunne v Viktoria Hruncakova View

Viktória Hrunčáková (née Kužmová; born 11 May 1998) is a Slovak professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 43 in singles and No. 27 in doubles in the world by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Hrunčáková has won five doubles titles on the WTA Tour and 21 titles (14 in singles, 7 in doubles) on the ITF Circuit. She also ended runner-up at the Premier-level 2019 St. Petersburg Trophy and at the 2021 Yarra Valley Classic in doubles, along with Anna Kalinskaya.

As a junior, she won the girls' doubles event at the 2015 US Open alongside Aleksandra Pospelova, defeating Kalinskaya and Anastasia Potapova in the final. A year later, she entered final of the 2016 US Open in the girls' singles, where she lost to Kayla Day. She continued her success at majors as a senior, reaching the 2019 US Open semifinal in the women's doubles alongside Aliaksandra Sasnovich, where they lost to the eventual champions Ashleigh Barty and Victoria Azarenka.

History

2017–18: WTA Tour & Grand Slam debut

Viktória Kužmová at the 2017 US Open

Kužmová made her Grand Slam debut at the 2017 US Open. After qualifying, she lost in the first round of the main draw to Venus Williams. She also qualified for the Linz Open and marked her first singles win on WTA Tour, defeating Anna-Lena Friedsam before she lost to another German player, Tatjana Maria. In 2017, Kužmová also appeared at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but lost at both in qualifying. On 6 March 2017, Kužmová entered the top 200 for the first time, getting to 190th place. On 16 October, she reached No. 130 – her best ranking until 2018. She finished 2017 season at world No. 132.

Kužmová at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships

Being outside the top 100, Kužmová was forced to play qualifying at many tournaments. Her first event in 2018 was the Auckland Open, where she reached the main draw and marked her first win in 2018, defeating Jade Lewis but lost to Julia Görges in the second round. At her first Australian Open, she qualified but still was not ready to mark her first Grand Slam main-draw win, losing to Elise Mertens. At the St. Petersburg Trophy, she passed qualifying but then lost to Daria Kasatkina in the first round of the main draw. At the Hungarian Open, Kužmová made her first WTA semifinal and was then stopped by Alison Van Uytvanck.

In the clay-court season, Kužmová lost in the first round of the Prague Open. A few days after turning 20, she won the $100k Empire Slovak Open, and the following week, on 21 May 2018, she debuted in the top 100, being noted 84th. At her French Open debut, she marked her first Grand Slam main-draw match win, defeating former French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. In the second round, she lost to No. 4 seed, Elina Svitolina, in straight sets. She started grass-court season, reaching her second WTA singles semifinal at the Rosmalen Championships, where she lost to Kirsten Flipkens. At the Mallorca Open, she had to qualify and succeeded before she lost to Polona Hercog in the first round. She finished her grass-court season with her main-draw debut at Wimbledon, where she was defeated by Rebecca Peterson – but with that match she completed participation at all four Grand Slam events in the main draw. After that, she competed on the ITF Circuit. At the Hungarian Ladies Open, she won the title defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova; it was her second $100k singles career title.

Returning to WTA Tour, she played at the Swiss Open in Gstaad and at the Moscow River Cup. In Gstaad, she defeated Martina Trevisan in the first round, and then lost to Veronika Kudermetova. In Moscow, she lost in the first round of the main draw to Görges. She then went to the US Open Series, first at the Cincinnati Open, where she played her first Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 qualifying and beat Caroline Dolehide and Camila Giorgi, securing her place in the main draw. There she marked her first Premier 5 win, defeating another qualifier, Sasnovich, in three sets. In the second round, she lost to Kristina Mladenovic. At the US Open, she lost to Azarenka in the first round of the main draw. In September, Kužmová went to China to play at the Guangzhou Open, where she defeated Ivana Jorović in the first round but lost in the next round to Bernarda Pera. Her next step was the Premier 5 Wuhan Open, where she lost in the first round of qualifying to Wang Xiyu. Back in Europe, she lost in the first rounds of the Linz Open and the Luxembourg Open. On 17 December 2018, after winning the $100k Dubai Challenge, Kužmová debuted in the top 50. She finished the year as No. 56.

2019: Success in doubles, Dubai quarterfinal & first top-10 win in singles

Kužmová (left) along with Anna Kalinskaya won two doubles titles on the 2019 WTA Tour

Singles: Continuing progress

Kužmová started the year really well, getting to the semifinal at the Auckland Open, where Julia Görges stopped her achieving her first WTA singles final. Then, at both the Hobart International and Australian Open, she was eliminated in the second round, losing to Flipkens in Hobart, and then to Svitolina in Melbourne (Australian Open). At the Dubai Tennis Championships, she reached her first Premier 5 quarterfinal, winning against Pera, Kiki Bertens and Sofia Kenin, before she lost to Petra Kvitová. The win against Bertens in the second round of the Dubai Championships was her first top-ten win. She then traveled to the United States to play the Premier-Mandatory Indian Wells Open, where she lost in the first round to Zhang Shuai. This was followed up by a third round on her debut of another Premier Mandatory tournament, the Miami Open, where she was eliminated by Bertens.

Her first tournament of the clay-court season was the Ladies Open Lugano, where she went to the second round before losing to Iga Świątek. She then lost in the first round of the Istanbul Cup to Barbora Strýcová, followed by another first-round loss at the Prague Open to Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. At the Premier Mandatory-level Madrid Open, she won against Julia Görges and Carla Suárez Navarro, in the first two rounds, and then failed to reach her first Premier Mandatory quarterfinal, losing to Simona Halep in the third round. The next week, at the Premier 5 Italian Open, she was better than Sara Errani in the first round but then lost to Barty in three sets. She closed out this part of the season with her performance at the French Open. During the first set in the second round, her opponent, seed No. 4 Bertens, was forced to retire due to injury. This provided Kužmová her first appearance in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She then lost to Johanna Konta.

After the clay-court season, Kužmová did not do well, losing in the first round at all of the grass tournaments: at the Rosmalen Championships to Margarita Gasparyan, at the Mallorca Open to Maria Sharapova, and at Wimbledon to Polona Hercog. At the clay-played Bucharest Open, she went to the quarterfinal, where eventual champion Elena Rybakina defeated her. At the Palermo Ladies Open, she was eliminated by Arantxa Rus in the second round. On the US hardcourt tour, she suffered three first-round losses: at the Cincinnati Open she lost to Zheng Saisai, winning only four games, then at the Bronx Open, she lost to Karolína Muchová, while at the US Open she lost to Van Uytvanck. After that, she made two quarterfinals, at the Tashkent Open, where Kristýna Plíšková eliminated her and at the Linz Open, where Andrea Petkovic sent her out the tournament. The Luxembourg Open was the last WTA tournament for Kužmová in 2019, where she lost in the second round to Laura Siegemund.

Doubles: Top 30, US Open semifinals, two titles on WTA Tour

2019 was also successful for Kužmová in the doubles. She reached three WTA doubles finals. The most significant one is Premier-level St. Petersburg Trophy, where she partnered with Anna Kalinskaya and lost to Russian combination Gasparyan and Ekaterina Makarova. However, she won another two finals, two International-level ones. First, in May, she won the Prague Open alongside Kalinskaya defeating Nicole Melichar and Květa Peschke. Then, in July, she won the Bucharest Open final, this time with Kristýna Plíšková. They beat Romanian combination Jaqueline Cristian and Elena-Gabriela Ruse. On 4 February 2019, after reaching the final in St. Petersburg, Kužmová debuted in the top 100, at world No. 94. And on 9 September 2019, after reaching semifinals at the US Open, she entered the top 30 for the first time.

2020: Premier 5 semifinal in doubles

Kužmová in 2020

Kužmová kicked off her 2020 season at the Auckland Open. She lost in the first round to Coco Gauff. The following week at Hobart, she was defeated in the second round by top seed and two-time champion, Elise Mertens. Then, at the Australian Open, Kužmová lost in the first round to Julia Görges. There she also played in the doubles, reaching the third round alongside Sasnovich. She followed up this by her performance at the Premier-level St. Petersburg Trophy, where she lost in the first round to Océane Dodin, winning only four games. At the newly introduced International-level Lyon Open, she got to her first singles quarterfinal in 2020, before losing to Anna-Lena Friedsam and also reaching the semifinal in doubles.

Restarting the tour after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Kužmová lost in the first round of the US Open to Caty McNally, at the Istanbul Cup to Van Uytvanck and at the French Open to Kristýna Plíšková, and failed to qualify at the Cincinnati Open. Despite the loss in singles qualifying at the Cincinnati Open, she got to her first Premier 5/Premier Mandatory semifinal in doubles. She partnered Iga Świątek but they failed to reach the final, losing to Nicole Melichar and Xu Yifan. She finished the 2020 season with another first-round loss at the Linz Open, losing there to Stefanie Vögele.

2023: First French Open and Wimbledon appearances in three years

Hrunčáková at the 2023 US Open

She entered the 2023 French Open as a lucky loser after an absence in the main draw at this major since 2020.

At the Rosmalen Open, she reached the semifinal in singles, her first since Auckland 2019, defeating sixth seed Bianca Andreescu and Ashlyn Krueger en route, and the final in doubles with compatriot Tereza Mihalíková.

She qualified for the Wimbledon Championships, after missing three editions of the major including the 2020 cancelled one.

She also entered the main draw of the US Open as a lucky loser.

She was also a lucky loser starting the Asian Swing at the Guangzhou Open where she won her first match over Anna Kalinskaya. She qualified for the Ningbo Open but lost to fourth seed Anna Blinkova. At the same tournament in doubles, she reached the semifinals with Arantxa Rus.

2024

Hrunčáková started a new season by winning doubles at the WTA 250 tournament in Auckland. With Anna Danilina they defeated the top seeds Marie Bouzková and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.