Sunitha Rao Biography

Sunitha Rao (born October 27, 1985) is a former is an American-born Indian professional tennis player.

She has won 8 doubles titles on the ITF circuit in her career. On 7 July 2008, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 144. On 19 May 2008, she peaked at world number 108 in the doubles rankings. Rao retirement from tennis 2009.

Playing for India at the Fed Cup, Rao has a win-loss record of 5-6.

Personal life

Sunitha was born and raised by parents Manohar and Savithri in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her family spoke Kannada. Her parents are originally from Mangalore in Karnataka, India. Sunitha speaks some Kannada.

Her family now lives in Bradenton, Florida. Sunitha currently is staying in Boston, Massachusetts where she studies at Babson College.

WTA career

2002-2007

Rao played her first WTA match at the 2002 Brasil Open - Women's Singles event, where she defeated Vanessa Henke in the first round. She was beaten by Anastasia Myskina in the second round.

Sunitha played at the Hansol Korea Open 2004 where she was beaten by Miho Saeki in the first round. Rao participated at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2005, but was overpowered by Iveta Beneov in the first round. Then she played at the Sunfeast Open where she beat Neha Uberoi in the first round before falling to Elena Likhovtseva.

Sunitha took part at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic 2006, where she lost to Angelique Widjaja in the First Round. She also suffered a first round defeat at the 2007 Sunfeast Open to Nicole Pratt. Rao defeated Sandy Gumulya in the First Round of the Sunfeast Open to advance to the second round where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She then lost in the first round of the Bell Challenge to Alina Jidkova.

2008

Sunitha received an entry into the PTT Pattaya Open via a Lucky Loser spot. She beat Junri Namigata before losing to Ekaterina Bychkova. Then, at the Copa Colsanitas, she lost to Edina Gallovits in the first round.

Rao received the best result of her WTA career at the 2008 DFS Classic in Birmingham. She beat Petra Kvitov (who would be the future world no.2 and Wimbledon titlist) in the first round and Naomi Cavaday in the second before falling to Alona Bondarenko in the third round.

She partnered with Sania Mirza, representing India in the women's doubles event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. They got a walk-over in round one, but lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina of Russia in round two.

ITF Finals

Singles (0-7)

Legend
$100,000 tournaments
$75,000 tournaments
$50,000 tournaments
$25,000 tournaments
$15,000 tournaments
$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	February 24, 2002	Mumbai, India	Hard	Peng Shuai	3-6, 6-7(3-7)
Runner-up	2.	November 10, 2002	Mexico City, Mexico	Hard	Olga Vymetlkov	6-7(2-7), 3-6
Runner-up	3.	October 17, 2004	Mackay, Australia	Hard	Evie Dominikovic	5-7, 3-6
Runner-up	4.	October 24, 2004	Rockhampton, Australia	Hard	Evie Dominikovic	0-6, 0-2 ret.
Runner-up	5.	July 8, 2007	Southlake, United States	Hard	Alexa Glatch	2-6, 5-7
Runner-up	6.	October 14, 2007	San Francisco, United States	Hard	Ashley Harkleroad	1-6, 2-6
Runner-up	7.	March 22, 2008	Noida, India	Hard	Anastasija Sevastova	2-6, 1-6

Doubles (8-7)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	January 18, 2004	Tampa, United States	Hard	Milangela Morales	Alisa Kleybanova Mayumi Yamamoto	2-6, 4-6
Runner-up	2.	May 16, 2004	Charlottesville, United States	Clay	Vilmarie Castellvi	Erica Krauth Jessica Lehnhoff	0-6, 1-6
Winner	1.	November 14, 2004	Port Pirie, Australia	Hard	Casey Dellacqua	Daniella Dominikovic Evie Dominikovic	4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8-6)
Winner	2.	November 13, 2005	Port Pirie, Australia	Hard	Grta Arn	Monique Adamczak Christina Horiatopoulos	6-4, 3-6, 6-2
Winner	3.	November 27, 2005	Mount Gambier, Australia	Hard	Ryoko Fuda	Grta Arn Anastasia Rodionova	6-1, ret.
Winner	4.	May 7, 2006	Charlottesville, United States	Clay	Marie-ve Pelletier	Maria Fernanda Alves Lilia Osterloh	6-7(6-8), 6-2, 6-3
Runner-up	3.	July 23, 2006	Hammond, United States	Hard	Ry?ko Fuda	Christina Fusano Raquel Kops-Jones	6-7(3-7), 6-4, 1-6
Runner-up	4.	October 8, 2006	Traralgon, Australia	Hard	Casey Dellacqua	Christina Horiatopoulos Raquel Kops-Jones	2-6, 6-7(5-7)
Winner	5.	October 15, 2006	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Casey Dellacqua	Daniella Dominikovic Evie Dominikovic	6-3, 6-2
Runner-up	5.	January 20, 2007	Fort Walton Beach, United States	Hard	Marie-ve Pelletier	Angelika Bachmann Tetiana Luzhanska	7-5, 6-7(7-9), 6-7(4-7)
Winner	6.	June 2, 2007	Carson, United States	Hard	Kim Grant	Angela Haynes Lindsay Lee-Waters	6-4, 6-4
Winner	7.	June 17, 2007	Allentown, United States	Hard	Ry?ko Fuda	Angela Haynes Lindsay Lee-Waters	6-7(3-7), 6-4, 6-1
Runner-up	6.	March 14, 2008	New Delhi, India	Hard	Aurlie Vdy	Ji Chunmei Sun Shengnan	6-2, 2-6, [4-10]
Winner	8.	May 11, 2008	Zagreb, Croatia	Clay	Melinda Czink	Stphanie Foretz Jelena Kostani? Toi?	6-4, 6-2
Runner-up	7.	October 5, 2008	Troy, United States	Hard	Angela Haynes	Raquel Kops-Jones Abigail Spears	2-6, 0-6