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BIOGRAPHY

Ashley Harkleroad
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Ashley Harkleroad, born May 2, 1985, is an American tennis player, in Rossville, Georgia, Harkleroad reached a career-high ranking of No. 39 on June 9, 2003. She is currently ranked 61 in singles and 168 in doubles, as well as 68 in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships.

Harkleroad turned pro on June 12, 2000, and was quickly billed as the next American tennis superstar. Her debut was at the ITF tournament in Largo, Florida, in 1999. The following year she played her first WTA qualifying event in Miami, Florida and her first Grand Slam at the U.S.

Open. In 2001, Harkleroad returned to the same events while improving her status on the ITF Circuit. In 2002 she won her first tour matches, reaching the second round at San Diego, Hawaii, and Bratislava, where she made her first doubles semi-final with partner Maria Emilia Salerni.

Harkleroad ended 2002 in the top 200 for the first time. Her breakthrough year was in 2003, when at Charleston she defeated three top 20 players at the time (No.16 Elena Bovina, No.19 Meghann Shaughnessy, and No.9 Daniela Hantuchová), losing just 11 games along the way to reach her first tour semifinal before losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne. She became the lowest-ranked semifinalist (No. 101) in the event's history since unranked Jennifer Capriati reached the finals in 1990.

. After that performance, on April 14, 2003 Harkleroad broke out from No. 101 to climb to a No.56 ranking. Subsequently she reached the semifinals again at Strasbourg and scored her second Top 10 win and second over Daniela Hantuchová at Roland Garros while reaching the 3rd round and for the second time winning past the first round at a grand slam. On June 9, 2003 she soared into the Top 50 at No. 39 and reached the final in doubles at the Japan Open in Tokyo.

In 2004, Harkleroad made her career first Tour final (at Auckland) before losing to defending champion Eleni Daniilidou. For most of the 2005 season, Harkleroad sat out due to various injuries and an illness in the family, but the time she was on court was spent on the ITF Women's circuit winning 2 titles. She did however reach a tour doubles final at Quebec City.  

Harkleroad played her first main tour event since 2005 at Auckland, successfully qualifying for the main draw only to fall in the opening round. She failed to qualify at Sydney before reaching the second round of the Australian Open (as a qualifier) where she pushed world number 4 Maria Sharapova in a tough match. On her way she upset a higher ranked opponent- Shuai Peng of China. This performance saw Harkleroad break back into the top 100 at number 83. Harkleroad ended 2006 at #86 in Singles and #55 in Doubles.  

Harkleroad started playing tennis at age four. She is currently coached by Chuck Adams and formerly coached by Jose Luis Clerc and Jay Berger. Her father, Danny, works in the printing industry and played college football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Her mother, Tammy, is a school teacher, and played college tennis at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee. Ashley got the nickname 'Pebbles' while living in Flintstone, Georgia, a small town that has one traffic light. She lists her tennis aspiration as becoming a Top 10 pro with an eye on No.1. Ashley married ATP pro Alex Bogomolov, Jr. in December 2004 but they divorced in October 2006. She is currently engaged to former ATP Pro Chuck Adams.