Katarzyna Nowak

She began playing at the times of the hard rules of the communist period in Poland: tennis was considered by the authorities as a sport reserved for the elite and was not profitable because it was not among the Olympic sports then.

There were no financial possibilities to plan a professional career, no foundations for women professional tennis.

• Poland was facing economic catastrophe until the fall of communism.[4]

At age 10, Katarzyna was encouraged to start playing tennis by her father Stanisław, a former soccer player of Start Łódź and a great sports enthusiast.

Her mother Maria, an economist, was also very supportive of her.

At the beginning of her career, Katarzyna Nowak was coached by Maria Dowbor- Lewandowska and Wiesław Nowicki – a former Davis Cup player.

As a girl, Katarzyna was showing a lot of strength, determination and full engagement. She quickly drew the attention of the Polish Tennis Federation and was hired on the national team at the age of 14.

She was a national champion in all age categories, winning two titles in 16-and-under competitions as well as four titles in 18-and-under.

As a junior, Katarzyna had difficulties traveling because of the political situation in Poland. At first, she could not obtain visas for the United States or Australia and after each tournament abroad, she had to return to Poland to get another visa. As a result, she could not play as many tournaments as her opponents, maybe half of what the others were doing. Each tournament was like an adventure. For instance, invited to the Jal Cup, she went alone to Tokyo where she reached the semi-finals. Or she arrived in Paris only on Sunday evening to play her first round of the Roland-Garros junior tournament on Monday.

She was already 18 years old, in her last junior year, when she had the opportunity to obtain all the necessary visas. In spite of all these difficulties, Katarzyna won eight titles and was runner up in 4 tournaments on the ITF Junior Tour. She won 18-and- under tournaments in Umag, Mexico, San Juan Puerto Rico, San Jose Costa Rica, Tashkent, Katowice, Nyiregyhaza and in Czechoslovakia.

She advanced to quarter-finals of the 18-and-under European Championships in Lisbon. In 1987 she was ranked 7th in the world ITF Junior ranking.

Due to the economic situation in Poland in the early 80s, Katarzyna was not able to combine her junior career with competition at the professional level which was the natural norm for other junior tennis players around the world.

She finally started her professional career in 1988. The beginnings were not easy as the economic crisis was at its peak with hyperinflation, non convertible currency and shortages of all kinds.

The subsequent years of her career coincided with the fall of communism and the transformation period that followed. In the early 90s, things started to slowly get better in Poland. But it all took time and came in slightly too late for Katarzyna who had already engaged on the professional tour... You could say she was born at least 10 years too early!

Possibilities to find better tennis training conditions – such as indoor courts – came too late for Katarzyna as well as the first major tournaments and opportunities for sponsorship deals. Deeply attached to her nation, Katarzyna Nowak never considered leaving Poland to seek better conditions in another country with a highly developed level of tennis. She played her whole career as a Polish player. Katarzyna showed her talent and an uncommon determination to become the first Polish women in Top 50 of the WTA rankings when she reached the WTA # 47.

It was an astonishing achievement considering the situation in Poland.

She was leading the way to the next generation of Polish players, being an icon for others starting their professional careers and a symbol for the future of professional tennis in Poland.

For all those reasons, her professional career should not be seen only from a statistical point of view as it would be an antihistorical approach. Katarzyna Nowak quite rightly deserves the status of a pioneer of Polish professional tennis. She well deserves this title as she was competing in an extremely unfavorable situation in the last years of communist rules and the early transition period.

She is also recognized as a symbol of the era of the Polish tennis breakthrough, which occurred following the fall of communism and the political transformation of the country from the Polish People's Republic to the Third Republic of Poland. Her results and success helped to create new professional tennis structures.

On the WTA Tour, her best performance was a semifinal appearance at the 1995 Barcelona Open.[5] Soon after, she beat Kimberly Po and Meredith McGrath to make the third round of the 1995 French Open, then months later reached her career-high ranking of 47 in the world.[6]

Grand Slam tournaments results:[7]

She started competing in the Grand Slams in 1990.

After winning three rounds of qualifications at Roland-Garros, she qualified to the second round in 1994 – losing to Lindsay Davenport, future world n°1.

She also qualified and advanced to the third round in 1995 – losing to Kimiko Date, n°4 at the WTA.

She also reached the second round of Wimbledon in 1992.

Others [8]

She qualified for two semi-finals of WTA World Tour tournaments: Cesena Ladies Championships in 1992 and Ford International Championships of Spain in Barcelona in 1995.

On the road to the semi-final in Cesena, she defeated Sandrine Testud, Claudia Porwik and Nathalie Herrman, losing to Mary Pierce in her fight for the final.

In Barcelona she defeated Sandrine Testud, Julie Halard and Ruxandra Dragomir losing in semi-finals to Iva Majoli, 1997 Roland-Garros champion.

• She advanced twice to quarterfinals of WTA World Tour tournaments:

-  Belgian Open in Liege in 1993 where she defeated Laurence Courtois and Petra Langrová.

-  Amelia Island in 1995 where she won against Silke Meier, Judith Wiesner and Meike Babel.

She also won six ITF titles and was runner up at five ITF tournaments.

She qualified for two semi-finals of WTA World Tour tournaments: Cesena Ladies Championships in 1992 and Ford International Championships of Spain in Barcelona in 1995.

On the road to the semi-final in Cesena, she defeated Sandrine Testud, Claudia Porwik and Nathalie Herrman, losing to Mary Pierce in her fight for the final.

In Barcelona she defeated Sandrine Testud, Julie Halard and Ruxandra Dragomir losing in semi-finals to Iva Majoli, 1997 Roland-Garros champion.

She advanced twice to quarterfinals of WTA World Tour tournaments:

-  Belgian Open in Liege in 1993 where she defeated Laurence Courtois and Petra Langrová.

-  Amelia Island in 1995 where she won against Silke Meier, Judith Wiesner and Meike Babel.

She also won six ITF titles and was runner up at five ITF tournaments.

She is the first Polish tennis player in the open era to defeat top WTA players: Nathalie Tauziat, Catarina Lindqvist, Sandrine Testud, Judith Wiesner, Yayuk Basuki, Julie Halard, Naoko Sawamatsu, Anna Smashnova, Katerina Maleeva and Ruxandra Dragomir.

Those players have been ranked between n°3 (Nathalie Tauziat) and n° 19 (Yayuk Basuki) at their best.

In the years 1988–1995, she was the leader of the Polish Fed Cup team at the Team World Championships in Melbourne (1988), Tokyo (1989), Atlanta (1990),

Nottingham (1991), Frankfurt (1992–1994) and Barcelona (1995).

In 1991, the Polish team defeated France, with Katarzyna Nowak beating Nathalie Tauziat, a future Wimbledon runner-up.

One year later in Frankfurt, Katarzyna Nowak, Magdalena Mróz and Katarzyna Teodorowicz advanced to the Fed Cup quarter-finals for the first time in history, winning against Sweden and Israel.

As the N°1 of her team, Katarzyna Nowak defeated Catarina Lindqvist and Anna Smashnova. This success was only repeated by one other Polish team in 2015.

She won 7 Polish championship titles in senior tennis and was nominated the best Polish tennis player in years 1988, 1990–1992, 1994–1995.

She retired from the professional tour in 1998 due to a back injury.

Throughout her professional career, she was proudly representing her home club MKT Łódź.

Nowak first played for the Poland Fed Cup team in 1988 in Melbourne, were Poland played against Italy and lost 1–2. The only one point won Katarzyna Nowak who beat Laura Garrone. She won a total of nine singles matches in the Fed Cup, the most famous of which came in 1991, over Nathalie Tauziat in Nottingham, to help Poland eliminate sixth seeded France from the tournament.[9]

The best result came in 1992 when Poland achieved quarterfinal of Fed Cup which is the best results in Polish tennis history. Poland beat Israel 3–0 and Sweden 2–1 Katarzyna Nowak in her single mach against Israel defeated Anna Smashnova and against Sweden she defeated Catarina Lindqvist.

In addition to Fed Cup representation, Nowak also competed for Poland at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She was a first Polish tennis player who represented her country in the Olympic Games. She lost in the first round of the singles to Julie Halard-Decugis.[10]

• Personal [11]

Katarzyna Nowak graduated from University of Łódź.

She has been a sport commentator on the Polsat Sport television since 2004, commentating on the biggest tennis tournaments such as Wimbledon or Roland- Garros.

She received an award for her extreme commitment and for contributing to Polsat Sport television as the best sports channel in Poland.

In 2021, for the 100th anniversary of the Polish Tennis Federation, she was awarded an Order of Rebirth of Poland for her outstanding sport achievements and civic action for the development and promotion of sport.

In 2022, she was awarded the Gold badge of honor of the Polish tennis Federation.