Tímea Babos (; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian inactive tennis player who specializes in doubles. She is a former world No. 1 in this category by the WTA. She has won 29 career doubles titles and three in singles. Babos is a four-time major champion in women's doubles, having won the 2018 and 2020 Australian Opens, as well as the French Open in 2019 and 2020, all alongside Kristina Mladenovic.
Babos and Mladenovic were also finalists at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, and Babos reached the final of the 2016 Wimbledon Championships with Yaroslava Shvedova. In mixed-doubles, she has reached two major finals, at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships with Alexander Peya, and at the 2018 Australian Open partnering Rohan Bopanna. Babos became world No. 1 for the first time in July 2018, holding the top ranking for 13 weeks, and was the first Hungarian player, male or female, to reach number one in either singles or doubles. She also has won another big titles on the WTA Tour, they being the 2017, 2018 and 2019 WTA Finals and two WTA 1000 trophies.
In singles, Babos has a career-high ranking of No. 25, achieved in September 2016, and has won three titles on the WTA Tour, also finishing runner-up on five occasions. She has represented Hungary in Fed Cup and Billie Jean King Cup since 2011, and also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. She also qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in women's doubles, however she had to cancel her participation due to her hip injury.
Babos is considered the most successful Hungarian tennis player with seven major doubles titles, four in women's and three in girls' doubles, with three WTA Finals titles and holding the world No. 1 position in doubles as the first ever Hungarian tennis player.
Early and personal life Tímea Babos was born on 10 May 1993 to mother Zsuzsanna and father Csaba in Sopron, Hungary. She has an older sister. Coming from a sporty family, Babos decided to follow her family tradition. Her father is a coach at the tennis club her family owns in Sopron, while her mother is a housewife. Her sister was also a very good player and won NCAA titles when studying at Berkeley in the United States. She was originally a swimmer and was national champion in Hungary, but during that time she looked differently at swimming, finding it quite boring and as hard work, so she started to come with her sister to tennis practice at the age of 8. Originally, she started playing tennis just for fun, but then her dad saw her talent, so she started to concentrate more on it and eventually stopped swimming.
She loved watching her sister's workouts with their father, when she was eight and her sister 16, so her parents signed her up for a class at a local club and after a few months, she was accepted into local events. Her breakthrough came at the age of nine, where after leading the u12 club team to four qualification round victories, she qualified for the u12 National Championships. A few weeks later, she won her first Hungarian National Championship title. At 15, she travelled to the United Kingdom to practice owing to her homeland's lack of sufficient facilities. One of the opportunities was practice on hardcourts; her country mostly has clay courts. Two years after her arrival in England, she got a good sponsorship deal, which meant she could return and train in Budapest.
Babos resides in her birthtown Sopron in Hungary. Her nickname on tour is 'Babosdook', given to her by doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic as she is a big fan of horror films. The nickname is a reference to the film The Babadook. Tímea Babos has become the first Hungarian female tennis player to reach the world number one spot. She enjoyed watching Elena Dementieva growing up. Her comment stated:
In an interview with Mancunian Matters, she noted that she is supporter of Manchester United, as well as her whole family.
Juniors
Babos reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 as a junior. She began competing on the ITF Junior Circuit in September 2006 at the age of 13, winning the title in her debut event in doubles at the lowest-level Grade-5 Talentum Cup in homeland Hungary. There, she also made her singles debut but lost in the second round. By the end of the year, she didn't play at any tournament. But she then continued her success in doubles, winning the following tournament, the Grade-5 Mostar Open in April 2007. In the second half of the year, she won Grade-3 Budaörs Cup and then Grade-2 TrueVisions Thailand Open, both in doubles.
The following year, she made a progress, reaching the semifinal in singles and final in doubles event at the Grade-1 Barranquilla Junior Tennis Tournament Country Club. In March, she made a step further, reaching her first Grade-1 singles final and doubles title at the Mitsubishi-Lancer International Juniors Championships. Babos then made her major debut at the junior 2008 French Open, reaching the second round in both singles and doubles. At Wimbledon, she lost in the first round, but made it to the quarterfinals in doubles. In August, she played at the Canadian Open Junior Championships, reaching quarterfinals in singles and final in doubles. On her debut at the US Open, she reached only the first round in singles and second round in doubles. At her last tournament of the 2008 season, she reached singles quarterfinals and title in doubles at the Grade-A Osaka Mayor's Cup.
Babos had strong results at the junior major and other Grade-A and Grade-1 events in 2009. She started year with successful performances at the Grade-1 tournaments winning both singles and doubles title at the Copa Gatorade in January and at the Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup in March. At the same grade, she won the Japan Open Junior Championships in singles, while in doubles she finished runner–up. At the 2009 French Open, she managed to get to her first Grand Slam tournament final in doubles event. Partnering with Heather Watson, they lost to Elena Bogdan and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn in a tough final, in three sets. At Wimbledon, she reached her first major singles semifinal but failed in the second round in doubles. Later, Babos left her mark at the Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup, winning doubles event and finishing runner–up in singles. She finished 2009 season with singles second round and quarterfinal in doubles at the Orange Bowl.
Babos had a strong start into next season, winning her first singles tournament of the year, the Grade-1 Loy Yang Traralgon International. She followed this with singles quarterfinal and final in doubles at the Australian Open. The first major for Babos came at the French Open in the doubles alongside Sloane Stephens, defeating Lara Arruabarrena and María Teresa Torró Flor in the final, and not dropping a single set in the entire tournament. Babos won another major title with Stephens defeating Irina Khromacheva and Elina Svitolina in the final of Wimbledon. Babos also won the title at the US Open, again with Stephens, by walkover in the final. This was her last junior tournament.
Professional 2009–11: Success in early ITF events
Still playing tournaments of the ITF Junior Circuit, Babos began competing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2009 at the age of 15, reaching the final in her debut event in Bournemouth. The following week, she played on another 10k event in the United Kingdom, and won her first title. Babos continued winning one and losing two 10k finals, by the end of the 2009 season. She had a strong start in doubles too, winning one of two finals that she reached on the ITF Circuit.
She started 2010 with mixed results, but her first improvement was at a 25k event in Budapest where she reached her first final in that category, but finished as runner–up. In early July, she made her WTA Tour debut at the Hungarian Open as a wildcard player, but lost to Timea Bacsinszky in the first round. The following week, she won her first 25k title in Woking. Despite the fact she still didn't make her WTA Tour debut in doubles, Babos won four 25k events, two of them in Australia and one in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand.
At the Hungarian Open in July 2011, Babos realized her first WTA match-win, defeating Anna-Giulia Remondina, but lost in the next round to Roberta Vinci. There, she also made her doubles debut, partnering with Katalin Marosi, but she lost her first WTA Tour doubles match. Her first major appearance was at the US Open; she failed to reach the main-draw, losing in the qualification. In late October, she won her first 50k event in both singles and doubles at the Challenger de Saguenay. She reached another $50k final in doubles, and also reached semifinals in singles.
2012–13: First singles and doubles WTA Tour title Singles
Babos had strong start of the 2012 season. At the first tournament of the year, she finished runner–up at the Blossum Cup in Quanzhou, losing there to Kimiko Date. At the Australian Open, she failed to reach her first main draw. A month later, she reached her first WTA Tour singles semifinal at the Copa Colsanitas. She won against one qualifier, wildcard and seeded player, before she lost in the semifinal to Alexandra Panova. She reached her first WTA Tour singles final at the Monterrey Open, and won the title. These good results helped Babos rise from No. 107 to 68 in the following WTA rankings to make her top-100 debut.
Babos continued to improve, making her major debut at the French Open, where she lost to Sesil Karatantcheva in the first round. At Wimbledon, she recorded her first major match win, defeating wildcard player Melanie Oudin, but lost in the next round to the experienced Russian player Nadia Petrova. In early August, she made her Premier 5/Premier Mandatory debut at the Canadian Open, reaching the main draw through qualifying, and then the following week, she recorded her first Premier/Premier Mandatory win at the Cincinnati Open. In 2013, as her highlights in singles, she reached only three quarterfinals at the International-level Brasil Tennis Cup, the Monterrey Open and Hungarian Open. She finished runner–up at the 75k event Viccourt Cup in Donetsk, and won the 50k Soweto Open in Johannesburg.
Doubles In the first half of 2012, Babos reached three International-level semifinals. First at the Copa Colsanitas alongside Valeria Savinykh, followed by the semifinal of the Morocco Open alongside Mandy Minella, and finally that of the Internationaux de Strasbourg alongside Hsieh Su-wei. She then won her first WTA Tour doubles title at the Birmingham Classic with Hsieh, defeating Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in three sets. This year, Babos also made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open, at the same time she debuted in singles as well. She partnered with Hsieh, and they were eliminated by Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the second round. In 2013, Babos made more progress in doubles than in singles. Unlike failing to win the title in singles, she won four International titles in doubles. First she won Copa Colsanitas in February, partnering with Mandy Minella. She then won the Monterrey Open in April alongside Kimiko Date. Later in April, she won the Morocco Open, again with Minella, and finally, in early September, the Tashkent Open, partnering with Yaroslava Shvedova.
2014–15: Major final, debut at the WTA Finals, top 10