Pauline Parmentier

In July, she reached her second WTA Tour singles quarterfinal of the year at the tournament in Bucharest, where she eliminated No. 5 seed Elise Mertens in the second round before losing her quarterfinal match against No. 7 seed Irina-Camelia Begu. In her third-last event of the year in Luxembourg City, Parmentier won three qualifying and three main-draw matches to reach her first and only singles semifinal of the 2017 WTA Tour, where she lost to Carina Witthöft in three sets (it was Witthöft's third straight win over Parmentier). In November, Parmentier narrowly failed to qualify for her first WTA 125K series singles final when she was beaten in three sets in the semifinals by Monica Niculescu at the Open de Limoges. However, she reached her first career 125K series doubles final at Limoges; she and her partner Chloé Paquet lost the final to Valeria Savinykh and Maryna Zanevska.

In the first five months of 2016, Parmentier reached at least the last eight of the singles main draw in four WTA tournaments as a lucky loser, unseeded player or wildcard; she lost to No. 8 seed Dominika Cibulková in the semifinals in Katowice (that was her first singles semifinal appearance on the WTA Tour since the 2012 Internationaux de Strasbourg) and was defeated in the singles quarterfinals in Monterrey, Rabat and Strasbourg.

In 2013, Parmentier won only one match (Auckland, held in the first week of January) and exited the first round nine times in ten WTA singles main-draw events, including the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. She missed several events in April and May because of a right shoulder injury. In the second half of the year, she played the singles events of eleven tournaments (ten of those were ITF tournaments), including the US Open qualifying event.

She was the No. 88 in the singles rankings coming into the French Open, defeating No. 31 seed Monica Niculescu in the first round and Irina Falconi in the second before losing to No. 8 seed Timea Bacsinszky 4–6, 2–6 in the third.

Coming into the Premier Mandatory BNP Paribas Open held in March, Parmentier had never in her singles career beaten a player ranked in the top ten of the WTA singles rankings. In that tournament, Parmentier came close to doing so, holding a set point in the first set and leading 4–1 in the third set of her third-round match against world No. 2 Angelique Kerber before losing 5–7, 6–3, 5–7. She also lost in the third round of the Miami Open (the next Premier Mandatory tournament) to world No. 11 Johanna Konta, after causing an upset by beating No. 24 seed Tímea Babos in the second round.

After her good performances at the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open, Parmentier lost in the first round of her next four tournaments (all of them WTA tournaments) - Biel, Rabat, Madrid and Strasbourg. At the Strasbourg tournament, she failed to convert two match points while leading 6–5 in the final set against the American qualifier Madison Brengle. She ended her run of four consecutive singles main-draw first-round defeats at the French Open when she defeated Irina Khromacheva before losing to Carina Witthöft in the second round.

In the first 15 weeks of the year, Parmentier compiled a singles match record of two wins and 13 defeats. During that period, she won her first-round match but lost her second-round match in the singles main draw events at the Taiwan Open and in Croissy-Beaubourg. She registered eleven other singles defeats during that period by losing both her matches in the Fed Cup World Group quarterfinal tie against Belgium on February 10–11, and her opening matches at seven WTA tournaments (Shenzhen, Hobart, Australian Open, Budapest, Acapulco, Indian Wells and Miami) and two ITF tournaments (Andrézieux-Bouthéon and Tunis). On April 21–22, Parmentier played in France's Fed Cup World Group semifinal tie against the United States in Aix-en-Provence. She pushed two players ranked in the top 20 to tight losses, losing first to Sloane Stephens and then to Madison Keys; the Americans won the tie 3–2.

At the Istanbul Cup held in the last week of April, Parmentier registered her first career singles win over a player ranked in the top ten of the WTA singles rankings in her 16th attempt by defeating the top seed and world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki who retired in the quarterfinals after leading 4–6, 6–3 due to a left abdominal injury. She then defeated the No. 7 seed Irina-Camelia Begu 6–3, 6–4 in the semifinals to reach her first WTA singles final since winning the 2008 Gastein Ladies title. In the final, she defeated the unseeded Polona Hercog to win her third career WTA singles title. On 30 April, the day after winning the Istanbul Cup singles title, Parmentier rose from No. 122 (seven days earlier) to world No. 76 in the singles rankings.

She lost in the first and second round in her next two tournaments, in Cagnes-sur-Mer and Strasbourg respectively. She entered the main draw of the French Open as a wildcard, and defeated Chloé Paquet (another French wildcard) and Alizé Cornet (seeded No. 32) in the first and second rounds respectively, both in three sets. She lost to second seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. Parmentier played only one pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament in June, in Southsea, where she was defeated by Kirsten Flipkens in the semifinals. Parmentier lost her opening matches in her next two tournaments (Wimbledon and Contrexéville) to Taylor Townsend and Zheng Saisai respectively. Parmentier entered the Bucharest Open as the No. 7 seed and defeated Alexandra Dulgheru in three sets. In her second-round match against Wang Yafan, Parmentier was trailing 6–7, 0–3 when she was forced to retire because of a neck injury. The following week, she was beaten in the first round in Moscow by third-seeded Anastasija Sevastova. Parmentier entered the main draw of the New Haven tournament as a lucky loser, losing in the first round to Anett Kontaveit. She lost her opening matches in her next two tournaments (US Open and Chicago) to Madison Keys and Dayana Yastremska respectively.

Parmentier made her Fed Cup debut at the World Group quarterfinal tie against the team of the United States in February 2010. She lost her first match against Melanie Oudin but won her second match against Christina McHale by the same scoreline. France lost the tie 1–4.

Her career-high WTA singles ranking is world No. 40, which she attained on 21 July 2008. On 30 April 2012, she peaked at world No. 89 on the WTA doubles rankings. She has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as ten singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She competed in the singles and women's doubles events at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has been playing for France in the Fed Cup since 2010.

On 18 February 2008, two days after losing in the semifinals of the Tier III Cachantún Cup in Viña del Mar to top seed Flavia Pennetta, Parmentier made her debut in the top 50 of the singles rankings; she rose from world No. 53 at the start of the 2008 Cachantún Cup to No. 47. She won the title at Bad Gastein in July - it was her second career WTA (and first Tier III) singles title. Seeded No. 4, she defeated top seed Ágnes Szávay in the semifinals before defeating qualifier Lucie Hradecká in the final. Parmentier was nominated to play in the 2008 Summer Olympics after Mary Pierce and Amélie Mauresmo withdrew. She lost her singles first-round match to the No. 16 seed Dominika Cibulková and her women's doubles first-round match (she was paired with Tatiana Golovin) to the Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao by walkover.

Parmentier won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the US Open where she defeated Tatjana Malek in the first round and fell to Martina Hingis in the second. She broke into the top 100 (at world No. 87) of the WTA rankings for the first time in her career on 10 September 2007 (her singles ranking was No. 106 on August 27, at the start of the 2007 US Open). Parmentier won her first career WTA singles title at the Tashkent Open as an unseeded player in October 2007; she did not drop a set during the tournament, defeating the three top seeds Dominika Cibulková (first round), Olga Govortsova (semifinals) and Victoria Azarenka (final)] en route to winning the title. She also won three ITF singles titles in 2007.

It was in 2005 at the French Open and US Open that Parmentier appeared in the singles main draw of a WTA tournament for the first two times in her career. At the French Open, she entered as a wild card and lost in the first round to Iveta Benešová. At the US Open, she won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw, where she lost to No. 2 seed Lindsay Davenport in the second round.

In May 2004, Parmentier made her WTA Tour singles debut at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, losing in the second qualifying round to Henrieta Nagyová. At her Grand Slam debut at the 2004 French Open (she received wild cards for both events), she lost in the second singles qualifying round to Roberta Vinci and in the first round of the women's doubles.

Parmentier played 13 tournaments in the 2003 ITF Women's Circuit, appearing in their singles or doubles events or both.

Parmentier did not play a single ITF tournament in 2002. She did not have any year-end WTA singles or doubles ranking for 2000, 2001 and 2002.

In 2001, she played just three ITF tournaments (Villenave-d'Ornon, Le Havre and Deauville - all held in November, $10,000 each) and only took part in their singles events; she was eliminated in the qualifying rounds of all of them.

In 2000, Parmentier played only one tournament on the ITF Women's Circuit; she lost her main-draw opening match in both the singles and doubles events of a $10,000 tournament held in November 2000 in the French commune of Villenave-d'Ornon.

Pauline Parmentier (French pronunciation: ​[pɔlin paʁmɑ̃tje, po-] ; born 31 January 1986) is a French, professional tennis player.