Katarzyna Nowak

Source:^[2]

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.

Poland was facing economic catastrophe until the fall of communism.^[3]

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.

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.

 

A very difficult context

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 French Open 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 andunder 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.

She was leading the way to the next generation of Polish players, being an example 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 unfavourable 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.

 

She qualified for two semi-finals of WTA World Tour:

• 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 Herreman, 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 French Open champion.

She advanced twice to quarterfinals of WTA World Tour:

• Belgian Open in Liege in 1993 where she defeated Laurence Courtois and Petra Langrova.

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

She began competing in the Grand Slams in 1990.

After winning three rounds of qualifications at French Open, she qualified to the second round in 1994 – losing to Lindsay Davenport, future world No. 1.

She also qualified and advanced to the third round in 1995 – losing to Kimiko Date, No. 4 at the WTA.

Nowak also reached the second round of Wimbledon in 1992.

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

In the years 1988-1995, she was the leader of the Polish Billie Jean King Cup’s Team in: Melbourne (1988), Tokyo (1989), Atlanta (1990), Nottingham (1991), Frankfurt (1992-1994) and Barcelona (1995).

She played her first match for the Polish team in 1988 in Melbourne where Italy dominated Poland 2-1. Nowak beat Laura Garrone to score her team’s only point.

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

The best result came 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 in her team, Katarzyna Nowak defeated Catarina Lindqvist and Anna Smashnova. This success was only repeated by one other Polish team in 2015. Nowak won a total of 9 singles matches in Fed Cup.

She won 7 Polish championship titles in senior and was nominated the best Polish tennis player in years 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995.

She started to suffer from back pain at the end of 1996 and finally she retired from the professional tour in 1998 due to this injury.

Katarzyna Nowak graduated from University of Łódź.

She has been a tennis commentator and expert on the Polsat Sport television from 2004 to 2022, commentating on the biggest tennis tournaments such as Wimbledon, Miami Open, Indian Wells, Rolex Monte Carlo, Internacjonale di Italia Rome, French Open, Rolex Szanghaj, Cincinnati Open...

She is and expert and analyst for the oldest polish newspaper “Przegląd Sportowy” and Polish Radio.

In 2015, 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 in such a difficult period, her pioneer role 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.

Throughout her professional career, she represented her home club MKT Łódź.

• Katarzyna Nowak at the Women's Tennis Association  
• Katarzyna Nowak at the International Tennis Federation  
• Katarzyna Nowak at the Billie Jean King Cup