Alison Riske
Alison Riske, also known by her married name Alison Riske-Amritraj, is an American professional tennis player. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in November 2019 and won her first WTA Tour title in October 2014 at the Tianjin Open.
She has won two WTA singles titles, as well as eight singles titles and one doubles title on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her best performances at Grand Slam tournaments include reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2020, the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2019 and the fourth round of the US Open in 2013. She has had numerous career wins over current and former top 10 players such as Elina Svitolina, Sloane Stephens, Petra Kvitová, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwańska, Kiki Bertens, Belinda Bencic, CoCo Vandeweghe, Flavia Pennetta, Eugenie Bouchard, Garbiñe Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Kiki Bertens, and Caroline Garcia.
Personal life
The daughter of Al and Carol Riske, she first played tennis at the age of three, after her dad took her out to hit. Her father worked in the Secret Service and later as an FBI investigator, while her mother was a school teacher, but both are now retired. Her sister, Sarah, is also a tennis player who played for Vanderbilt and had a brief professional career, reaching as high as No. 372. Her brother, Dan, played college tennis for West Liberty State, and is now an accountant.Educated by the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, she played the fall of 2006 for
Peters Township High School, where she led the girls' tennis team to the Pennsylvania State championship, and won the championship in singles. The following year, she won the USTA National Collegiate Clay Court Championship to earn a spot in the US Open qualifying draw, where she won her first match over Sorana Cîrstea before losing to Julie Ditty. She also won the ITA Summer Claycourt Championship and finished second at the USTA National Hardcourts that year. In early 2008, she earned the No. 1 ranking in her country in Girls' 18s competition. She got her first taste of the professional circuit later that year, when she served as a hitting partner for the United States Fed Cup team in their semifinal against Russia.
In her early career, Riske was coached by Janice Irwin, coach of the girls' tennis team at nearby Upper St. Clair High School. She later began working with Yves Boulais, the husband of former professional Patricia Hy-Boulais, alongside her sister, Sarah. She briefly trained at the USTA training center in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as Van der Meer Tennis Academy in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She trained with Yves Boulais at the end of 2012.
In late July 2019, just a few weeks after reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon, Riske married her long-term partner Stephen Amritraj in her hometown Pittsburgh.
Professional career
2009–11: Early years
Riske came into 2009 ranked 895 in the world. A senior in the class of 2009, she had signed a letter of intent to play college tennis at Vanderbilt University.In May, Riske began a run on the ITF circuit. As a qualifier, she reached the semifinals of a pro tournament in Indian Harbour Beach. In June, she reached the finals of a tournament in Hilton Head, and again as a qualifier, reached the semifinals of a tournament in Boston. Her form continued as she reached another semifinal, this time in Atlanta.
By the time of the US Open, her ranking had improved to 344, over 500 places from when she started the year. She was granted a wild card into the qualifying tournament of the US Open, but fell in three sets to Yulia Fedossova. Before the US Open, Riske made the decision to give up her scholarship to Vanderbilt University and turn professional largely in part due to her breakthrough year. Riske continued her form to the end of the year where she broke through at an ITF tournament in Troy, Alabama. Again as a qualifier, she defeated compatriot Christina McHale to take the title there.
She finished the year ranked at No. 232.
Riske began 2010, her first full season as a professional, by reaching the semifinals of an ITF event in Rancho Mirage. She played in several qualifying tournaments for WTA events with little success until June, when she qualified for the Aegon Classic, a grass-court event, and went on to have her professional breakthrough, earning wins over Aleksandra Wozniak, Anna Chakvetadze and Yanina Wickmayer before losing in three sets to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. This led to her being offered a main draw wildcard to Wimbledon, her Grand Slam debut, where she lost in a rematch against Wickmayer in the first round.
In October, Riske completed an impressive run of winning an ITF 75K, 50K and 50K in three straight weeks.
In 2011, Riske reached the finals of 50K in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. A few weeks later, she had success on grass reaching the semifinals of Nottingham and quarterfinals of the WTA event Aegon Classic. Riske completed 2011 with a successful run in Europe winning in Joué-lès-Tours and Limoges, and finishing the year ranked 136.
2013: Breakthrough year, fourth-round appearance at US Open
At the US Open, Riske caused a big upset when she defeated former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the third round. She lost in the following round to former world No. 5, Daniela Hantuchová.2014: Cracking the top 50 and first WTA title
Riske reached the quarterfinals at the Hobart International, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Casey Dellacqua. In the Australian Open, Riske upset No. 23 seed Elena Vesnina, and made it to the third round before losing to No. 9 seed, Angelique Kerber. At the WTA Premier Birmingham, she reached the third round after beating Lyudmyla Kichenok in the first round and her twin sister Nadiia Kichenok in the second round.At the inaugural Tianjin Open in October, Riske was seeded sixth and defeated Çağla Büyükakçay, Olga Govortsova, Varvara Lepchenko and Zheng Saisai en route to the final, without dropping a set. She proceeded to win her maiden WTA title, defeating 17-year-old Swiss Belinda Bencic. After the match, Riske said: "It's a huge accomplishment for me to win my first WTA title and I was here by myself, which made it even more special, just to know that I was able to do it by myself. I hope I can keep up the momentum and try to compete every week as best as I can."
2016: Three WTA finals
Riske reached the final of the Shenzhen Open in January losing there to Agnieszka Radwańska in straight sets. She also reached her first career final on grass at the Aegon Open in Nottingham where she lost to Karolína Plíšková. She then reached her third final of the year at the Tianjin Open, where she won her first title back in 2014. Along the way, she earned one of the biggest wins of her career by defeating two-time Grand Slam champion, former world No. 2, and then-world No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. However, she lost in straight sets to Chinese home favorite, former top 15 singles player, and former doubles world No. 1 Peng Shuai in straight sets.2019: Career Best Season: Second WTA title, quarterfinals at Wimbledon
In January, Riske found success in doubles at the Australian Open, reaching the semifinals with Jennifer Brady before falling to the second seeds and defending champions Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic. She also reached the final in Shenzhen for the third time in four years, but lost to world No. 13 Aryna Sabalenka, her sixth consecutive loss in a WTA final. However, she managed to change her poor luck in finals at the beginning of the grass court season, when she reached her second final of the year at the Libéma Open. After being bageled in the opening set, and facing five championship points in the second, Riske managed a comeback to upset home favorite and world No. 4 Kiki Bertens in three sets. This was Riske's second WTA singles title, her first on grass, and her first in over four and a half years. Her victory also catapulted her back into the top 50 for the first time since September 2017.Despite the victory, Riske faced adversity with being placed in a difficult draw at Wimbledon. She caused a minor upset in the first round by defeating the 22nd seed Donna Vekić in three sets, followed by another three set win over the young Serb Ivana Jorović. In the third round, Riske came back from a set down in the final set, to upset the 13th seed Belinda Bencic to reach the second week at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2013 US Open. She then recorded the biggest victory of her career by defeating the newly crowned world No. 1 and French Open champion Ashleigh Barty, who was on a 15-match winning streak, in three sets to advance to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, where she played the eleventh seed Serena Williams. Despite pushing the 23-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 to a third set, Riske ultimately succumbed to Williams, putting an end to the best Grand Slam run of her career. Nonethless, her performance at Wimbledon catapulted Riske back into the top 40 for the first time in two years.
At Toronto, her first event following Wimbledon, Riske defeated Maria Sakkari in the first round before falling to Karolína Plíšková in three tight sets. At Cincinnati, Riske lost in the first round to Maria Sharapova in two tight sets. At the US Open, Riske defeated Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round before exiting in the second round to Jeļena Ostapenko. At Zhenghzou, Riske defeated Angelique Kerber in the first round, before losing to Zheng Saisai in the second round. At Osaka, Riske lost to Nicole Gibbs in the first round, before entering Wuhan. Once there, Riske defeated Kateryna Kozlova, Monica Puig and Wang Qiang, before upsetting Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals and Petra Kvitová in the semifinals, to reach the finals. There, she lost to reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka, but this nevertheless was her best result in a WTA Premier tournament. Following Wuhan, Riske entered Beijing, where she defeated Ajla Tomljanović in the second round before falling to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. By virtue of her performance throughout the year, Riske qualified for the Elite Trophy tournament, where she was drawn in the Camellia Group. Riske lost both of her matches to Sofia Kenin and Karolína Muchová, and failed to progress into the semifinals. Riske ended the year ranked no. 18, her career-high ranking.
Performance timelines
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.Singles
Current through the suspension of the 2020 WTA Tour.Notes
- WTA Tournament of Champions was held from 2009 to 2014, when WTA Elite Trophy replaced it.
- The first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009–2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The two tournaments have since alternated status every year.
- In 2014, the Pan Pacific Open was downgraded to a Premier event and replaced by the Wuhan Open.
Doubles
Significant finals
Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner up)
WTA career finals
Singles: 9 (2 titles, 7 runner-ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | 2014 Tianjin Open – Singles| | Tianjin Open, China | International | Hard |  Belinda Bencic | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1–1 | 2016 WTA Shenzhen Open – Singles| | Shenzhen Open, China | International | Hard |  Agnieszka Radwańska | 3–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 1–2 | 2016 Aegon Open Nottingham – Women's Singles| | Nottingham Open, United Kingdom | International | Grass |  Karolína Plíšková | 6–7, 5–7 |
| Loss | 1–3 | 2016 Tianjin Open – Singles| | Tianjin Open, China | International | Hard |  Peng Shuai | 6–7, 2–6 |
| Loss | 1–4 | 2017 WTA Shenzhen Open – Singles| | Shenzhen Open, China | International | Hard | Kateřina Siniaková | 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 1–5 | 2018 Nürnberger Versicherungscup – Singles| | Nuremberg Cup, Germany | International | Clay |  Johanna Larsson | 6–7, 4–6 |
| Loss | 1–6 | 2019 WTA Shenzhen Open – Singles| | Shenzhen Open, China | International | Hard |  Aryna Sabalenka | 6–4, 6–7, 3–6 |
| Win | 2–6 | 2019 Rosmalen Grass Court Championships – Women's Singles| | Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands | International | Grass |  Kiki Bertens | 0–6, 7–6, 7–5 |
| Loss | 2–7 | 2019 Wuhan Open – Singles| | Wuhan Open, China | Premier 5 | Hard | Aryna Sabalenka | 3–6, 6–3, 1–6 |
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 13 (9 titles, 4 runner–ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | Jun 2009 | ITF Hilton Head, United States | 10,000 | Hard |  Alexandra Mueller | 1–6, 6–3, 3–6 |
| Win | 1–1 | Oct 2009 | ITF Troy, United States | 50,000 | Hard | Christina McHale | 6–4, 2–6, 7–5 |
| Loss | 1–2 | Sep 2010 | ITF Saguenay, Canada | 50,000 | Hard |  Rebecca Marino | 4–6, 7–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 2–2 | Oct 2010 | ITF Barnstaple, United Kingdom | 75,000 | Hard | Johanna Larsson | 6–2, 6–0 |
| Win | 3–2 | Oct 2010 | ITF Joué-lès-Tours, France | 50,000 | Hard |  Vesna Manasieva | 5–7, 6–4, 6–1 |
| Win | 4–2 | Oct 2010 | ITF Saint Raphaël, France | 50,000 | Hard | Urszula Radwańska | 6–4, 6–2 |
| Loss | 4–3 | May 2011 | ITF Indian Harbour Beach, United States | 50,000 | Clay |  Melinda Czink | 6–4, 1–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 5–3 | Oct 2011 | ITF Joué-lès-Tours, France | 50,000 | Hard |  Akgul Amanmuradova | 2–6, 6–2, 7–5 |
| Win | 6–3 | Nov 2011 | ITF Nantes, France | 50,000 | Hard |  Iryna Brémond | 6–1, 6–4 |
| Loss | 6–4 | Jul 2013 | ITF Portland, United States | 50,000 | Hard |  Kurumi Nara | 3–6, 6–3, 3–6 |
| Win | 7–4 | Jun 2016 | ITF Eastbourne, United Kingdom | 50,000 | Grass |  Tara Moore | 4–6, 7–6, 6–3 |
| Win | 8–4 | 2018 Fuzion 100 Surbiton Trophy – Women's Singles| | ITF Surbiton, United Kingdom | 100,000 | Grass |  Conny Perrin | 6–2, 6–4 |
| Win | 9–4 | 2019 Surbiton Trophy – Women's Singles| | ITF Surbiton, United Kingdom | 100,000 | Grass |  Magdaléna Rybáriková | 6–7, 6–2, 6–2 |
Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner–ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Jun 2009 | ITF Hilton Head, United States | 10,000 | Hard | Jacqueline Cako | Natalie Pluskota Caitlin Whoriskey | 6–3, 3–6, |
| Loss | 1–1 | Jul 2009 | ITF Lexington, United States | 50,000 | Hard | Jacqueline Cako |  Chang Kai-chen  Tetiana Luzhanska | 3–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 1–2 | Feb 2011 | ITF Midland, United States | 100,000 | Hard | Irina Falconi | Jamie Hampton  Anna Tatishvili | w/o |
| Loss | 1–3 | Apr 2011 | ITF Dothan, United States | 50,000 | Clay | Heidi El Tabakh | Valeria Solovieva  Lenka Wienerová | 3–6, 4–6 |