Claudia Kohde-Kilsch

Country	Germany
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born	11 December 1963 (1963-12-11) (age 47) Saarbrücken, West Germany
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1 January 1980
Retired	1994
Plays	Right-handed
Career prize money	US$2,227,116
Singles
Career record	368–228
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 4 (2 September 1985)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	SF (1985, 1987, 1988)
French Open	SF (1985)
Wimbledon	QF (1987)
US Open	QF (1985, 1987)
Doubles
Career record	438–175
Career titles	26
Highest ranking	No. 3 (17 August 1987)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (1982, 1984, 1985)
French Open	F (1984, 1985, 1988)
Wimbledon	W (1987)
US Open	W (1985)
Last updated on: 9 February 2008.

Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (born 11 December 1963 in Saarbrücken) is a former German tennis player. During her career, she won two women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won 10 singles titles and 26 doubles titles.

Career

Kohde-Kilsch was born Claudia Kohde, but added the hyphenated "-Kilsch" to her name which came from her adoptive father Jurgen Kilsch, an attorney. She has 1 younger sister, Katrin. She began playing tennis when she only 5, and was soon a rising junior player.

Kohde-Kilsch turned professional on 1 January 1980, and by 1981 she had handed a rare first round defeat to Martina Navrátilová in Oakland. She went on to win four singles titles that year. In 1982, she captured the title at Pittsburgh and in 1984 she triumphed at the German Open, defeating Kathleen Horvath of the United States, 7–6(8), 6–1.

In 1985, she reached the Australian Open and French Open semi-finals and also won in Los Angeles. Later that year, she defeated Navrátilová in the quarter-finals on the way to a final round match with Chris Evert at the Canadian Open, where she eventually lost to Evert, 6–2, 6–4. In 1987, she again reached the finals of the German Open, where she lost to a rising Steffi Graf 6–2, 6–3.

In women's doubles, Kohde-Kilsch won the 1985 US Open women's doubles championship with Helena Suková and in 1987, partnering again with Suková, she won the 1987 Wimbledon women's doubles championship.

Between 1983 and 1987 Kohde-Kilsch and Suková, sometimes referred to as the "twin towers" for their height, paired to win 19 doubles tournaments. At the 1988 Summer Olympics, she partnered with Steffi Graf in the doubles competition and together they were awarded the bronze medal in the event.

Kohde-Kilsch currently lives in Saarland with her husband, Chris Bennett, and their son, Fynn. The couple operate CeKay Music, a music publishing house and production company.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Women's doubles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1982	Australian Open	Grass	Eva Pfaff	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	1984	French Open	Clay	Hana Mandlíková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	5–7, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	1984	Australian Open	Grass	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1985	French Open	Clay	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	4–6, 6–2, 6–2
Winner	1985	US Open	Hard	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–7(5), 6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	1985	Australian Open	Grass	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–3, 6–4
Winner	1987	Wimbledon	Grass	Helena Suková	Betsy Nagelsen Elizabeth Smylie	7–5, 7–5
Runner-up	1988	French Open	Clay	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–2, 7–5

Year-End Championships finals

Doubles: 4 finals (0 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Outcome	Year	Location	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1985	New York City	Carpet (i)	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–7(4), 6–4, 7–6(5)
Runner-up	1986(1)	New York City	Carpet (i)	Helena Suková	Hana Mandlíková Wendy Turnbull	6–4, 6–7(4), 6–3
Runner-up	1986(2)	New York City	Carpet (i)	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	1–6, 6–1, 6–1
Runner-up	1987	New York City	Carpet (i)	Helena Suková	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	6–1, 6–1

Titles (36)

Singles (10)

No.	Date	Location	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	18 January 1981	Toronto, Canada	Carpet (I)	Nina Bohm	4–6, 6–2, 7–5
2.	5 April 1981	Boise, USA	Carpet (I)	Ann Kiyomura	7–6, 3–6, 6–4
3.	12 July 1981	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Isabelle Villiger	6–1, 4–6, 6–2
4.	19 July 1981	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Sylvia Hanika	7–5, 7–6
5.	31 January 1982	Pittsburgh, USA	Carpet (I)	Eva Pfaff	6–4, 6–0
6.	21 March 1982	Austin, USA	Carpet (i)	Helena Suková	7–6, 0–6, 6–3
7.	20 May 1984	Berlin, West Germany	Clay	Kathleen Horvath	7–6, 6–1
8.	4 August 1985	Manhattan Beach, USA	Hard	Pam Shriver	6–2, 6–4
9.	12 June 1988	Birmingham, UK	Grass	Pam Shriver	6–2, 6–1
10.	16 September 1990	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Rachel McQuillan	7–6, 6–4

Doubles (26)

Grand slam events in boldface.

Singles runner-ups (8)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

• A = did not participate in the tournament.
• NH = tournament not held.
• SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

Women's Tennis Association: Top German female singles tennis players as of 12 September 2011 1. Andrea Petkovic (11 ) · 2. Sabine Lisicki (17 1) · 3. Julia Görges (21 ) · 4. Angelique Kerber (34 58) · 5. Mona Barthel (86 13) 6. Kristina Barrois (88 1) · 7. Kathrin Wörle (125 9) · 8. Tatjana Malek (164 7) · 9. Sarah Gronert (210 13) · 10. Laura Siegemund (216 9)