Sinja Kraus

Sinja Kraus earned her place on Tour the unglamorous way. A right-hander from Vienna, born in April 2002, she turned pro in 2018 and spent close to seven seasons embedded in the ITF and Challenger circuit instead of riding a junior pedigree onto the main draw. Tennis runs through her family — she came to the sport through her mother and sister, and her older sister Livia, a former collegiate player, now works as her fitness trainer. The patience paid off in a résumé built brick by brick: a WTA 125 singles title alongside 13 ITF singles crowns and two ITF doubles titles.

The game is built around the return rather than the serve. Kraus's value comes from the pressure she generates off the back of the court — heavy first-strike returning, deep rally balls and the kind of patience the dirt rewards. Clay is unambiguously her surface; her career ledger leans heavily toward it at every level, with a lopsided win rate on the European red stuff compared to hard courts. She is not a free-points-on-serve player, which means her matches are won and lost on break-point math and stamina across long, grinding exchanges.

The breakthrough year was the climb into the top 100 at 23 — a milestone that opened up Tour-level main draws at events like the Madrid Open and the clay run into Roland-Garros. On home soil, the Linz Open carries extra weight as the Austrian's marquee domestic stop, and the clay swing through Madrid and the Italian Open is where her ranking points are concentrated.

Currently ranked No. 92, Kraus is consolidating her first sustained stretch inside the top 100. The mandate this season is straightforward: defend the clay results that got her here and prove the game travels onto faster surfaces against established Tour names like Sorana Cirstea and Elise Mertens.