Mirjana Lucic

Mirjana Lucic

Mirjana Lucic won an Australian Open title at 15, doubles with Martina Hingis in 1998, then reached the Wimbledon singles semi-final a year later, taking a set off Steffi Graf before losing in three. She was Croatia's prodigy, coached from childhood by her father Marinko in a regime that was, by her own later account, physically abusive for years. In August 1998, at 16, she fled with her mother and four siblings to the United States, settling in Florida and filing a restraining order against him. The tennis all but stopped for the better part of a decade.

She kept playing anyway, in bursts, without another deep run at a major. Then, in January 2017, ranked 79th and 34 years old, she beat Agnieszka Radwanska and fifth seed Karolina Pliskova to reach an Australian Open semi-final, eighteen years after her first. Serena Williams ended it in straight sets, then called her an inspiration. Lucic-Baroni climbed to a career-high world No. 20 that May, 3 career titles behind her by then.