Iva Majoli

In her early years, Iva Majoli was coached by her father Stanko, Jelena Genčić,[2] and Nick Bollettieri, whose academy she joined in 1990.[3] She turned professional in September the same year, when she played her first professional match in Makarska, representing Yugoslavia, losing in the first round to Ruxandra Dragomir. Majoli had her WTA main draw debut at the Virginia Slims of Houston in April 1992. Aged 14, she reached the quarterfinals as a wildcard entry, beating Lindsay Davenport and world no. 24 Lori McNeil, before losing to Zina Garrison. Later that year she played her first Grand Slam at the 1992 US Open, reaching the 2nd round. She reached two more WTA quarterfinals that year, at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland (beat Karina Habsudova and Lori McNeil, lost to Monica Seles) and at the Indianapolis Tennis Classic (beat world no. 14 Nathalie Tauziat in the 2nd round). She finished her first WTA season ranked no. 50.

In her first full professional WTA season, Majoli reached two quarterfinals, at the 1993 Virginia Slims of Chicago in February (lost to Mary Joe Fernandez in 3s) and at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland (lost to Martina Navratilova in 3s). At the 1993 French Open, she reached the second week of Roland Garros in her first attempt, beating the 15th seed Sabine Hack of Germany, and losing to Steffi Graf 4:6 6:7 in the 4th round. After the match, the media dubbed her "the new Monica Seles".[4][5] She finished the year ranked no 46 and received the WTA Newcomer of the Year award.

In 1994 Majoli reached three WTA finals, at the Asia Women's Tennis Open Osaka (lost to Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere in 3s), at the Barcelona Ladies Open (beat Conchita Martinez and Magdalena Maleeva, lost to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario), and at the Nokia Grand Prix Essen (beat Anke Huber, lost to Jana Novotna). Other notable results include a semifinal showing at Indian Wells (lost to Graf), a semifinal at Hilton Head (beat Gabriela Sabatini and Lindsay Davenport, lost to Conchita Martinez in 3s), and at the Acura U.S. Women's Hardcourt Championships where she beat Pam Shriver and Mary Joe Fernandez, before losing to Sanchez Vicario. She also defended her 4th-round points at the French Open and reached the 4th round at the US Open. On June 20th 1994 she entered the top 20 ranking, aged 16 years and 10 months. In November, Majoli qualified for the year-end championship at the Virginia Slims of New York for the first time in her career, losing to Novotna in the first round. She finished the year at a career-high ranking of world no. 13.

Majoli started the 1995 season reaching the semifinals in Tokyo in January and Paris in February. In April, she again reached the finals of WTA Barcelona, and again lost to Sanchez-Vicario. In June she reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career, beating Mary Pierce in the 4th round at the French Open (l. to Kimiko Date in the quarterfinals). In October the same year she recorded a 10-match winning streak which included winning her first two WTA titles in two consecutive weeks. Majoli's first career title came at the WTA Zurich, a Tier 1 tournament, where she scored upsets over Jana Novotna, Chanda Rubin and Mary Pierce in the final, winning the title with a 6-4 6-4 scoreline. The following week Majoli won the WTA Filderstadt, again beating Pierce and Rubin and upsetting Gabriela Sabatini in the final 6-4 7-6. After Filderstadt, Majoli reached her new career-high ranking of world no. 9 in October 1995, at the age of 18 years and 2 months. She would stay in the top 10 for 138 consecutive weeks. At the end of the year Majoli qualified for the WTA finals for the second year in a row, again losing in the first round, this time to C. Martinez.

Majoli started the 1996 by playing at the Australian open for the first time in her career. She went on to reach the quarterfinals without dropping a set, and then lost to the eventual champion Monica Seles 0-2. After the Australian Open, Majoli captured her second Tier I title in Tokyo, where she beat the current world no. 1 Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, the future no. 1 Martina Hingis in the semifinals, and the former no. 1 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the finals. After Tokyo, Majoli reached her career-high ranking of world no. 4. at the age of 18 years, 5 months and 24 days. She kept this ranking for 51 weeks in total.

After Tokyo, Majoli reached the final of WTA Paris (l. to Julie Halard-Decugis 5-7 6-7) and won WTA Essen (beat Novotna in the final 7-6 in the third set). After reaching at least the final in three of the last four tournaments, Majoli lost in the quarterfinals of Hilton Head and the second round of WTA Bol in her native Croatia. She bounced back at the 1996 Rome where she reached the semifinals (l. to C. Martinez) and the semifinals of Berlin (l. to Graf). At the 1996 French Open Majoli again lost to Graf in the quarterfinals. Other notable results include her fourth WTA final of the season at Leipzig (l. to Huber), and semifinals at Zuerich where she was the defending champion (l. to Novotna). She qualified for the season-ending WTA finals for the third year in a row, beating Huber and Martinez and losing to Hingis in the semifinals. Majoli finished the year at no. 8, with a 41-17 W/L ratio and almost half of those wins coming on indoor carpet surface.

The most successful season of Iva Majoli's career started with a quarterfinal showing at Sydney and a loss to Patty Schnyder in the first round of the Australian Open. She bounced back in February, winning her first title of the season (fifth in career) at Hanover (beat Novotna in the final after saving a match point). In April, Majoli won her second title of the season at the WTA Hamburg (beat Pierce and Dragomir-Ilie). In June, she won the 1997 French Open singles title, defeating Sandra Kleinová, Alexandra Fusai, Ann Grossman, Lindsay Davenport, Ruxandra Dragomir and Amanda Coetzer before beating the 16-year-old Martina Hingis in straight sets, 6–4, 6–2. Majoli played aggressively from the baseline to end Hingis's 37-match winning streak and hand her opponent her first defeat in a final of a Grand Slam. This was the only loss Hingis suffered at grand slam tournaments in 1997. Majoli followed this with her career-best showing at Wimbledon, where she beat Irina Spirlea in the 4th round (9-7 third set) to reach the quarterfinals (l. to Anna Kournikova). She went 7-9 for the rest of the season, reaching two semifinals (in Atlanta and Chicago) and qualifying for the season-ending WTA finals for the fourth consecutive year (l. to Tauziat in the quarterfinals). Majoli finished the year at no.8, with a career best 45 matches won (23 losses), going 19-4 on clay.

After a quarterfinal appearance at the 1998 French Open, Majoli failed to reach the fourth round of any subsequent Grand Slam singles tournament. In 2002, ranked world No. 58, Majoli defeated Patty Schnyder, in the final of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. The victory increased Majoli's ranking to world No. 33, but her game steadily declined thereafter, with her ranking plummeting to No. 131 in 2003. In the final years of her tennis career, Majoli suffered from a series of injuries – most notably a shoulder injury – and struggled to play consistently. On June 12, 2004, she announced her retirement from the game.

In 2006, she announced that she was engaged and pregnant with her first child. She married a local businessman, Stipe Marić, on 9 September 2006, with Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce attending the wedding. She gave birth to her daughter Mia on 31 October 2006. Majoli and Marić divorced in 2012. Majoli married Roberto Callegari in 2022.

In 2007, Majoli participated in the second season of the Croatian version of Dancing with the Stars. Her partner was Marko Herceg. She was eliminated in the fourth episode.

In 2012, she was selected to be the non-playing captain of the Croatian Fed Cup team.

Majoli made a comeback in professional tennis at the 2015 Kremlin Cup, where she received a wildcard with Anastasia Bukhanko in the doubles draw.