She is the first Polish female tennis player in Open Era who reached Top 50 on the WTA ranking.

As she was competing in an extremely unfavourable political and economic situation in the hard years of communist rules and the early transformation period.

Katarzyna Nowak is the only Polish tennis player whose the whole career was lasting in one of the most difficult periods in Poland history (martial law 1981-1983, political and economical sanctions, fall of comunism and hard first years of transformation) and achieved so much.

She quickly drew the attention of the Polish Tennis Federation and was hired on the national team at the age of 14.

Or she arrived in Paris only on Sunday evening to play her first round of the French Open junior tournament on Monday!

In spite of all these difficulties, Katarzyna won eight titles and was runner up in 4 tournaments on the ITF Junior Tour.

The beginnings were not easy as the economic crisis was at its peak with hyperinflation, non convertible currency and shortages of all kinds.

Possibilities to find better tennis training conditions - such as indoor courts - came too late for Katarzyna as well as the first Major tournaments and opportunities for sponsorship deals.

Deeply attached to her nation, Katarzyna Nowak never considered leaving Poland to seek better conditions in another country with a highly developed level of tennis.

She well deserves this title as she was competing in an extremely unfavourable situation in the last years of communist rules and the early transition period.

In the years 1988-1995, she was the leader of the Polish Billie Jean King Cup’s Team in: Melbourne (1988), Tokyo (1989), Atlanta (1990), Nottingham (1991), Frankfurt (1992-1994) and Barcelona (1995).

In 1991, the Polish team defeated six seeded France, with Katarzyna Nowak beating Nathalie Tauziat, a future Wimbledon runner-up.

She started to suffer from back pain at the end of 1996 and finally she retired from the professional tour in 1998 due to this injury.