Chanda Rubin was born on February 18th, 1976, in Lafayette, LA. From what I've been able to find of her formative years, it appears that she grew up with a tennis court literally in her backyard - that's definitely one way to get acquainted with the sport. She picked it up at age five, and by the time she hit her teens, she was good enough that she won several national USTA championships - first the 12 and under category when she was 11, then the 14 and under division the following year. So she clearly was on top of her game from a very early age - so much so, in fact, that I didn't even realize that she made a pro tournament level final at age 15, in Scottsdale in late 1991. The Wimbledon 1993 tournament was my introduction to the sport, but I didn't get to consistently watch the game on a regular basis until about 1997 or so; as such, my initial impressions of Chanda were that she was seen as a promising young player but I'm not sure I ever knew just how good she was at a young age until I started to put this profile together. So she clearly had some game, very early into her career.
Chanda continued her roll by winning the Wimbledon girls' singles title in 1992, and reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Open that same year. Despite some early successes, though, it wasn't until 1995 that she began to consistently challenge the game's best. At Roland Garros that year, she reached the quarterfinals; en route, she defeated Jana Novotna in the third round in a match where she came back to win the match 8-6 in the third set after being down 0-5, 0-40 in the third set - that's quite a comeback. She reached two tour finals and finished the year ranked #15, her highest ranking to date.
The 1996 Australian Open was Chanda's best result in a major; she reached the semifinals. Along the way, she defeated #6 seed Gabriela Sabatini, 6-2, 6-4, in the fourth round, and in a battle for the ages, outlasted the #3 seed, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 16-14(!) in the third set of their match. Talk about a struggle! (Incidentally enough, she won the doubles title at the same event with ASV as her partner.) In the semifinals, she faced Monica Seles, who was making her first appearance at the Australian Open since returning from her unfortunate injury layoff. Chanda actually had the upper hand in the match, winning the first set in a tiebreaker and taking a 5-2 lead in the third set, serving for the match at 5-3, 30-15, but she couldn't hold on - Seles ended up taking the final five games of the match to win it, 7-5. A few months after her results in Australia, Chanda made the final of the Key Biscayne event (losing to Steffi Graf), which propelled her to the highest ranking she would ever hold: #6. She was just 20 years old then, and a long, bright future near the top of the game must've seemed imminent.
Sadly, it was at this point that the injury bug began to bite Chanda. Not long after reaching her peak ranking, she suffered a stress fracture in her wrist that wound up necessitating surgery, and ended up missing the final three Grand Slams of the year. She still maintained a fairly high ranking because of her successes in the first few months of the year, and over the course of the next few years, generally maintained a place in the world's top 40. But she never quite recaptured the form she'd flashed in early 1996, and in 2000, the injuries began piling up in earnest: first, an Achilles' tendon injury, then not one but two procedures on her left knee over the course of 2001-02. Each time, she battled back gamely; she posted solid results over the course of 2002-03, and even finished 2003 at #9, her highest ranking at the conclusion of a year. Thereafter, however, the injuries continued to pile up, and after playing only sporadically on tour once the 2004 season ended, Chanda called it quits after playing a few tournaments at the end of the 2006 season. She ended her career with seven singles titles. Who knows how good she might have been had the injuries not derailed her every time she seemed to move in the right direction.
In retirement, Chanda has served as a board member for the USTA and also does commentary, which is something she still does to the current day, I believe - I hear her most often when I tune into the online streams via the U.S. Open's website. I also believe that she recently welcomed her first child into the world this past year, if I'm not mistaken. It's a shame that injuries robbed her of her prime tennis, but she seems to be doing quite all right for herself these days!
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