Background
Kohde-Kilsch was born Claudia Kohde in Saarbrücken, but added the hyphenated "-Kilsch" to her name which came from her adoptive father Jürgen Kilsch, an attorney.
Kohde-Kilsch was born Claudia Kohde in Saarbrücken, but added the hyphenated "-Kilsch" to her name which came from her adoptive father Jürgen Kilsch, an attorney.
Kohde-Kilsch turned professional on 1 January 1980, and by 1981 she had handed a first round defeat to Martina Navratilova in Oakland. In 1982, she captured the title at Pittsburgh and in 1984 she triumphed at the German Open, defeating Kathleen Horvath of the United States, 7–6(8), 6–1. Later that year, she defeated Navrátilová in the quarter-finals on the way to a final round match with Chris Evert at the Canadian Open, where she eventually lost to Evert, 6–2, 6–4.
In 1987, she again reached the finals of the German Open, where she lost to Steffi Graf 6–2, 6–3.
At the 1988 Summer Olympics, she partnered with Steffi Graf in the doubles competition and together they were awarded the bronze medal in the event. The couple operate CeKay Music, a music publishing house and production company.
Kohde-Kilsch campaigned for Oskar Lafontaine of Die Linke at the Saarland state election, 2012. With the party winning over 16% of the vote, it was announced that as of 1 May 2012 she would become the new spokesperson for the Landtag parliamentary group.
Grand Slam finals = Women"s doubles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runners-up) Olympics = Doubles: 1 medal (1 bronze medal) Graf and Kohde-Kilsch lost in the semi-finals to Jana Novotná and Helena Suková 7–5, 6–3.
In 1988, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semi-final pairs received bronze medals. Year-End Championships finals = Doubles: 5 finals (0 titles, 5 runners-up) Doubles A = did not participate in the tournament. New Hampshire = tournament not held.
During her tennis career, she won two women"s doubles Grand Slam titles. She also won eight singles titles and a total of 25 doubles titles. She went on to win four singles titles that year. In 1985, she reached the Australian Open and French Open semi-finals and also won in Los Los Angeles In women"s doubles, Kohde-Kilsch won the 1985 United States Open women"s doubles championship with Helena Suková and in 1987, partnering again with Suková, she won the 1987 Wimbledon women"s doubles championship. Between 1984 and 1987, Kohde-Kilsch and Suková, sometimes referred to as the "twin towers" for their height, paired to win 14 doubles tournaments. Social Research = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
