Sesil Karatantcheva is a Bulgarian tennis player who has won seven singles titles on the ITF tour in her career.
On 7 November 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 35.
Sesil seemed to be a typical eastern European tennis prodigy who even picked up her first lines of English by listening to the Spice Girls.
Karatantcheva's mentor is her father, Radoslav, a Bulgarian rowing champion who once placed seventh in the World Cup. Radoslav introduced Sesil to tennis when she was aged five.
Nick Bollettieri saw her playing in an international junior tournament and invited her to train at his tennis academy in Florida. From the age of 12 to 15, Karatantcheva spent six months at the Bollettieri academy and six months in Bulgaria.
In 2004 Karatantcheva won the junior singles title at the French Open, and at the start of 2005 Bollettieri tipped her as a face to watch on the WTA Tour.
Everything was going according to plan in 2005 when Sesil reached the quarter finals of Roland Garros and was ranked 35 in the world. In the end of the year, however, the 16-year-old Karatantcheva was suspended for two years after twice testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone, during the French Open and out of competition in Tokyo.
The interview was originally broadcasted in January 2009 during Australian Open in Melbourne.
