In her career Rezaï has defeated many top players on the
WTA Tour, such as
Justine Henin,
Venus Williams,
Victoria Azarenka,
Maria Sharapova,
Dinara Safina,
Francesca Schiavone,
Caroline Wozniacki,
Marion Bartoli,
Flavia Pennetta,
Jelena Janković,
Petra Kvitova,
Simona Halep, and
Ai Sugiyama.
2001–2008 Rezaï competed for Iran at the
Women's Islamic Games, winning gold in 2001 and 2005. She also won the
Chambon-sur-Lignon Open in 2004. Rezaï started playing for France in 2006. For the second year in a row, she lost in the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open. Her French Open run was more successful, where she struggled through to the tournament's third round, defeating
Ai Sugiyama of Japan along the way. She fell to
Nicole Vaidišová of the Czech Republic, in a hard-fought three-setter. At
Wimbledon, she fell in the first qualifying round. At the
US Open, she reached the fourth round, her career-best
major singles result. She also competed on the ITF Circuit throughout the year, reaching the final of two tournaments and winning one in the later part of the year on the hardcourts of France. Her 2007 year started poorly, reaching the second round only twice in her first 13 tournaments on tour, including a first-round loss at the Australian Open. At the
WTA Tour clay tournament of Istanbul, Rezaï reached the final by beating world No. 29,
Venus Williams, in the second round, and world No. 2,
Maria Sharapova, in the semifinal. In the final, she lost to
Elena Dementieva due to retiring, trailing 6–7, 0–3. Despite her good performance in İstanbul, she lost the week after 2–6, 4–6 to fellow French
Marion Bartoli in the first round of the
French Open. In her first appearance in
Wimbledon, she defeated
Shenay Perry from the U.S. and
Francesca Schiavone, the 29th seed, in the second round, in three sets. However, in the third round, she was defeated by
Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. At the
US Open in the second round, she once again lost to Ivanovic. She ended an appalling year with yet another
ITF title in Deauville, France, losing only one set en route to her victory. Despite being unseeded, Rezaï reached the final of the
Auckland Open which she lost to
Lindsay Davenport. However, her year stagnated with early losses in the first and second rounds of tournaments, and her only other grand success came on the clay of Morocco in mid-spring, where she reached the semifinals before falling to
Gisela Dulko. At the Australian Open, Rezaï reached the third round, beating 13th seed
Tatiana Golovin in the second round 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, before losing to
Hsieh Su-wei, also in three sets. Her major results for the rest of the year were disappointing. At the French Open, she fell to
Nadia Petrova in the first round. At Wimbledon, she faced Gisela Dulko and pushed her to three sets but eventually fell 6–1, 0–6, 2–6. The US Open started well as she defeated
Asia Muhammad in straight sets. However, she fell in the second round to
Sybille Bammer, 1–6, 5–7.
2009 Rezaï won the first career title in
Strasbourg, beating
Lucie Hradecká in the final. Despite a first-round loss at the Australian Open, she flew to the fourth round of the French Open, after defeating
Michelle Larcher de Brito, but lost to world No. 1
Dinara Safina 1–6, 0–6, effectively putting an end to her participation in Roland Garros. At
Wimbledon, she beat
Ayumi Morita 6–2, 6–2 but then lost to fourth seed Elena Dementieva 1–6, 3–6. In the first round of
Rogers Cup, she defeated
Alizé Cornet in two sets. In the second round, she made the biggest upset of the tournament by defeating world No. 1, Dinara Safina, in three sets. In the third round, she was defeated by
Alisa Kleybanova in two sets. Rezaï then lost at the US Open to
Sabine Lisicki in the first round, her earliest loss ever at Flushing Meadows. At the
Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Rezaï won her opening match in straight sets, defeating Sara Errani 6–2, 6–2. In the second round, she easily lost to Marion Bartoli. Seeded 10th at the
Tournament of Champions, Rezaï won her first
round-robin match against fourth seed Sabine Lisicki, then beat
Melinda Czink in her second match to make her the first player to advance to the semifinals of the inaugural event. She then went on to the semifinals where she beat
María José Martínez Sánchez 6–2, 6–3. In the final, she faced Marion Bartoli and won the first set 7–5 before Bartoli retired. Because of her performance, Rezaï reached a new career-high of world No. 26.
2010 Her first tournament of the year was the
Auckland Open, where she was seeded No. 7. In the first round, she beat countrymaid
Julie Coin 6–4, 6–3. At the match point, the lights in the stadium went out, but they were fixed shortly after and Rezaï closed out the match. In the second round, she was defeated by
Dominika Cibulková. Her next tournament was the
Sydney International. Rezaï won her first-round match against
Anna-Lena Grönefeld in three sets, then faced
Ágnes Szávay, whom she defeated in two. In the quarterfinals, she beat
Flavia Pennetta 6–3, 6–0; in the semifinal she faced world No. 1,
Serena Williams. She began strong, leading in the match by 6–3, 5–2, and was two points away from victory, but ended up losing 6–3, 5–7, 4–6. Rezaï was seeded No. 26 for the Australian Open. She won her first-round match against
Sania Mirza but was then defeated in the second round by
Angelique Kerber. In the doubles draw she partnered with Sabine Lisicki, but they lost in the first round. Her next tournament was the
Open GdF Suez, where she was seeded No. 5. She won her first-round match against qualifier
Evgeniya Rodina, 6–4, 6–4. In the second round, she faced
Andrea Petkovic, getting upset 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 and spoiling her chance to play Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals. At the
Madrid Open, Rezaï caused a huge upset in the first round, defeating former world No. 1 and four-time French Open champion,
Justine Henin, 4–6, 7–5, 6–0. In the second round, she won her match against
Klára Zakopalová, then defeated Andrea Petkovic in two sets. Rezaï pulled off a major fourth-round upset by defeating
Jelena Janković in two straight sets. In the semifinal, she won against
Lucie Šafářová reaching the most critical final in her career. She defeated Venus Williams in the final 6–2, 7–5, returning from a 2–5 deficit and overcoming numerous set points to win. Because of her performance at Madrid, Rezaï reached a new career-high ranking as No. 16. Seeded 15th at the
French Open, Rezaï fell to No. 19
Nadia Petrova in the third round in three sets. On grass, Rezaï played at the
Birmingham Classic, cruising through the semifinals without dropping a set, but fell to eventual champion
Li Na in three sets. She then played at the
Eastbourne International, where she upset top seed
Caroline Wozniacki in the first round, before retiring against
María José Martínez Sánchez in the second, down 6–2, 3–0. At the
Wimbledon Championships, as the 18th seed, she was upset by
Klára Zakopalová in the second round. At the
Swedish Open, Rezaï cruised through the finals with wins over
Arantxa Parra Santonja and Lucie Šafářová, finally facing Gisela Dulko. Rezaï won 6–3, 4–6, 6–4, despite giving up a 4–0 lead in the third set. At the
Cincinnati Open, Rezaï was upset by world No. 98,
Bojana Jovanovski; even though she had "breathtaking" strokes, her serve was erratic with a high number of unforced errors. Her disappointing level of play continued until the end of her season, as she lost in the first round of the
Tournament of Champions. She won the title in 2009 but now lost to
Alisa Kleybanova in the first round 1–6, 2–6.
2011 . Rezaï obtained an invite from the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association to play in the
Hong Kong Tennis Classic with Caroline Wozniacki and
Stefan Edberg for Team Europe. Still, they lost to Team Russia (including
Vera Zvonareva,
Maria Kirilenko and
Yevgeny Kafelnikov) in the final of Gold Group. She started off the year with a win over world No. 8,
Jelena Janković but lost in the second round to Bojana Jovanovski 6–7, 6–7. Seeded 17th, Rezaï competed at the
Australian Open. She lost in the first round to
Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová of the Czech Republic in three sets. Rezaï lost in the first round of the
Monterrey Open to
Alla Kudryavtseva 2–6, 1–6. At the
Indian Wells Open, she reached the third round, before being defeated by Maria Sharapova in straight sets, losing 2–6, 2–6. She lost in the first round of the
Miami Open to Peng Shuai 0–6, 4–6. Her poor form continued onto the start of the clay-court season. She lost in the first round of the
Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella to world No. 258,
Estrella Cabeza Candela, 3–6, 0–6. She returned to form at the
Texas Open, reaching the final which she lost to Sabine Lisicki in straight sets.
2012–2014 Rezaï started her year playing in Auckland, where she lost in the first round to Peng Shuai. In Sydney, she was forced to retire in the qualifying draw. She would also fall in round one of the Australian Open. She would then go on to lose in the qualifying of both
Indian Wells and
Miami, and fall in round two in
Clearwater. At the
French Open, Rezaï lost in the first round to Romanian
Irina-Camelia Begu three sets . She reached two ITF finals this year with a victory in the final at the Open 88 tournament in
Contrexéville. Against Austrian
Yvonne Meusburger, she won in three sets. Rezaï lost in the first round of the
French Open to
Petra Kvitová, and also in the first qualifying round of the
Wimbledon to
Mariana Duque Mariño. She lost in the first qualifying round of the
Australian Open to Alla Kudryavtseva 4–6, 2–6.
2015–present: return to professional tennis Rezaï announced her return to professional tennis after more than one-year absence by taking a wildcard into the qualifying draw of the
French Open, losing to compatriot Julie Coin in the first round. Later that year, she played only two European tournaments, losing in the early games in both. Rezaï did not play a tournament again until 2017, when she played three ITF tournaments in France but won only one match across the three, against Maria Novikova. She played one game each in November 2018 (in Luxembourg) and in July 2019 (in France), again falling in the early rounds of each. ==Political support==