Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (née Kohde; born 11 December 1963) is a former German tennis player and member of the Die Linke. 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.

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Claudia Kohde-Kilsch

Country (sports)	Germany[1]
Born	(1963-12-11) 11 December 1963 (age 60) Saarbrücken, West Germany
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1980
Retired	1994
Plays	Right-handed (one handed-backhand)
Prize money	$2,227,116
Singles
Career record	408–224 (64.6%)
Career titles	8
Highest ranking	No. 4 (2 September 1985)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (1985, 1987, 1988)
French Open	SF (1985)
Wimbledon	QF (1987)
US Open	QF (1985, 1987)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	2R (1988)
Doubles
Career record	438–175
Career titles	25
Highest ranking	No. 3 (17 August 1987)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	F (1982, 1984, 1985)
French Open	F (1984, 1985, 1988)
Wimbledon	W (1987)
US Open	W (1985)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	F (1983, 1985, 1986(Mar), 1986(Nov), 1987)
Olympic Games	SF (1988)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	28–12
Medal record Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Doubles

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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. She has a younger sister, Katrin. She began playing tennis aged 5, and was soon a rising junior player.

Kohde-Kilsch campaigned for Oskar Lafontaine of Die Linke at the 2012 Saarland state election. 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.^[2]

She currently lives in Saarland with her partner and her son Fynn from her previous marriage with the singer Chris Bennett, from whom she divorced in 2011. Bennett died in 2018. The couple operated CeKay Music, a music publishing house and production company.

Kohde-Kilsch turned professional on 1 January 1980, and by 1981, she had defeated 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, 6–1.

In 1985, she reached the Australian Open and French Open semifinals as well as won in Los Angeles. Later that year, she defeated Navrátilová in the quarterfinals at the Canadian Open, eventually losing to Chris Evert, 2–6, 4–6 in the final. In 1987, she again reached the finals of the German Open, where she lost to Steffi Graf 2–6, 3–6.

In women's doubles, Kohde-Kilsch and Helena Suková won the 1985 US Open and the 1987 Wimbledon Championships.

Between 1984 and 1987, Kohde-Kilsch and Suková, sometimes referred to as the "twin towers" for their height, won 14 doubles tournaments. At the 1988 Summer Olympics, she partnered with Steffi Graf in the doubles competition, and they won the bronze medal in the event.