Mashona Washington

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**Mashona Washington**

Country	United States
Residence	Houston, Texas, USA
Date of birth	May 31, 1976 (age 30)
Place of birth	Flint, Michigan, USA
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	130 lbs. (59 kg)
Turned Pro	1995
Plays	Right-handed (Two-handed backhand)
Career Prize Money	US$851,986
Singles
Career record:	304-280
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	No. 50 (November 8, 2004)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2r (2005)
French Open	1r (2005, 2006)
Wimbledon	3r (2005)
U.S. Open	2r (2002)
Doubles
Career record:	109-134
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	No. 55 (July 18, 2005)
Infobox last updated on: January 24, 2007.

Mashona Washington (b. May 31, 1976, in Flint, Michigan) is a professional tennis player from the United States.

As a junior player, Washington won the US Indoor National 18s in 1992, and was a finalist at the US National Hardcourt 16s and US Indoor National 16s in 1991. She turned professional in 1995.

After a slow start to her professional career, Washington's breakthrough year came in 2004 when she broke into the world's top-100 for the first time and then finished the year ranked in the top-50. She recorded her first win against a top-10 player when she defeated Maria Sharapova at New Haven, and reached her first top-level singles final in Tokyo where she lost to Sharapova.

She also came within a hair's breadth of beating Maria Sharapova in the first round of the 2006 French Open. She served for the match at 5-2, but could not hold serve. At 5-4 in the third set, she held match points before the then World No.4 broke back and won the final set 7-5.

An African American, she is the sister of MaliVai Washington, who reached the men's singles final at Wimbledon in 1996.