Francesca Schiavone

Francesca Schiavone

Francesca Schiavone in 2006
Country	Italy
Residence	Milan, Italy
Date of birth	23 June 1980 (1980-06-23) (age 30)
Place of birth	Milan, Italy
Height	1.66 m (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in)
Weight	64 kg (140 lb; 10.1 st)
Turned pro	1998
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$ 6,395,986
Singles
Career record	436–296
Career titles	4 WTA
Highest ranking	No. 6 (7 June 2010)
Current ranking	No. 7 (16 August 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4R (2006, 2010)
French Open	W (2010)
Wimbledon	QF (2009)
US Open	QF (2003, 2010)
Doubles
Career record	183–151
Career titles	7 WTA & 1 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 8 (12 February 2007)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	SF (2009)
French Open	F (2008)
Wimbledon	QF (2006)
US Open	SF (2006)
Last updated on: 7 June 2010.

Francesca Schiavone (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃeska skjaˈvo(ː)ne]; born 23 June 1980 in Milan) is an Italian tennis player who turned professional in 1998. She won the 2010 French Open singles title, becoming the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam event in singles. Her career high ranking is World No. 6 achieved on June 7, 2010. Schiavone is currently ranked World No. 7.

Playing style

Schiavone employs an all court game and has a very classic approach to her clay game. She uses heavy slice on her backhand and also has a strong forehand. She is one of only three women in the top 50 to employ a one handed backhand.^[1]

Professional career

Schiavone has won four singles titles on the WTA tour, but has also achieved ten runner-ups in total, eight of them since the autumn of 2005. Schiavone lost her first eight career finals before finally winning her first title in July 2007. She and her Italian teammates Mara Santangelo, Flavia Pennetta, and Roberta Vinci beat the Belgium team 3–2 in the 2006 Fed Cup final. Justine Henin had to retire in the fifth and final match due to an injury in her right knee, which let Italy win their first Fed Cup trophy.^[2] This match was a doubles match and Kirsten Flipkens partnered Henin and Roberta Vinci partnered Schiavone. In 2009 she won the Fed Cup with Italy for the second time against the USA, and also made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time.

In addition, she realized a notable victory during the quarterfinals of the 2008 Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, when she upset World No. 1 and four-time champion Henin 7–6, 7–6. She also beat Amélie Mauresmo in a Fed Cup tie in 2006 when Mauresmo was ranked No. 1.

Partnering with Australian Casey Dellacqua, Schiavone was the runner-up in the women's doubles competition at the 2008 French Open.

2010

At the Australian Open Francesca defeated Frenchwomen Alizé Cornet 0–6, 7–5, 6–0. and Julie Coin 6–3, 6–4 first before upseting No. 10 seed Agnieszka Radwańska 6–2, 6–2. Though she matched her best results there (4R), she went on to lose to No. 6 seed Venus Williams after winning the first set 3–6, 6–2, 6–1.

She beat Alberta Brianti, Tathiana Garbin, Carla Suárez Navarro, Yaroslava Shvedova, and Roberta Vinci all in straight sets to win her 3rd WTA title at the Barcelona Ladies Open.

Seeded 17th entering the 2010 French Open, Schiavone was lightly regarded as a contender for the championship. She defeated Regina Kulikova, Sophie Ferguson, 11th seed Li Na, and 30th seed Maria Kirilenko to reach her first French Open quarterfinal since 2001 (where she had lost to Martina Hingis). In the quarterfinals, she defeated world #3 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to become the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles event.

The semifinals of the French Open consisted of four players (Jelena Janković, Elena Dementieva, Samantha Stosur and Schiavone) who had never won a Grand Slam singles event; nevertheless, most in the tennis community, including ESPN's tennis commentary team of Mary Jo Fernandez, Patrick McEnroe and Brad Gilbert singled out Schiavone as the one player who was not a serious contender to win the title. In the semifinals, Schiavone defeated world #5 Dementieva after Dementieva retired in the second set with a torn calf muscle having lost the first set in a tiebreaker; the victory made Schiavone the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final, and assured that she would become a top-ten player for the first time following the tournament.

In the final, Schiavone faced Stosur in a rematch of their first-round meeting at the 2009 French Open which Stosur had won easily (6–4, 6–2). Because of this previous result, and Stosur's victories over four-time French Open champion Justine Henin, world #1 Serena Williams and world #4 Janković en route to the final, Stosur was considered a heavy favorite to defeat Schiavone. However, on 5 June 2010, Schiavone defied expectations to become the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title, defeating Stosur 6–4, 7–6(2).^[3] The victory made her only the third Italian player to win a Grand Slam event in singles, after Nicola Pietrangeli and Adriano Panatta. The victory also meant she rose to number 6 in the World Rankings on 7 June 2010, making her a top-ten player for the first time in her career, and the highest ranked Italian woman ever after Flavia Pennetta reached world No. 10 in 2009.

Schiavone's next event after the French Open was Eastbourne, where she lost in the first-round to Sorana Cîrstea 5-7, 3-6.

Schiavone was the 5th seed at Wimbledon, due to the pre-tournament withdrawal of Dementieva, however she lost to Vera Dushevina in the first round 7-6, 5-7, 1-6.

Schiavone reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 Rogers Cup, where she fell to top seed Caroline Wozniacki.

Schiavone is the 6th seed at the US Open. She defeated Ayumi Morita, Maria Elena Camerin, 29th seed Alona Bondarenko, and 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2003 (where she had lost to Jennifer Capriati). In the quarterfinals, she will face number three seed and seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams, against whom she has a career 0-7 record.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals: 2

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	2010	French Open	Clay	Samantha Stosur	6–4, 7–6 (2)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2008	French Open	Clay	Casey Dellacqua	Anabel Medina Garrigues Virginia Ruano Pascual	2–6, 7–5, 6–4

Career finals

Singles win (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	29 July 2007	Bad Gastein, Austria	Clay	Yvonne Meusburger	6–1, 6–4
2.	25 October 2009	Moscow, Russia	Hard(i)	Olga Govortsova	6–3, 6–0
3.	17 April 2010	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Roberta Vinci	6–1, 6–1
4.	5 June 2010	French Open, France	Clay	Samantha Stosur	6–4, 7–6(2)

Singles runner-ups (10)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	12 June 2000	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Iroda Tulyaganova	6–3, 2–6, 6–3
2.	6 January 2003	Canberra, Australia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	6–1, 6–1
3.	12 September 2005	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–2, 6–4
4.	10 October 2005	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Mary Pierce	6–4, 6–3
5.	24 October 2005	Hasselt, Belgium	Carpet	Kim Clijsters	6–2, 6–2
6.	9 January 2006	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Justine Henin	4–6, 7–5, 7–5
7.	3 April 2006	Amelia Island, United States	Clay	Nadia Petrova	6–4, 6–4
8.	25 September 2006	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Alyona Bondarenko	6–3, 6–2
9.	13 July 2009	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Sybille Bammer	7–6, 6–2
10.	12 October 2009	Osaka, Japan	Hard	Samantha Stosur	7–5, 6–1

Doubles wins (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	13 September 1998	Edinburgh	Clay	Antonella Serra Zanetti	Louise Latimer Helen Reesby	6–3 6–3
2.	29 July 2001	Sopot	Clay	Joannette Kruger	Yulia Beygelzimer Anastasia Rodionova	6–4 6–0
3.	2 May 2004	Warsaw	Clay	Silvia Farina Elia	Gisela Dulko Patricia Tarabini	3–6 6–2 6–1
4.	26 February 2005	Doha	Hard	Alicia Molik	Cara Black Liezel Huber	6–3 6–4
5.	25 February 2006	Dubai	Hard	Květa Peschke	Svetlana Kuznetsova Nadia Petrova	3–6 7–6 6–3
6.	1 October 2006	Luxembourg City	Hard Indoors	Květa Peschke	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Liezel Huber	2–6 6–4 6–1
7.	15 October 2006	Moscow	Carpet	Květa Peschke	Iveta Benešová Galina Voskoboeva	6–4 6–7 6–1
8.	October 3, 2009	Tokyo, Japan	Hard (i)	Alisa Kleybanova	Daniela Hantuchová Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

WTA Tour career earnings

Head-to-head vs. top 10

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 in boldface

References

External links

• Francesca Schiavone on the Women's Tennis Association
• SchiavoneFrancesca.com Official website
• Biofile with Francesca Schiavone

Women's Tennis Association: Top ten Italian female singles tennis players as of October 04, 2010. 1. Francesca Schiavone (6 2) 2. Flavia Pennetta (22 ) 3. Sara Errani (40 ) 4. Roberta Vinci (51 9) 5. Romina Oprandi (61 3) 6. Tathiana Garbin (82 ) 7. Alberta Brianti (92 23) 8. Maria Elena Camerin (108 8) 9. Anna Floris (138 ) 10. Corinna Dentoni (159 )