Flavia Pennetta

Her best result was the third round of the Roland Garros, where she defeated 21st-seeded American Lisa Raymond in the second round, before losing to Hungary's Petra Mandula.

Pennetta started the year at the Tier V Canberra Classic, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Julia Vakulenko.

At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round to Italian Antonella Serra Zanetti in straight sets.

Pennetta then lost in the first round of both the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee and the Copa Colsanitas in Bogotá, Colombia.

These losses were followed by her first WTA Tour final at the Mexicano Open in Acapulco, where she was defeated by Iveta Benešová.

She played both of the Tier I springtime hardcourt tournaments in the United States.

She beat Ľudmila Cervanová in the first round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells before losing to Maria Sharapova.

She then lost in the first round of qualifying for the NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne.

Returning to clay courts, Pennetta lost in the second round of two consecutive WTA tournaments, the Morocco Open in Casablanca and the Portugal Open in Estoril.

At the Budapest Grand Prix, Pennetta lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Jelena Janković in straight sets.

She then defeated world No. 6, Nadia Petrova, in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome before falling to world No. 21, Anna Smashnova, in the third round.

At the French Open, Pennetta lost in the first round, once more to Smashnova in straight sets.

In the first grass-court tournament of her career, she defeated Marion Bartoli in the first round of the DFS Classic in Birmingham, before losing to world No. 32, Alicia Molik, in the second round.

Pennetta achieved the same result at the Ordina Open, falling to world No. 85, Barbara Schett.

At Wimbledon, she was beaten by Petrova in the first round, in three sets.

In July, she played yet another clay-court tournament, where she was beaten in the final of the Internazionali di Palermo by Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Returning to hardcourts for the first time since April, she lost to Henrieta Nagyová in the first round of the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm.

The following week at the clay-court tournament in Sopot, Poland, Pennetta won her first WTA Tour title, defeating Klára Koukalová in the final.

Flavia Pennetta (born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player.

Pennetta began to play on the ITF Women's Circuit in 1997.

The following year, she lost in the second round of her first qualifying tournament for a WTA Tour main draw, the Internazionali Femminili di Palermo.

At age 17, she won the 1999 French Open in girls' doubles with fellow Italian Roberta Vinci.

In 1999, Pennetta won two singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

She was unsuccessful in her several attempts to qualify for WTA Tour main draws in 2000.

The following year, she limited her play to the ITF Circuit.

She played her first WTA Tour main-draw match at the Cellular South Cup in 2002, when she lost in the first round.

She also lost in the first round in Palermo, but reached the second round of the Idea Prokom Open in Sopot.

Her ranking reached the top 100 for the first time on 23 September 2002, when she reached No. 100.

In 2003, Pennetta lost in the semifinals of the Hyderabad Open to eventual champion Tamarine Tanasugarn.

She also reached the quarterfinals at the Canberra Women's Classic, Copa Colsanitas, and Abierto Mexicano Telcel.

She debuted in the main draws of all four Grand Slam tournaments.

She also was a mainstay in the Fed Cup team competition, helping Italy win four titles in 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2013.

Pennetta was pronounced a Knight of Order of Merit of the Republic on 24 January 2007 by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, then President of Italy.

Pennetta was introduced to tennis at the age of five by her father.

She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked world No. 1 in doubles, on 28 February 2011.

Her other highlights in doubles include winning the 2010 WTA Finals and finishing runner-up at the 2005 and 2014 US Open tournaments, partnering respectively with Elena Dementieva and Martina Hingis.

She is a major champion, having won the 2011 Australian Open women's doubles title with Gisela Dulko, and the 2015 US Open singles title over childhood friend Roberta Vinci in the first all-Italian major final.

Pennetta won ten other WTA singles titles, including the 2014 Indian Wells Open, where she defeated the top two seeds.

After winning the 2015 US Open, Pennetta announced she would retire at the end of the season, playing her last tournament at her WTA Finals singles debut.

There, she defeated eventual champion Agnieszka Radwańska in the round-robin stage and retired with a top-ten singles ranking.