Jane O'Donoghue

Jane O'Donoghue (born 29 March 1983) is a retired British tennis player who turned professional in 2000 and played her last match on the pro circuit in 2007.

During her career, she won three ITF singles and six ITF doubles titles.

O'Donoghue was born in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester in 1983.

Her father, John, is a PE teacher, her mother works in a bank and her two older brothers, Paul and Mark, both studied at the University of Oxford.

She has 10 GCSEs all of which are grade A. She began playing tennis aged nine and turned professional at the age of 17.

Other than tennis, her interests are football, netball and music.

O'Donoghue competed on the junior ITF Circuit from July 1997 until June 2001.

O'Donoghue played her first match on the adult ITF Circuit in September 1998 in the qualifying draw for the $10k in Sunderland.

She lost in the second round of the qualifying tournament and finished the season without a world ranking.

O'Donoghue won her only junior doubles title in August 1999 partnering Elena Baltacha.

Aside from this she also reached three more finals, three semifinals and seven quarterfinals.

She attempted to qualify for three $10k events in 1999 but did not win a match.

She again finished the season without a world ranking.

She reached the second round of Wimbledon twice in 2000 and 2001 but her greatest junior Grand Slam success came in 2001 when Jane reached the third round of the Australian Open.

O'Donoghue started her 2000 season with her first ever main draw ITF appearance courtesy of a wildcard into the $10k event in Hatfield where she fell in round one.

She was beaten by fellow Brit, Alice Barnes, in round one of the ITF in Swansea before being given a wild card into the qualifying draw of Wimbledon and again being beaten by Barnes in her first match.

In August, O'Donoghue made a surprise run to the final of a $10k in Bath where she was beaten by Susi Bensch and she continued her momentum by following this up with a run to the quarterfinals of an ITF in London ($10k).

She finished the year with a ranking of world no. 564.

She won one singles title over the course of her four-year career, at the 2001 Japan Open Junior Championships, and also became a semifinalist four times and a quarterfinalist on eight occasions.

Her junior career ended with a singles win–loss record of 40–32 and a career-high ranking of world No. 28 (achieved 2 January 2001).

With Anna Hawkins as her partner, she managed to reach the second round of Wimbledon girls' doubles in 2001 where they lost to Gisela Dulko and Ashley Harkleroad.

This was the furthest Jane progressed in a Grand Slam doubles tournament.

This success led her to finish her career with a doubles win–loss record of 25–30 and a career-high ranking of world No. 73 (achieved 5 February 2001).

O'Donoghue had very little in the way of success on the ITF Circuit in 2001 but was nevertheless given a wildcard into the qualifying draw of Wimbledon where she beat world No. 136, Maja Palaveršić, in the first round before losing to Stéphanie Foretz in her second match.

O'Donoghue's next tournament was in the $25k in Felixstowe where she had to retire in the first round.

She did not compete again that year.

Her year-end ranking was world No. 471.

Returning to the tour in January 2002, O'Donoghue reached the quarterfinals of the $10k in Hull.

In March, she reached the semifinals of the $10k in Amiens as a qualifier and two months later in May, she won her first professional title in Bournemouth, beating Yvonne Doyle in the final in straight sets.

Just two weeks later she won the second ITF title of her career, this one in Hatfield, beating all three top seeds on the way to the title.

In June, she made her debut on the WTA Tour in the qualifying draw of the Tier III DFS Classic in Birmingham, courtesy of a wildcard.

She lost to Antonella Serra Zanetti.

This was immediately followed by another wildcard into the qualifying draw of a British WTA tournament, the Tier II Britannic Asset Management International where she was beaten by Marissa Irvin.

She then received a wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon where she lost to the top seed Venus Williams in the first round.

In the second half of the year, she reached two quarterfinals of $25k tournaments and finished the year with a ranking of world No. 295.

In her first tournament of 2003 saw Jane reach the semifinals of the $10k in Tallahassee.

She competed for Great Britain in the Fed Cup and won one out of three singles rubbers as well as losing her only doubles rubber.

O'Donoghue reached the second round of her home Grand Slam, Wimbledon two years in a row, in 2004 and 2005.

After retirement, she began working for the LTA as a coach.

In July 2006, she reached a career-high singles ranking of 189, and over one year later she reached 184 in the world in the doubles rankings.