Sara Errani

Sara Errani (born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player.

She is a former top five player in singles and former world No. 1 in doubles.

With nine singles titles and 29 doubles titles (including 5 Grand Slam doubles championships and 5 Premier Mandatory/Premier doubles titles), she is the Italian tennis player with the highest number of WTA titles.

Errani competed in her first event at the $10k Cagliari event in her native Italy in 2002, where she lost to Sun Tiantian.

She continued to compete in the ITF, where her best performance of the year was a semifinal appearance in Zaton.

She continued to participate mainly on the ITF circuit, where she won her first tournament over Lucia Jiminez in Melilla, Spain in 2005.

The first WTA title of her career was in the Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, where she defeated Mariya Koryttseva.

On 27 July 2008, she captured her second career title in two weeks, defeating Anabel Medina Garrigues.

She has also won six doubles WTA titles.

In 2009, Errani was the runner-up at two WTA tournaments, in Palermo and Portorož, as the defending champion in both.

Errani was defeated in the first round of the French Open by defending champion Ana Ivanovic, whom she beat in the third round three years later.

Errani was a member of Fed Cup-winning Italian team in 2009 and 2010.

Errani reached the third round in every Grand Slam except the French Open in 2010, where she lost in the first round.

In February 2011, she reached the finals of the Pattaya Open where she was defeated by Daniela Hantuchová.

She entered the top 10 in doubles on 11 June 2012, remaining there for 94 straight weeks, and she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 on 20 May 2013.

Errani became the world No. 1 in doubles for the first time on 10 September 2012.

Errani's breakthrough season occurred in 2012.

At the Australian Open, she reached the quarterfinals in singles (the first time she advanced past the third round in a Grand Slam singles draw) and was a finalist in doubles.

Known as a clay-court specialist, Errani won three titles on clay going into the 2012 French Open, where she reached the finals in both the singles (becoming the second Italian woman to ever reach a Grand Slam singles final, with Francesca Schiavone being the first at the 2010 French Open) and doubles tournaments, winning the doubles title with her partner Roberta Vinci.

They also won the doubles titles at the 2012 US Open, and the 2013 and 2014 Australian Open.

Her achievement in reaching the 2012 US Open singles semifinals leaves Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam tournament in which Errani has yet to make the quarterfinals in singles.

At the beginning of 2012, Errani decided to change her racquet, switching from Wilson to Babolat, opting for a heavier and slightly longer model than the last, allowing for more power and better reach.

This change caused her to return her $30,000 endorsement fee to Wilson.

However, she and several commentators cite the new racquet as a reason for her improved game and her entry into the top 10 of the WTA rankings.

In the first five months of 2012, she won three singles titles, earning over $1.3 million in prize money.

Errani dubbed her new racquet "Excalibur", named after the sword of King Arthur.

At the Australian Open Errani advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinals, defeating Valeria Savinykh, Nadia Petrova, Sorana Cîrstea, and Zheng Jie en route, before losing to Petra Kvitová.

Her ranking jumped to world No. 33.

At the Abierto Monterrey Open, she was the second seed and reached the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Tímea Babos, but she triumphed on the clay in Acapulco as the third seed, winning her third career title.

She defeated fellow Italians Roberta Vinci, and second seed Flavia Pennetta in her last two matches.

As the seventh seed at the Barcelona Ladies Open, Errani stormed to her fourth career title and second of the year, not dropping a set, beating second seeded Julia Görges in the quarterfinals, Carla Suárez Navarro in the semifinals, and Dominika Cibulková in the finals.

Afterwards, her ranking rose to world No. 28.

In the Fed Cup semifinals against the Czech Republic, Errani lost to Petra Kvitová, but beat Andrea Hlaváčková, with Italy losing the tie.

She was the year-end number-one doubles player in both 2013 and 2014, and has held the top ranking for a combined total of 87 weeks.

She also made the semifinals at the 2013 French Open, the quarterfinals at the 2014 French Open, 2014 US Open, and 2015 French Open, and qualified to the WTA Finals twice in 2012 and 2013.

By winning the 2014 Wimbledon Women's Doubles title, Errani and Vinci became only the fifth pair in tennis history to complete a Career Grand Slam.

In 2017, Errani was banned from playing for ten months due to a failed drug test.

Errani was born in Bologna to Giorgio, a fruit and vegetable seller and Fulvia, a pharmacist.

At the age of 12, her father sent her to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida.

At 16, she moved to Valencia, Spain to be coached by Pablo Lozano and David Andres.