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Schiavone Defeats the Williams Sisters

January 4, 2012

In an exhibition tournament held in the Italian city of Milan, Francesca Schiavone, the Italian tennis ace defeated both the Williams sisters to win the tournament in front of a huge home crowd, thereby ending her long wait for a title. Although the Williams sisters rallied back to win the doubles title in the tournament, the Italians can take heart from the fact that their own world number 11 managed to overcome the odds to defeat the might Venus and Serena Williams.

In the first match of the tournament, Schiavone defeated Venus, the elder of the two sisters in straight sets with a margin of 7-5, 7-3. She then went on to face sister Serena who gave her much more of a fight after losing the first set, but the 31 year old Italian managed to rally back and win the game in three sets with a margin of 7-3, 8-10, 8-6. The 2010 French Open champion showed glimpses of the touches and drop shots that had made her the world number 4 at the beginning of 2011, a position she failed to hold on to due to injury setbacks and a string of poor results to lowly ranked players.

But the way Francesca Schiavone rallied back against a particularly stubborn Serena Williams, it will give her a lot of confidence ahead of the start of the 2012 calendar season in Australia, where she reached the quarter finals stage in 2011, her best result in the tournament.

She will again be the only hope for a Grand Slam title for Italy in 2012 with the country struggling to produce top class tennis players in both the men’s and the women’s circuit but it all depends on whether Francesca Schiavone manages to keep herself fit for the duration of the year.

Season Ends on a Low

November 2, 2011

Francesca Schiavone’s season ended on a bit of a low as she bowed out of the Moscow open in just the Second Round.

Schiavone had been expected to challeneg the likes of Azarenka and Kvitova, but struggled to get into her match with outsider Kaia Kanepi.

Kanepi had Schaivone rattled in the first set before Francesca bravely fought back to level the score.  In the final set, tiredness began to take it’s toll, and the Estonian Kanepi was able to make the most of it.

“It was a tough match and I couldn’t play my best,” said Schiavone, who had won four of her previous five meetings with Kanepi. “It’s the end of the year so maybe it’s time to recharge my batteries, and then come back next year.”

Francesca Schiavone Bio

September 20, 2011

Francesca Shiavone was born on 23rd June 1980 in Milan, Italy, turned to professional tennis at the age of 18. She played her first events of career on ITF Circuit in Italy in 1996. She won the first ITF titles between 1998 and 2000. But it was until after 2002 that she began to improvise herself and concentrated on serious tennis playing. On 6th October 2003, she became the best Italian tennis women player for the best Italian player for the first time to cross the top 20 limit, thus ending Silvia Farina Elia’s record which lasted since the mid-nineties.

By winning the 2010 French Open singles title, she became the first Italian woman to win a Grand slam event in singles. She also emerged a runner-up at the 2011 French Open. She is currently seeded No. 8 in the world ranking. Her career best ranking has been World No. 4 achieved in the beginning of 2011. This was the first time a tennis player from Italy had reached these heights in professional tennis. She has a very classic approach to her clay game and employs an all court game.

She uses an extreme eastern grip on her one handed backhand. She has won four singles title on the WTA tour and ten runner-ups, eight of them since 2005. She beat World no. 1 and four time champion Henin in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open. She was the runner-up in the women’s doubles competition at the 2008 French Open, while partnering with Australian leading tennis player Casey Dellacqua. In 2010, she beat Alberta Brianti, Tathiana Garbin, Carla Suarez Navarro, Yaroslava Shvedova and Roberta Vinci all in straight sets to win her 3rd Women Tennis Association title at the Barcelona Ladies Open. In the quarterfinals of the 2010 French Open, she defeated World No.3 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to become the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles event. In that event, after being singled out as a light contender to win the title, she silenced her critics by beating world no.5 Dementieva, thus emerging the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final.

Defying all expectations, Schiavone defeated Stosur in the final game of the event on 5th June 2010, to become the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam Singles title. In the 2011 Australian Open, she improved her own record playing against two time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, making her the highest ranking holder by an Italian woman tennis player. When asked by a correspondent on the highest form of technique, she coolly answered that “To have no technique, is the highest form of technique”.

She has received several awards in her ongoing career which includes WTA Most Improved Player in 2010, won second longest match in Open Era, a memorable match where she beat Kuznetsova in 4 hours 44 minutes in Australian Open, which also was the longest Grand Slam match in Open Era.