Francesca Schiavone

As was clearly evident at last year’s French Open, Francesca Schiavone loves to play tennis.  She loves to compete and has been performing on the WTA stage for twelve years.  But, it was at last year’s French Open when she out-strategized and out-executed a very much in form Samantha Stosur en route to her first Grand Slam Championship.

The sight of Francesca embracing the red clay at Roland Garros will be forever etched in the minds of women’s tennis fans.  In that moment, we witnessed the culmination of a dream come true.  For years, Francesca has been too short, too weak on the serve and unable to play the net.  Well, if that is the scouting report, Francesca certainly crossed up the analysts.

In the finals, Francesca humbled the game’s best server and with a combination of risky forward charges and quick feet that put too much pressure on the surprised Aussie.  Francesca kept up the pressure and won her Grand Slam Title, showing us that underdogs can still have their day on the big stage.

That victory was the culmination of years of effort, years of training and years of being told she was too short to compete.  Francesca parlayed her French Open success to move into the top ten for the first time in her career.  She also became the first Italian to win a Grand Slam tournament.  Not bad for the consummate underdog.

In her twelve years on tour, Francesca has won 4 singles titles and 7 doubles titles.  Her career singles record is 450-308 to go along with her more than $7 million in earnings.

Francesca has her quirks.  Right now she does not have a coach.  She also will play anywhere, anytime.  She feels equally comfortable on clay as on the hard surfaces.  Francesca is one of the tour’s most popular players.

2010 was Francesca’s breakthrough year.  She won in Barcelona and followed that win with the surprising win at Roland Garros.  Francesca did well to seal the number seven ranking in 2010, but the young wolves will be gunning for her this season.

Francesca also reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open and the fourth round at Melbourne.  However, she was defeated six times in the first round. To keep her lofty ranking Francesca must start all over again.  It is her will to win that is her biggest asset.  When the will is there, so is Francesca.

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