Anna-Lena Grönefeld

Anna-Lena Grönefeld
Country	Germany
Residence	Saarbrücken, Germany
Date of birth	June 4, 1985 (age 24)
Place of birth	Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	75 kg (170 lb; 11.8 st)
Turned pro	April 2003
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$US 2,268,310
Singles
Career record	245–165
Career titles	1 WTA, 11 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 14 (May 29, 2006)
Current ranking	No. 65 (December 21, 2009)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3R (2005)
French Open	QF (2006)
Wimbledon	1R (2004 - 2007, 2009)
US Open	4R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	173–104
Career titles	10 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 7 (May 29, 2006)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2009)
French Open	QF (2009)
Wimbledon	SF (2005)
US Open	SF (2005)
Mixed Doubles
Career record	{{{mixedrecord}}}
Career titles	1
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2006)
French Open	SF (2009)
Wimbledon	W (2009)
US Open	QF (2006)
	Last updated on: October 19, 2009.

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Anna-Lena Grönefeld (born on June 4, 1985 in Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, then West Germany) is a professional tennis player from Germany. She turned professional in 2003.

As of February 2006, Grönefeld was the No. 1 tennis player from Germany. She was coached and trained by Rafael Font de Mora in Scottsdale, Arizona until 2006. Anna-Lena is currently coached by former German pro tennis player Dirk Dier (since the WTA tournament in Stuttart in October 2006). She now lives and trains in Saarbrücken, Germany.

[edit] Career

In June, 2003 she captured the prestigious French Open Junior title, becoming the first player from Germany since 1957 to accomplish this feat. In 2002 she was the Singles Champion of both the Belgium and Frankfurt International Championships and a finalist at the Orange Bowl. In July 2003, she won the Apple and Eve Newsday Long Island Classic, held in Woodbury, New York, defeating Bethanie Mattek in the final. She is an accomplished doubles player winning the French Open title and reaching the finals at Wimbledon. As a result of her tennis successes in 2003, Grönefeld had achieved the Junior World ranking of #1 in singles and doubles. She launched her professional career début under the direction of the USA Academy and Rafael Font de Mora.

In 2006 she represented Germany along with Nicolas Kiefer at the Hopman Cup. She went on to win her first title at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL in Acapulco, and completed a career best showing at Roland Garros, by reaching the quarterfinals, where she lost to Justine Henin. Her ranking peaked at 14. The good form was short-lived, as the German failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals of most remaining tournaments for the year. She split with Font de Mora in September 2006 and is currently coached by Dirk Dier.

Her run of bad form continued into 2007, and as of June 19, Grönefeld had been eliminated in the first round of her last five tournaments. Her ranking subsequently dipped below the top 100 for the first time since 2004. On 20 August 2007, Grönefeld announced that she would be taking a break from the tour, coming back in 2008.

[edit] Comeback

Grönefeld made her official comeback on 3 May 2008, at the 75k ITF event in Zagreb, Croatia. She was seeded fourth in the qualifying draw, winning three consecutive matches to reach the main draw. She then won a tournament in Zlín in the Czech Republic by beating Jelena Kostanić Tosic in the final in three sets for the first title of her comeback. Grönefeld went on to win another ITF title just a week later at the 10k event in Alkmaar in the Netherlands, defeating Marlot Meddens in the final, 6-1 6-1. Anna-Lena then won another title for the third straight week, this time at the 25k event at Périgueux in France, defeating Frenchwoman Florence Haring in the final in straight sets, 6-3 6-3.

Grönefeld took advantage of her feed-up wildcard into the Tier IV Gaz de France Grand Prix in Budapest (a result of winning the 75k Zlín ITF event), defeating Hungarian wildcard Palma Kiraly 6-0 6-4. She followed up her first round win with a straight-sets, 6-1 6-4, upset over 5th seeded Lucie Šafářová of the Czech Republic.

Grönefeld then played a Tier III tournament, the Gastein Ladies (Austria), where she beat Julia Vakulenko of the Ukraine in the first round; was however beaten in three tight sets (7-5 4-6 6-4) in the second round by 4th seed Pauline Parmentier of France, the eventual champion.

Her good form allowed Grönefeld to win another 50k ITF event, the Ceisa Cup in Rimini at the beginning of August. She also reached the final of the GHI Bronx Tennis Classic (ITF tournament) in New York, where she lost to Elena Bovina.

After winning her 3 qualification rounds, Grönefeld played in the 2008 US Open, and reached the 4th round of the main draw, only losing to Dinara Safina. Prior to her loss to Safina, Anna-Lena won 6 matches in a row without losing a single set, the highlights being her 6-4 6-2 victory over Daniela Hantuchová (WTA 12) in the first round and the 6-4 7-5 victory over Alizé Cornet (WTA 17) in the third round.

After losing against Austrian runner-up Tamira Paszek in the first round at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali, Anna Lena received a wildcard for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart but lost in the first round against the 6th seeded Venus Williams (WTA 8). With her doubles partner, Patty Schnyder, Grönefeld however won the doubles competition 6-2 6-4 against the top seeds Peschke/Stubbs.

After winning the first two matches at the qualification for the Zurich Open, Grönefeld lost her third match against Czech Petra Kvitová. With doubles partner Patty Schnyder she has now reached the finals.

Grönefeld now has a singles win loss record of 38-9 in 2008 (as of October 14, 2008) and remains in the top 100 (WTA 79, as of October 13, 2008).

[edit] WTA Titles

[edit] Singles (1)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (0)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (1)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (0)	International (0)
ITF Circuit (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	August 4, 2002	Saulgau, Germany	Clay	Ivana Zupa	6–3, 6–4
2.	January 26, 2003	Hull, Great Britain	Hard Indoors	Tessy Van de Ven	7–6, 6–3
3.	June 15, 2003	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada	Clay	Beier Ko	6–3, 6–3
4.	July 13, 2003	Vancouver, Canada	Hard	Vilmarie Castellvi	6–2, 6–4
5.	July 20, 2003	Oyster Bay, U.S.	Hard	Bethanie Mattek	6–3, 6–0
6.	August 1, 2004	Modena, Italy	Clay	Selima Sfar	6–2, 6–4
7.	September 12, 2004	Denain, France	Clay	Dally Randriantefy	6–3, 6–2
8.	March 5, 2006	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Flavia Pennetta	6–1, 4–6, 6–2
9.	June 15, 2008	Zlín, Czech Republic	Clay	Jelena Kostanić Tosic	6–3, 4–6, 6–1
10.	June 22, 2008	Alkmaar, Netherlands	Clay	Marlot Meddens	6–1, 6–1
11.	June 29, 2008	Périgueux, France	Clay	Florence Haring	6–3, 6–3
12.	August 3, 2008	Rimini, Italy	Clay	Lourdes Domínguez Lino	6–1, 6–2

[edit] Singles Finalist (3)

January 31, 2005: Pattaya City (lost to Conchita Martínez 3–6 6–3 3–6)
September 19, 2005: Beijing (lost to Maria Kirilenko 3–6 4–6)
September 26, 2005: Luxembourg City (lost to Kim Clijsters 2–6 4–6)

[edit] Doubles (9)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (1)	Premier Mandatory (0)
Tier II (3)	Premier 5 (0)
Tier III (3)	Premier (0)
Tier IV & V (1)	International (2)
ITF Circuit (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Partner	Surface	Finalists	Score
1.	2005	Pattaya City, Thailand	Marion Bartoli	Hard	Marta Domachowska Silvija Talaja	6–3, 6–2
2.	2005	Toronto, Canada	Martina Navrátilová	Hard	Conchita Martínez Virginia Ruano-Pascual	5–7, 6–3, 6–4
3.	2005	Bali, Indonesia	Meghann Shaughnessy	Hard	Zi Yan Jie Zheng	6–3, 6–3
4.	2006	Acapulco, Mexico	Meghann Shaughnessy	Clay	Shinobu Asagoe Émilie Loit	6–1, 6–3
5.	2006	Stanford, U.S.	Shahar Pe'er	Hard	Maria Elena Camerin Gisela Dulko	6–1, 6–4
6.	2007	Sydney, Australia	Meghann Shaughnessy	Hard	Marion Bartoli Meilen Tu	6–3, 3–6, 7–6(2)
7.	2008	Stuttgart, Germany	Patty Schnyder	Hard (i)	Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs	6–2 6–4
8.	2008	Quebec City, Canada	Vania King	Hard (i)	Jill Craybas Tamarine Tanasugarn	7-6, 6-4
9.	2009	Brisbane, Australia	Vania King	Hard	Klaudia Jans Alicja Rosolska	3–6, 7–5, [10–5]
10.	2009	Linz, Austria	Katarina Srebotnik	Hard	Klaudia Jans Alicja Rosolska	6-1, 6-4