Francesca Schiavone

Together with Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci and Mara Santangelo, she led the Italian team to victory in the Fed Cup for the first time. She was among the protagonists of an impressive feat that was to see Italy dominate the ranking of the women’s national teams, winning two more editions of the same tournament in 2009 and 2010 against the United States.

On the red clay of Roland Garros, she beat Regina Kulikova, Sophie Ferguson and Samantha Stosur, becoming the first Italian woman to win the French Open, as well as the third top Italian athlete after Nicola Pietrangeli and Adriano Panatta.

Also at Roland Garros, she achieved her second consecutive Slam final and her best individual ranking, finishing fourth.

She left competitive tennis with an impressive list of achievements: 8 WTA titles won in singles and 7 in doubles, for a total of 614 matches won. Numbers that make her the most successful Italian tennis player ever. After retiring, she took up coaching.