Sara Errani

Career

Errani qualified for her first event at the $10k Cagliari event in Italy in 2002, losing to Sun Tiantian. She continued on the ITF circuit, where her best result that year was a semifinal in Zaton, losing to Lenka Tvarošková. In February 2005, she won her first tournament over Lucia Jiménez in Melilla, Spain. Her first WTA Tour title came at the Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, where she defeated Mariya Koryttseva in the final.

2008–2011

On 27 July 2008, she captured her second career title in two weeks, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues. In 2009, Errani was runner-up at two WTA tournaments, in Palermo and Portorož, as the defending champion in both. She lost in the first round of the French Open that year to defending champion Ana Ivanovic. In 2010, she reached the third round in every major except the French Open, where she lost in the first round.

Errani was a member of the Fed Cup-winning Italian team in 2009 and 2010. In February 2011, she reached the final of the Pattaya Open, where she was defeated by Daniela Hantuchová. At the start of 2012, Errani changed her racquet from Wilson to Babolat, opting for a heavier and slightly longer model, which she called 'Excalibur'. This change required her to return a $30,000 endorsement fee to Wilson.

In the first five months of 2012, she won three singles titles and earned over $1.3 million in prize money. At the Australian Open, she advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, defeating Valeria Savinykh, Nadia Petrova, Sorana Cîrstea, and Zheng Jie before losing to Petra Kvitová. Her ranking rose to world No. 33. At the Abierto Monterrey Open, she was the second seed and reached the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Tímea Babos.

2012: Major singles final, doubles No. 1

She then won her third career title on clay in Acapulco as the third seed, beating Roberta Vinci and Flavia Pennetta in her last two matches.

Playing style

During the 2012 season and for a few years after, Errani became known for producing a high first-serve percentage, ranking No. 1 in that statistic at year-end. She is widely recognized as a clay-court specialist, using strategy such as good positioning and early return of serve. Noted for her speed around the court, she hits the ball with a lot of spin and employs deep, loopy groundstrokes.

Did You Know?

• Errani was born in Bologna to Giorgio, a greengrocer, and Fulvia, a pharmacist.
• At age 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.