María José Martínez Sánchez

María José Martínez Sánchez (born 12 August 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. In singles, she won five WTA Tour singles titles, her biggest being a Premier 5 title at the 2010 Italian Open where she defeated two former world No. 1 players, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Janković, en route to the title. As a junior, she won the Orange Bowl and French Open. She reached her career high ranking in singles of world No. 19 on 10 May 2010.
In doubles, Martínez Sánchez won 21 WTA Tour titles, ten partnering with Nuria Llagostera Vives. Among them are the 2009 WTA Tour Championships, 2009 Rogers Cup and the Dubai Tennis Championships in 2010 and 2011. Martínez Sánchez reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 4, on 5 July 2010.
Career
Martínez Sánchez won the 1999 Orange Bowl, a year-ending tennis event for Juniors. Next year she became the champion of French Open girls' doubles. She made her first Grand Slam draw at the 2001 Australian Open losing to the third seed Venus Williams, in three sets.
2008
At Wimbledon, she advanced to the third round where she lost to eventual champion Venus Williams. In her next Grand Slam event, the US Open, she lost in the first round to Sabine Lisicki.
She finished off the year of a ranking of 87, and only the second time of her career that she finish the year in the top 100 (her first being all the way back in 2001).
2009
Martínez Sánchez started the season playing at the Australian Open, the first major of the year. In the first round, she upset the 32nd seed Tamarine Tanasugarn 7–5, 6–3. She then defeated Akgul Amanmuradova 6–2, 6–4 but lost in the third round to compatriot Carla Suárez Navarro 6–1, 6–4. In doubles, she and Nuria Llagostera Vives were seeded 11th and defeated 6th seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie in the third round but they lost a tough match in the quarterfinals to Nathalie Dechy and Mara Santangelo 3–6, 7–6, 7–6.
María José next played at the Copa Colsanitas where she was seeded seventh. She defeated Anastasiya Yakimova, Arantxa Parra Santonja and Betina Jozami to reach the semifinals where she won a close two-setter against Patricia Mayr. She captured her first WTA singles title when she defeated third seed Gisela Dulko, 6–3, 6–2 in the final. In doubles, Martínez Sánchez and Llagostera Vives were the top seeds and they reached the final where they beat second seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta 7–5, 3–6, [10–7] to win their first doubles title of the year.
She reached the third round at Roland Garros. In that match against world No. 2, Serena Williams, she was accused of cheating and poor sportsmanship. At 2–2 in the first set, and having a break point at 30–40, Martínez Sánchez hit a drop shot and approached the net. Williams charged, and smashed a backhand, which deflected off of Martínez Sánchez, which appeared to be a winner, and Martínez Sánchez was awarded the point. Williams insisted that the ball had hit Martínez Sánchez's arm, not her racquet (which replays confirmed), but the umpire refused to change the decision. Williams, annoyed, threatened Martínez Sánchez, stating, "I'm gonna get you in the locker room girl, you don’t know me." After the match Williams called her "a cheater". Martínez Sánchez went on to lose the match to Williams 6–4, 3–6, 4–6.
Martínez Sánchez won her second singles title at the year at the 2009 Swedish Open. On the way she defeated fourth seed Kaia Kanepi, Carla Suárez Navarro and Gisela Dulko, before beating top seed and world No. 9, Caroline Wozniacki in the final.
Martínez Sánchez and her partner Nuria Llagostera Vives won the year-end championships in doubles. As the third seeds, they defeated Venus and Serena Williams (2–6, 6–4, [10–8]), before winning the biggest title of their careers against world-number-ones, Cara Black and Liezel Huber, in the final.
Maria qualified to play at the 2009 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. She recovered from a first set deficit to beat Szávay in three sets, 4–6, 6–4, 6–0. In her second group round-robin match she beat Stosur in straight sets (7–6, 7–5) where Stosur served a 208kmps world record serve. In the semifinals, she lost against Aravane Rezaï (2–6, 3–6), who clearly outplayed her on that day.
Overall, Martínez Sánchez had the greatest year of her career. The highlights were winning two singles WTA titles at Bogotá and Båstad (Sweden) and by reaching the third rounds at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and US Open. She ended the year ranked world No. 30.
In doubles, she won seven titles with Llagostera Vives, at Bogotá, Acapulco, Barcelona, Palermo, Toronto, New Haven, and the most important, the WTA Tour Championships in Doha. She ended the year ranked world No. 5.
2010
Her first tournament of the year was winning the Hopman Cup with partner Tommy Robredo. They reached the Final after defeating top seeds Australia, the United States, and Romania without losing a single match. However, she had a shock loss to young British prospect Laura Robson but was able to secure a 2–1 win for Spain.
Martínez Sánchez was seeded 24th at the 2010 Australian Open but lost in the second round to world No. 35, Zheng Jie, 6–2, 2–6, 3–6.
At Indian Wells, she entered in the second round against Alexandra Dulgheru and struggled through in three sets, 2–6, 6–3, 6–1. Then she went on winning in straight sets over Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the third round, 7–6, 6–2, and another straight sets win over Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in the fourth round 6–4, 6–4. In her quarterfinal match, she was defeated by Samantha Stosur in straight sets.
Martínez Sánchez major breakthrough tournament came at the Italian Open, a Premier 5 event in Rome where nine of the top ten women were competing. She upset world No. 17, Francesca Schiavone, world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki and then Lucie Šafářová in straight sets. She then defeated Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals in straight sets and went on to beat world No. 7, Jelena Janković, in the final to win the biggest title of her career so far. Due to her impressive performance in Rome, she became a top 20 player for the first time, at No. 19. However, she was unable to carry any momentum at all into the French Open, suffering defeat in the first round, because her neck was injured while she was training the same day and she could hardly move the neck in the match.
She returned in Eastbourne, winning the first match against Vera Zvonareva and the second round again Aravane Rezaï. She was defeated in the quarterfinals by Marion Bartoli in a really hard match. But more bad luck came to María once again when her leg was injured due to bad movement before her quarterfinals doubles match. This time would be worse for she would miss Wimbledon and most of the summer season, before returning in New Haven and losing in the first round against wildcard Elena Dementieva.
In the US Open, she failed to repeat her third-round finish of the previous year, losing in the second round against Patty Schnyder in a tight match. Overall, the result was good for Martínez Sánchez who had made a lot unforced errors, and Schnyder who had her best match in the past few months.
2011
Martínez Sánchez started off the year at the Sydney International where she defeated Daniela Hantuchová in the first round 6–2, 6–4, before setting up a meeting with Alisa Kleybanova where she lost in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Martínez Sánchez was seeded 26. In the first round, she faced Gréta Arn who had recently won the Auckland Open. Martínez Sánchez won against Arn although was subsequently defeated by Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet in the second round.
At Wimbledon, Martínez Sánchez came from a set down to upset 15th seed Jelena Janković in the first round. She then made quick work of Romanian Monica Niculescu in the following match. She lost to 23rd seed and five-time Wimbledon champion, Venus Williams, in the third round.
She earned two International Championships in 2011. In July, Martínez Sánchez defeated Patricia Mayr-Achleitner at the Bad Gastein Ladies in Austria. She followed that win with a 7–6, 7–6-victory over Galina Voskoboeva at the Korea Open in September.
2012
2012 was a year of injury and struggles for Martínez Sánchez as she consequently fell out of the top 150 in singles.
After withdrawing from the Australian Open with a left knee injury, she failed to win a main-draw match until the French Open, where she reached the third round losing to 15th seed Dominika Cibulková, 2–6, 1–6. Martínez Sánchez experienced even more success in doubles where she reached the semifinals with Llagostera Vives, losing to eventual champions and No. 4 seeds, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Martínez Sánchez lost to Laura Robson and Ana Ivanovic both in three sets, at the Eastbourne International and Wimbledon, respectively, the first sending her out of the top 50. However, in doubles, again with Llagostera Vives, they won in Eastbourne without dropping a set and defeating the top-2 seeds, but they lost in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone in a tough three-setter.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Martínez Sánchez defeated Polona Hercog 6–4, 6–2, before being routed out by Victoria Azarenka 6–1, 6–2. She and Llagostera Vives routed Casey Dellacqua and Sam Stosur (6–1, 6–1), before falling to Peng Shuai and Zheng Jie (4–6, 2–6).
The Spaniard then lost in the first round of both singles and doubles in tough matches at Montreal. She fell out of the top 100 of singles following the loss to Carla Suárez Navarro.
Despite falling first round again in singles in Cincinnati, Martínez Sánchez and Llagostera Vives were pushed in the first round by Olga Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva, but fell to eighth seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Zheng Jie, 4–6, 3–6.
A good run at the US Open caused her to bounce back into the top 100 of singles and the top 15 of doubles. After a tough first-round match with fellow veteran Mirjana Lučić winning 6–3, 7–5, she pushed eventual champ Serena Williams, 6–2, 6–4. The scoreline was easier than it looks however. After a series of tough wins with Llagostera Vives in doubles, they met the eventual champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, falling 2–6, 3–6.
Entering the Korea Open as the defending champion, she played well defeating Eleni Daniilidou, and Nadia Petrova via walkover, but lost in the quarterfinals where she was routed by Ekaterina Makarova 1–6, 1–6. The loss sent her sprawling out of the top 100 to 137. Martínez Sánchez then lost in the first round of qualifyings at Tokyo, Beijing, and Osaka. In Osaka, she managed to push second seed Zheng Jie to a tough three-setter, losing 6–4, 5–7, 4–6 despite going up a set and 5–2.
2015
After giving birth in November 2013 to a daughter, Andrea, she returned on the main tour in the Miami Open doubles draw, pairing with Vera Dushevina.
2019
Alongside partner Neal Skupski, the Spaniard was beaten in her mixed-doubles semifinal in the 2019 Australian Open.
Significant finals
Year-end championships
Doubles: 1 (title)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 tournaments
Singles: 1 (title)
Doubles: 7 (3 titles, 4 runner-ups)
WTA career finals
Singles: 6 (5 titles, 1 runner-up)
Doubles: 35 (21 titles, 14 runner-ups)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles (12–8)
Doubles (23–16)
Team events (1)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
References
External links
1982 births
Living people
Tennis players from the Region of Murcia
People from Yecla
Spanish female tennis players
Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic tennis players for Spain
Hopman Cup competitors
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Spain
Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games
Mediterranean Games medalists in tennis
French Open junior champions