Melanie Schnell (born 22 February 1977) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from Austria.

Biography

Schnell, a right-handed player from

Radstadt Radstadt (Central Bavarian: ''Rodstoud'' or ''Rodstod'') is a historic town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Geography The town is part of the Salzburg Pongau region. It is located in the valley of the ...

, began competing on tour in 1993. She made her grand slam main draw debut at the

1995 Wimbledon Championships The 1995 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 109th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

, where she had a win over

Katerina Maleeva Katerina Georgieva Maleeva ( bg, Катерина Георгиева Малеева; born 7 May 1969) is a former top 10 Bulgarian tennis player. She won eleven singles and two doubles WTA Tour titles. Her best position in the WTA rankings was ...

. Aged 18, she broke into the world's top 100 in 1995 and had a peak ranking of 90 the following year. Her best performance on the WTA Tour came at the 1996 Budapest Open, where she was a losing finalist to

Ruxandra Dragomir Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie (born 24 October 1972) is a retired tennis player from Romania. She won four singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour during her career. The right-hander reached her highest individual WTA ranking on 25 August 1997 ...

. She represented the

Austria Fed Cup team The Austria Billie Jean King Cup team represents Austria in Fed Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Osterreichischer Tennisverband. They currently compete in the Europe/Africa Group I. History Austria competed in its first Fed Cup i ...

in one tie, a 1996 World Group playoff against Germany, in which she featured in the dead rubber doubles. Partnering with

Barbara Schett Barbara Schett Eagle (; born 10 March 1976) is an Austrian former professional tennis player, who reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 7 in September 1999. Between 1993 and 2004 she played in 48 matches for the Austria Fed Cup team, ...

, the pair beat

Sabine Hack Sabine Hack (; born 12 July 1969) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. She began her career on the WTA Tour in 1983. She won four singles and one doubles titles in her career. Her best Grand Slam performance was reaching the quar ...

and

Christina Singer Christina Singer-Bath (born 27 July 1968) is a retired tennis player from Germany. She competed at Wimbledon several times from 1987 to 1999.Lars Rehmann Lars Rehmann (born 21 May 1975) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. Career Rehmann was a successful junior player, winning the Boys' Doubles at the 1993 Australian Open, with countryman Christian Tambue. They defeated the Americ ...

, Schnell is now based in Germany. She was previously in a relationship with Italian tennis player

Diego Nargiso Diego Nargiso (born 15 March 1970) is a former tennis player from Italy. Having turned professional in 1987, Nargiso represented his native country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where he was defeated in the second round by America's even ...

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 (0-1)

ITF finals

Singles (2–2)

Doubles (4–4)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schnell, Melanie 1977 births Living people Austrian female tennis players People from Radstadt Austrian emigrants to Germany Sportspeople from Salzburg (state)