Anna-Lena Grönefeld (also spelled Groenefeld; married name Herzgerodt; born 4 June 1985) is a German former professional
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player.
Competing as a professional from 2003 until 2019, she won one singles title on the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...
, at the
2006 Mexican Open, and reached the quarterfinals of the
2006 French Open. She is a two-time
Grand Slam champion in mixed doubles, having won the
2009 Wimbledon Championships alongside
Mark Knowles
Mark Knowles (born 4 September 1971) is a Bahamians, Bahamian former professional tennis player and coach. He is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles tennis, doubles. He won three of the four Gran ...
, and the
2014 French Open with
Jean-Julien Rojer
Jean-Julien Rojer ( "John Julian" , ; born 25 August 1981) is a Dutch professional tennis player from Curaçao, who specializes in doubles. He reached his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 in November 2015.
He is a four-time Grand Sla ...
. Grönefeld also finished runner-up in mixed doubles at the
2016 Wimbledon Championships
The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on ...
and
2017 French Open.
In women's doubles, Grönefeld won 17 career titles, most notably the
2005 Rogers Cup with
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...
, and reached seven Grand Slam semifinals. She was part of the German team which reached the final of the
2014 Davis Cup, and competed at the
2012
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and
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
Olympic Games.
Career
2002–2006: Breakthrough
In 2002, she was the singles champion of both the Belgium and Frankfurt International Championships and a finalist at the Orange Bowl. In June 2003, she captured the prestigious
French Open junior title, becoming the first player from Germany since 1957 to accomplish this feat. In July 2003, she continued her superb form and won the Apple and Eve Newsday Long Island Classic, held in
Woodbury, New York. She was also an accomplished doubles player in juniors winning the French Open title and reaching the finals at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
. As a result of her tennis success in 2003, Grönefeld had achieved the junior world ranking of No. 1 in singles and doubles. She launched her professional career debut under the direction of the USA Academy and Rafael Font de Mora.
Grönefeld made her professional breakthrough in 2005, rising 54 places throughout the year. She reached the third round of the Australian Open, French Open and the
US Open and played three finals in WTA Tour events throughout the season, including at the Tier II event in Beijing, although failing to win any of them. She also rose into the top 10 in the world in doubles, cementing her position as one of the most promising young doubles players on the tour at the time.
In 2006, she represented Germany along with
Nicolas Kiefer at the
Hopman Cup. She went on to win her first title at the
Mexican Open in Acapulco and completed a career best showing at
Roland Garros, by reaching the quarterfinals, where she lost to
Justine Henin
Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...
. Her ranking peaked at 14, and remained in the top 20 for much of the year, despite a significant drop in results in the latter half of the season, as the German failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals of most tournaments. She split with Font de Mora in September 2006 and began to work with Dirk Dier.
2007: Loss of form
Her run of bad form continued into 2007, and as of 19 June, Grönefeld had been eliminated in the first round of her last five tournaments. Grönefeld blamed her run of bad form on the situation with Font de Mora, suggesting that he was giving her opponents tactics on how to beat her. She also had a substantial weight gain over the past several months. 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.
In August 2007, it was revealed that Font de Mora was planning to sue Grönefeld for lack of discipline during their partnership, stating: "She had to adhere to a standard of performance, a standard of training and a standard of diet. She absolutely let herself go and sabotaged her marketability and her performance on the court. You work for years and invest all this money into developing contracts and developing endorsements and then she just gets around the wrong people and does the wrong things and her performance affects everything." He also denied her allegations that he interfered with her matches.
2008–2009: Comeback
Grönefeld made her official comeback on 3 May 2008, at the $75k event in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
, Croatia. She was seeded fourth in the qualifying draw, winning three consecutive matches to reach the main draw. She then won the
Smart Card Open Monet+ in
Zlín
Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...
, Czech Republic, for the first title of her comeback. Grönefeld went on to win another two ITF title over the following fortnight: a $10k event in
Alkmaar
Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...
, Netherlands, and a $25k event at
Périgueux, France.
Grönefeld took advantage of her feed-up wildcard into the Tier IV
Gaz de France Grand Prix (a result of winning the $75k Zlín event), reaching the quarterfinals with an upset win over
Lucie Šafářová. She then played in
Bad Gastein, where she was defeated in three tight sets in the second round by
Pauline Parmentier.
Her good form allowed Grönefeld to win another $50k event in Rimini at the beginning of August. She also reached the final of a $50k
Bronx Open, where she lost to
Elena Bovina.
After winning her three qualification rounds, Grönefeld played at the
2008 US Open, and reached the fourth round of the main draw, only losing to
Dinara Safina. Prior to her loss to Safina, Grönefeld had won six matches in a row without losing a single set, the highlights being her victory over
Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Open, defeating Martin ...
in the first round and over
Alizé Cornet in the third round, both top 20 players at the time.
After losing against Austrian runner-up
Tamira Paszek in the first round in
Bali
Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...
, Grönefeld received a wildcard for the
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart but lost in the first round against
Venus Williams. With her doubles partner,
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
, Grönefeld, however, won the doubles competition against the top seeds
Květa Peschke and
Rennae Stubbs
Rennae Stubbs (born 26 March 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player, coach and television commentator. She was ranked number 1 in the world in doubles, and the winner of 4 major doubles titles and 2 mixed doubles titles as wel ...
.
After winning the first two matches at the qualification for the
Zurich Open, Grönefeld lost her third match against
Petra Kvitová
Petra Kvitová (; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 31 career singles titles, including two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major titles ...
. With doubles partner Patty Schnyder she reached the finals.
Performance timelines
''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.
''
Singles
Doubles
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam tournament finals
Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
Other significant finals
Premier Mandatory / Premier 5 tournaments
Doubles: 10 (1 title, 9 runner-ups)
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)
Doubles: 44 (17 titles, 27 runner-ups)
WTA Challenger finals
Doubles: 1 (title)
ITF finals
Singles (12–2)
Doubles (6–1)
Fed Cup statistics
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gronefeld, Anna-Lena
1985 births
Living people
People from Nordhorn
German female tennis players
Wimbledon champions
French Open champions
French Open junior champions
Hopman Cup competitors
Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic tennis players for Germany
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Tennis players from Lower Saxony
21st-century German sportswomen