María José Martínez Sánchez (; born 12 August 1982) is a Spanish 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. In singles, she won five
WTA Tour 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 (1999) and
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
(2000). She reached a 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 her compatriot
Nuria Llagostera Vives. Among them are the
2009 WTA Tour Championships,
2009 Rogers Cup and the
Dubai Tennis Championships
The Dubai Tennis Championships (also known as the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for sponsorship reasons) (formerly known for sponsorship reasons as the ''Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships'' and the ''Dubai Duty Free Men's and Women's Champ ...
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, and then defeated
Akgul Amanmuradova but lost in the third round to compatriot
Carla Suárez Navarro both in straight sets. 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 6–3, 6–7, 6–7.
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 career singles title when she defeated third seed
Gisela Dulko 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 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
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American 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 (WT ...
, 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
Kaia Kanepi (; born 10 June 1985) is an Estonian inactive professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high ranking of world No. 15 on 20 August 2012 and has won four singles titles on the WTA Tour.
Described as a 'resident Grand Slam up ...
,
Carla Suárez Navarro and Gisela Dulko, before beating top seed and world No. 9,
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is an inactive Danish professional tennis player. She has been 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, hold ...
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, before winning the biggest title of their careers against world-number-ones,
Cara Black and
Liezel Huber
Liezel Huber (née Horn; born 21 August 1976) is a South African- American retired tennis player who represented the United States internationally since August 2007. Huber has won four Grand Slam titles in women's doubles with partner Cara B ...
, 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
Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is an inactive Danish professional tennis player. She has been 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, hold ...
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
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, 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
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...
.
In the
US Open, she failed to repeat her third-round finish of the previous year, losing in the second round against
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
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
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 6–2, 6–4, before setting up a meeting with
Alisa Kleybanova
Alisa Mikhailovna Kleybanova (, born 15 July 1989) is a Russian former tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 20, achieved in February 2011. In her career, she won two singles titles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour. ...
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
Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA as high as No. 28 in singles and No. 11 in doubles. She has won three singles and 10 dou ...
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
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
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, where she reached the third round losing to 15th seed
Dominika Cibulková
Dominika Cibulková (; born 6 May 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. She is the 2016 WTA Finals champion, becoming the fourth player (after Serena Williams in 2001 WTA Tour Championships, 2001, Maria Sharapova in 2004 WTA Tour ...
, 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
Sara Errani (; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. Errani is one of only seven women who have completed a career Grand Slam (tennis)#Golden Slam, Golden Slam in doubles. She is an Olympic Games gold medalist, a former ...
and
Roberta Vinci
Roberta Vinci (; born 18 February 1983) is an Italian former tennis player. In doubles tennis, she is a Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Grand Slam, Career Grand Slam champion having won all Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments and reac ...
.
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
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, Martínez Sánchez defeated
Polona Hercog
Polona Hercog (, born 20 January 1991) is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings are 35 in singles and 56 in doubles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, three in singles and two in doubles. Hercog also has had ...
6–4, 6–2, before being routed out by Victoria Azarenka 6–1, 6–2. She and Llagostera Vives routed
Casey Dellacqua
Casey Dellacqua ( ; born 11 February 1985) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current commentator. Her best singles results on the WTA Tour have been semifinal appearances at the 2012 Texas Tennis Open and 2014 Birmingham ...
and Sam Stosur (6–1, 6–1), before falling to
Peng Shuai
Peng Shuai (; ; born 8 January 1986) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In February 2014, she was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 doubles player by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA ...
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
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
. 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
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
, Martínez Sánchez and Llagostera Vives were pushed in the first round by
Olga Govortsova
Olga Alekseyevna Govortsova ( (Volha Alyakseyeuna Havartsova); ; born 23 August 1988) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. On 23 June 2008, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 35. On 29 August 2011, she peaked at No. 2 ...
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
Eleni Daniilidou (; ; born 19 September 1982) is a Greek former tennis player from the island of Crete.
She is considered one of the best Greek tennis players of the Open Era, winning five singles titles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tou ...
, and
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova ( ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing s ...
via walkover, but lost in the quarterfinals where she was routed by
Ekaterina Makarova
Ekaterina Valeryevna Makarova (; ; born 7 June 1988) is a Russian former professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and world No. 8 in singles.
She is a four-time Gra ...
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
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
,
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, and
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
. 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 Tour 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
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
References
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez Sanchez, Maria Jose
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
21st-century Spanish sportswomen