Anna-Lena Grönefeld

Anna-Lena Grönefeld (born on June 4, 1985 in Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, then West Germany) is a professional tennis player from Germany. She turned professional in 2003.

As of February 2006, Grönefeld was the No. 1 tennis player from Germany. She was coached and trained by Rafael Font de Mora in Scottsdale, Arizona until 2006. Anna-Lena is currently coached by former German pro tennis player Dirk Dier (since the WTA tournament in Stuttart in October 2006). She now lives and trains in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Career

2003–07: Breakthrough

In June, 2003 she captured the prestigious French Open Junior title, becoming the first player from Germany since 1957 to accomplish this feat. In 2002 she was the Singles Champion of both the Belgium and Frankfurt International Championships and a finalist at the Orange Bowl. In July 2003, she won the Apple and Eve Newsday Long Island Classic, held in Woodbury, New York, defeating Bethanie Mattek in the final. She is an accomplished doubles player winning the French Open title and reaching the finals at Wimbledon. As a result of her tennis successes in 2003, Grönefeld had achieved the Junior World ranking of #1 in singles and doubles. She launched her professional career début under the direction of the USA Academy and Rafael Font de Mora.

In 2006 she represented Germany along with Nicolas Kiefer at the Hopman Cup. She went on to win her first title at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL in Acapulco, and completed a career best showing at Roland Garros, by reaching the quarterfinals, where she lost to Justine Henin. Her ranking peaked at 14. The good form was short-lived, as the German failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals of most remaining tournaments for the year. She split with Font de Mora in September 2006 and is currently coached by Dirk Dier.

Her run of bad form continued into 2007, and as of June 19, Grönefeld had been eliminated in the first round of her last five tournaments. 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.

2008–09: Comeback

Grönefeld made her official comeback on 3 May 2008, at the 75k ITF event in Zagreb, Croatia. She was seeded fourth in the qualifying draw, winning three consecutive matches to reach the main draw. She then won a tournament in Zlín in the Czech Republic by beating Jelena Kostanić Tošić in the final in three sets for the first title of her comeback. Grönefeld went on to win another ITF title just a week later at the 10k event in Alkmaar in the Netherlands, defeating Marlot Meddens in the final, 6-1 6-1. Anna-Lena then won another title for the third straight week, this time at the 25k event at Périgueux in France, defeating Frenchwoman Florence Haring in the final in straight sets, 6-3 6-3.

Grönefeld took advantage of her feed-up wildcard into the Tier IV Gaz de France Grand Prix in Budapest (a result of winning the 75k Zlín ITF event), defeating Hungarian wildcard Palma Kiraly 6-0 6-4. She followed up her first round win with a straight-sets, 6-1 6-4, upset over 5th seeded Lucie Šafářová of the Czech Republic.

Grönefeld then played a Tier III tournament, the Gastein Ladies (Austria), where she beat Julia Vakulenko of the Ukraine in the first round; was however beaten in three tight sets (7-5 4-6 6-4) in the second round by 4th seed Pauline Parmentier of France, the eventual champion.

Her good form allowed Grönefeld to win another 50k ITF event, the Ceisa Cup in Rimini at the beginning of August. She also reached the final of the GHI Bronx Tennis Classic (ITF tournament) in New York, where she lost to Elena Bovina.

After winning her 3 qualification rounds, Grönefeld played in the 2008 US Open, and reached the 4th round of the main draw, only losing toDinara Safina. Prior to her loss to Safina, Anna-Lena won 6 matches in a row without losing a single set, the highlights being her 6-4 6-2 victory over Daniela Hantuchová (WTA 12) in the first round and the 6-4 7-5 victory over Alizé Cornet (WTA 17) in the third round.

After losing against Austrian runner-up Tamira Paszek in the first round at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali, Anna Lena received a wildcard for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart but lost in the first round against the 6th seeded Venus Williams (WTA 8). With her doubles partner, Patty Schnyder, Grönefeld however won the doubles competition 6–2, 6–4 against the top seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs.

After winning the first two matches at the qualification for the Zurich Open, Grönefeld lost her third match against Czech Petra Kvitová. With doubles partner Patty Schnyder she has now reached the finals.

Grönefeld now has a singles win loss record of 38-9 in 2008 (as of October 14, 2008) and remains in the top 100 (WTA 79, as of October 13, 2008).

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