Meghann Shaughnessy Biography

Meghann Shaughnessy (April 13, 1979 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American former professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in 2001, and won 6 WTA Tour titles. Her best doubles ranking was world No. 4 and won 17 WTA Tour doubles titles, including the WTA Championships. She is best known for her serve, which was one of the most powerful on tour, and has produced as many as 22 aces in a match.

Shaughnessy was coached by Rafael Font de Mora (managed by him since age 13 and coached by him for over 20 years). She is the niece of Dan Shaughnessy, a Boston Globe sports columnist.

Opening serves

Shaughnessy made her debut on the WTA Tour in 1996 at a tournament in Budapest and broke into the top 100 in 1998. In 2000, Shaughnessy won her first WTA singles title at Beijing, defeating Iroda Tulyaganova in the final, and breaking into the top fifty. In her breakout year of 2001, Shaughnessy achieved a career-high singles ranking of #11, won the second singles title of her career at Quebec City, and reached the finals of Hamburg and her home tournament in Scottsdale. She also recorded wins over world number five Conchita Martnez, world number four Monica Seles, and world number two Venus Williams.

In 2002, Shaughnessy began the season by reaching the final of Sydney, and recaptured her career-high #11 ranking. She also reached the quarterfinals or better of four other tournaments that year, with wins over top five players Jelena Doki? and Serena Williams. In 2003, Shaughnessy had another excellent year, featuring the second year end top twenty finish of her career. Shaughnessy captured her third career singles title in Canberra, and also had strong Grand Slam results. She defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives, ?udmila Cervanov, Klra Koukalov and Elena Bovina to reach her first career Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, and she reached the Round of 16 at both the US Open and Australian Open. Shaughnessy also scored an upset over world number two Venus Williams in the Round of 16 of the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami. In 2004, Shaughnessy produced sub-par results, finishing just inside of the top 40, with only one top five win, over Anastasia Myskina in Dubai. However, in 2004 Shaughnessy produced the best doubles results of her career, winning seven tournaments with partner Nadia Petrova, including the WTA Year End Championships in Los Angeles. This doubles partnership is now over as Petrova is looking for a new partner for 2006.

Current form

In 2005, Shaughnessy struggled with injuries and consistency. Her year began with a right leg injury, which forced her to withdraw from the Australian Open doubles competition, and from a tournament in Hyderabad. However, Shaughnessy showed signs of recovery in February, reaching the final of Memphis, defeating Nicole Vaidiov in the semifinals. The match featured Shaughnessy serving 22 aces in her 7-6, 7-6 win. After Memphis, Shaughnessy struggled with back injuries for the duration of the spring, not reaching another semifinal until June at a grass tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch.

By July, Shaughnessy's ranking had dropped so low that she was forced to qualify for the Palo Alto tournament. She qualified, and then surprised number five seed Vera Zvonareva in the first round, before losing to Daniela Hantuchov in the second round. A back injury forced Shaughnessy to withdraw from tournaments in Carlsbad, California and Los Angeles. As a wildcard in New Haven, she defeated number nine seed Nathalie Dechy for the first time in ten attempts, before losing to doubles partner Anna-Lena Grnefeld in the second round. In the opening round of the US Open, Shaughnessy led sixteen-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva 6-3, 5-2 and held two match points, before losing 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

However, on March 24, 2006, Shaughnessy beat Number 3 seed Justine Henin 7-5, 6-4 in the second round (Henin's 1st round) of the NASDAQ-100 Tournament in Miami. Shaughnessy then won a WTA-level event in Rabat, beating 8th seeded Martina Such in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. It was her 4th tour title. She became the first American to win a WTA-level title in 2006 as well as the first to reach a WTA final in 2006. Shaughnessy afterwards reached the second round at Istanbul, beating 3rd seeded Anna Chakvetadze in the first round. Then she fell in the first round in the French Open to top seeded and crowd favorite Amlie Mauresmo, 6-4, 6-4.

The next year, she faced the previous year's runner-up, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the second round of the French Open. Shaughnessy raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set, and in the sixth game held three set points on Svetlana's serve. However, Kuznetsova saved them all, won the game and recovered dramatically to clinch the set on a tie-break, before winning the second set 6-3 for the match.

Shaughnessy currently concentrates on doubles, and regularly partners with fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The pair made it to the doubles finals of the 2011 Indian Wells Masters, by defeating Alisa Kleybanova & Yan Zi (round 1), Raquel Kops-Jones & Abigail Spears (round 2), Liezel Huber & Nadia Petrova (quarter-finals) and Victoria Azarenka & Maria Kirilenko (semi-finals), but lost to Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina in the finals.

Personal life

Her coach had been romantically involved with her since before she turned 18. Their romantic and coaching relationship ended in 2005; however, Shaughnessy re-united with Font De Mora as her coach during the latter part of 2006. Shaughnessy claims she was in an intimate relationship from 2004 to 2005, with Major League Baseball player Roberto Alomar, also claiming that he did not inform her whether or not he was HIV positive, during their relationship. Alomar's former wife's lawyer claims that Alomar paid $4 million in settlements to her and Shaughnessy.

WTA career finals

Singles 10 (6-4)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0/0)
WTA Championships (0/0)
Tier I (0/0)	Premier Mandatory (0/0)
Tier II (1/3)	Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (1/1)	Premier (0/0)
Tier IV & V (4/0)	International (0/0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
Winner	1.	22 October 2000	Shanghai, China	Hard (i)	Iroda Tulyaganova	7-6, 7-5
Runner-up	1.	4 March 2001	Scottsdale, United States	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	2-6, 3-6
Runner-up	2.	6 May 2001	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Venus Williams	3-6, 0-6
Winner	2.	23 September 2001	Quebec City, Canada	Carpet (i)	Iva Majoli	6-1, 6-3
Runner-up	3.	12 January 2002	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Martina Hingis	2-6, 3-6
Winner	3.	11 January 2003	Canberra, Australia	Hard	Francesca Schiavone	6-1, 6-1
Runner-up	4.	19 February 2005	Memphis, United States	Hard (i)	Vera Zvonareva	6-7(3-7), 2-6
Winner	4.	21 May 2006	Rabat, Morocco	Clay	Martina Such	6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Winner	5.	26 August 2006	Forest Hills, United States	Hard	Anna Smashnova	1-6, 6-0, 6-4
Winner	6.	16 June 2007	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Edina Gallovits	6-3, 6-2

Doubles: 33 (17-16)

Legend: Before 2009	Legend: Starting in 2009
Grand Slam tournaments (0/0)
WTA Championships (1/0)
Tier I (5/4)	Premier Mandatory (0/1)
Tier II (4/5)	Premier 5 (0/0)
Tier III (5/1)	Premier (2/2)
Tier IV & V (0/2)	International (0/1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score in final
Runner-up	1.	2 May 1999	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Andreea Vanc	Jelena Kostani? Michaela Patikov	5-7, 7-6(7-1), 2-6
Runner-up	2.	16 May 1999	Antwerp, Belgium	Clay	Louise Pleming	Laura Golarsa Katarina Srebotnik	4-6, 2-6
Runner-up	3.	22 October 2000	Shanghai, China	Hard (i)	Rita Grande	Lilia Osterloh Tamarine Tanasugarn	5-7, 1-6
Winner	1.	5 November 2000	Quebec City, Canada	Hard (i)	Nicole Pratt	Els Callens Kimberly Po	6-3, 6-4
Runner-up	4.	6 January 2001	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Katie Schlukebir	Giulia Casoni Janette Husrov	6-7, 5-7
Runner-up	5.	4 March 2001	Scottsdale, United States	Hard	Kim Clijsters	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	w/o
Winner	2.	13 May 2001	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Els Callens	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	6-4, 6-3
Runner-up	6.	14 October 2001	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard (i)	Justine Henin	Lindsay Davenport Lisa Raymond	4-6, 7-6(7-4), 5-7
Winner	3.	5 January 2002	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Justine Henin	sa Carlsson Miriam Oremans	6-1, 7-6(8-6)
Runner-up	7.	13 October 2002	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard (i)	Paola Surez	Lindsay Davenport Lisa Raymond	2-6, 4-6
Winner	4.	5 October 2003	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Nadia Petrova	Anastasia Myskina Vera Zvonareva	6-3, 6-4
Runner-up	8.	17 January 2004	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Dinara Safina	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	5-7, 6-3, 4-6
Winner	5.	4 April 2004	Key Biscayne, United States	Hard	Nadia Petrova	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6-2, 6-3
Winner	6.	11 April 2004	Amelia Island, United States	Clay	Nadia Petrova	Myriam Casanova Alicia Molik	3-6, 6-2, 7-5
Winner	7.	9 May 2004	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Nadia Petrova	Janette Husrov Conchita Martnez	6-2, 2-6, 6-1
Winner	8.	16 May 2004	Rome, Italy	Clay	Nadia Petrova	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Surez	2-6, 6-3, 6-3
Winner	9.	25 July 2004	Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Nadia Petrova	Conchita Martnez Virginia Ruano Pascual	6-7(2-7), 6-4, 6-3
Winner	10.	28 August 2004	New Haven, United States	Hard	Nadia Petrova	Martina Navratilova Lisa Raymond	6-1, 1-6, 7-6(7-4)
Winner	11.	15 November 2004	Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Nadia Petrova	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	7-5, 6-2
Runner-up	9.	19 March 2005	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Nadia Petrova	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Surez	6-7(3-7), 1-6
Winner	12.	18 September 2005	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Anna-Lena Grnefeld	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6-3, 6-3
Winner	13.	7 January 2006	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Dinara Safina	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	6-2, 6-3
Winner	14.	5 March 2006	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Anna-Lena Grnefeld	Shinobu Asagoe milie Loit	6-1, 6-3
Runner-up	10.	18 March 2006	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	2-6, 5-7
Runner-up	11.	16 April 2006	Charleston, United States	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	6-3, 1-6, 1-6
Runner-up	12.	6 August 2006	San Diego, United States	Hard	Anna-Lena Grnefeld	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	2-6, 2-6
Winner	15.	12 January 2007	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Anna-Lena Grnefeld	Marion Bartoli Meilen Tu	6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7-2)
Runner-up	13.	20 February 2010	Memphis, United States	Hard (i)	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Vania King Michalla Krajicek	5-7, 2-6
Winner	16.	23 May 2010	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Yan Zi	6-3, 6-4
Runner-up	14.	28 August 2010	New Haven, United States	Hard	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Kv?ta Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	5-7, 0-6
Winner	17.	13 February 2011	Paris, France	Hard (i)	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Vera Dushevina Ekaterina Makarova	6-4, 6-2
Runner-up	15.	19 March 2011	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Sania Mirza Elena Vesnina	0-6, 5-7
Runner-up	16.	10 April 2011	Charleston, United States	Clay	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Sania Mirza Elena Vesnina	4-6, 4-6