Anna-Lena Grönefeld

Anna-Lena Grönefeld (born 4 June 1985) is a German tennis player. She turned professional in April 2003.
Grönefeld was coached and trained by Rafael Font de Mora in Scottsdale, Arizona until 2006. She is currently coached by former professional German tennis player Dirk Dier (since the WTA tournament in Stuttgart in October 2006). Grönefeld, who was born in Nordhorn, now lives and trains in Saarbrücken.

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. As a result of her tennis success in 2003, Grönefeld had achieved the junior world ranking of number 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 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, 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 $75,000 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 the Smart Card Open Monet+ in Zlín, Czech Republic, for the first title of her comeback. Grönefeld went on to win another two ITF title over the following fortnight: a $10,000 event in Alkmaar, Netherlands, and a $25,000 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 $75,000 Zlín ITF 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 $50,000 ITF event in Rimini at the beginning of August. She also reached the final of a $50,000 event in The Bronx, 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 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, 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, Grönefeld, however, won the doubles competition against the top seeds Květa 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 reached the finals.

Grand Slam finals

Mixed Doubles (2–1)

Outcome	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	2009	Wimbledon	Grass	Mark Knowles	Leander Paes Cara Black	7–5, 6–3
Winner	2014	French Open	Clay	Jean-Julien Rojer	Julia Görges Nenad Zimonjić	4–6, 6–2, [10–7]
Runner-up	2016	Wimbledon	Grass	Robert Farah	Henri Kontinen Heather Watson	7–6(7–5), 6–4

Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 finals

Doubles (1–5)

Outcome	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	2005	Toronto	Hard	Martina Navratilova	Conchita Martínez Virginia Ruano Pascual	5–7, 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	2006	San Diego	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	2–6, 2–6
Runner-up	2006	Toronto	Hard	Cara Black	Martina Navratilova Nadia Petrova	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	2012	Tokyo	Hard	Květa Peschke	Raquel Kops-Jones Abigail Spears	1–6, 4–6
Runner-up	2013	Toronto	Hard	Květa Peschke	Jelena Janković Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 2–6, [6–10]
Runner-up	2013	Cincinnati	Hard	Květa Peschke	Hsieh Su-wei Peng Shuai	6–2, 3–6, [10–12]

Singles: 4 (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	31 January 2005	PTT Pattaya Open, Pattaya, Thailand	Hard	Conchita Martínez	3–6, 6–3, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	5 September 2005	China Open, Beijing, China	Hard	Maria Kirilenko	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	2 October 2005	Luxembourg Open, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Kim Clijsters	2–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	5 March 2006	Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Flavia Pennetta	6–1, 4–6, 6–2

Doubles: 34 (14 titles, 20 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	8 August 2004	Nordea Nordic Light Open, Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	Alicia Molik Barbara Schett	3–6, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	15 August 2004	Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, Vancouver, Canada	Hard	Els Callens	Bethanie Mattek Abigail Spears	3–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	22 August 2004	Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	Marlene Weingärtner Jill Craybas	5–7, 6–7(2–7)
Runner-up	4.	10 October 2004	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Filderstadt, Germany	Hard (i)	Julia Schruff	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	3–6, 2–6
Winner	1.	6 February 2005	Pattaya Women's Open, Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Marion Bartoli	Marta Domachowska Silvija Talaja	6–3, 6–2
Winner	2.	15 August 2005	Rogers Cup, Toronto, Canada	Hard	Martina Navratilova	Conchita Martínez Virginia Ruano-Pascual	5–7, 6–3, 6–4
Winner	3.	13 September 2005	Wismilak International, Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–3, 6–3
Winner	4.	27 February 2006	Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Meghann Shaughnessy	Shinobu Asagoe Émilie Loit	6–1, 6–3
Winner	5.	30 July 2006	Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, United States	Hard	Shahar Pe'er	Maria Elena Camerin Gisela Dulko	6–1, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	9 August 2006	Acura Classic, San Diego, United States	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	2–6, 2–6
Runner-up	6.	15 August 2006	Canada Masters, Montreal, Canada	Hard	Cara Black	Martina Navratilova Nadia Petrova	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	7.	1 October 2006	Luxembourg Open, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Liezel Huber	Květa Peschke Francesca Schiavone	6–2, 4–6, 1–6
Winner	6.	8 January 2007	Medibank International, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Marion Bartoli Meilen Tu	6–3, 3–6, 7–6(7–2)
Winner	7.	5 October 2008	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany	Hard (i)	Patty Schnyder	Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs	6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	8.	19 October 2008	Zurich Open, Zürich, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Patty Schnyder	Cara Black Liezel Huber	1–6, 6–7(3–7)
Winner	8.	2 November 2008	Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada	Hard (i)	Vania King	Jill Craybas Tamarine Tanasugarn	7–6(7–3), 6–4
Winner	9.	11 January 2009	Brisbane International, Brisbane, Australia	Hard	Vania King	Klaudia Jans Alicja Rosolska	3–6, 7–5, [10–5]
Winner	10.	18 October 2009	Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Katarina Srebotnik	Klaudia Jans Alicja Rosolska	6–1, 6–4
Runner-up	9.	7 March 2010	Monterrey Open, Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Vania King	Iveta Benešová Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	6–3, 4–6, [8–10]
Winner	11.	2 August 2010	e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open, Copenhagen, Denmark	Hard (i)	Julia Görges	Vitalia Diatchenko Tatiana Poutchek	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	10.	6 March 2011	Monterrey Open, Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Vania King	Iveta Benešová Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	7–6(10–8), 2–6, [6–10]
Runner-up	11.	16 October 2011	Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Julia Görges	Marina Erakovic Elena Vesnina	5–7, 1–6
Runner-up	12.	2 February 2012	Open GDF Suez, Paris, France	Hard (i)	Petra Martić	Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond	6–7(3–7), 1–6
Runner-up	13.	29 April 2012	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Julia Görges	Iveta Benešová Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	14.	17 June 2012	Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria	Clay	Petra Martić	Jill Craybas Julia Görges	7–6(7–4), 4–6, [9–11]
Runner-up	15.	30 September 2012	Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Květa Peschke	Raquel Kops-Jones Abigail Spears	1–6, 4–6
Winner	12.	14 October 2012	Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Květa Peschke	Julia Görges Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	16.	5 January 2013	Brisbane International, Brisbane, Australia	Hard	Květa Peschke	Bethanie Mattek-Sands Sania Mirza	6–4, 4–6, [7–10]
Winner	13.	25 May 2013	Brussels Open, Brussels, Belgium	Clay	Květa Peschke	Gabriela Dabrowski Shahar Pe'er	6–0, 6–3
Runner-up	17.	15 June 2013	Nürnberger Versicherungscup, Nuremberg, Germany	Clay	Květa Peschke	Raluca Olaru Valeria Solovyeva	6–2, 6–7(3–7), [9–11]
Runner-up	18.	11 August 2013	Rogers Cup, Toronto, Canada	Hard	Květa Peschke	Jelena Janković Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 2–6, [6–10]
Runner-up	19.	18 August 2013	Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Květa Peschke	Hsieh Su-wei Peng Shuai	6–2, 3–6, [10–12]
Winner	14.	2 February 2014	Open GDF Suez, Paris, France	Hard (i)	Květa Peschke	Tímea Babos Kristina Mladenovic	6–7(7–9), 6–4, [10–5]
Runner-up	20.	16 October 2016	Linz Open, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Květa Peschke	Kiki Bertens Johanna Larsson	6–4, 2–6, [7–10]

WTA 125K series finals

Doubles (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	14 March 2016	San Antonio Open, San Antonio, United States	Hard	Nicole Melichar	Klaudia Jans-Ignacik Anastasia Rodionova	6–1, 6–3

Singles

Doubles