2004

2004 SEASON

2004 began terrifically for Mara Santangelo.

At the beginning of the year the tennis-player from Latina lost at the eighth-finals of the Canberra Tournament against her compatriot Silvia Farina (double 6/3), but above all she reached the eighth-finals at the Australian Open after passing three qualifying rounds (6/2 6/1 against Prakusya, 6/2 6/0 against Lisjak and 6/2 6/2 against Nemeckova), beating the Spaniard Serna 6/7 7/5 6/4, the Austrian Schett 7/6 0/6 6/3 and the Greek Danilidou 6/4 5/7 6/3, before yielding to world-ranking number one and eventual winner, Justine Henin Hardenne of Belgium, with a score of 6/1 7/6, having thrown away a set point at 5-4 in her favour.

Thanks to this result she achieved her best ranking on 14th June, rising to 77th position in the world ranking. After two good tournaments fought at Indian Wells (beating Garbin in three sets and then losing to Davenport) and at Key Biscayne (passing two qualifying rounds, beating Sucha and then losing in three sets to her compatriot Farina Elia), a long series of physical problems unfortunately compromised her season: Mara lost at the first round in Rome, Paris, Birmingham, Eastbourne and Wimbledon, achieving a victory only at Stockholm (in the first round against Svensson with a final score of 6/1 6/4).

She was also successful in the first round at Cincinnati (against the French player Beltrame) but then lost at the first round at New Haven, at the US Open, at Hasselt and Tashkent, closing the year with a record of twenty-five victories and twenty-three defeats.

For continually updated and detailed results consult the link below:

http://home17.inet.tele.dk/wta/sp/sant2572.htm

To see the statistics of my matches:

http://home17.inet.tele.dk/wta/sp/sant2572.htm