Sara Errani

Sara Errani (Italian: [ˈsaːra erˈraːni]; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. Errani is one of only seven women who have completed a career Golden Slam in doubles. She is an Olympic Games gold medalist, a former doubles world No. 1, achieved on 10 September 2012, major champion in doubles and mixed doubles, and a finalist in singles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 on 20 May 2013. With 9 singles and 39 doubles and mixed titles (including 9 majors, 9 WTA 1000 titles, and an Olympic gold medal), she is the Italian tennis player with the highest number of career titles.

In doubles, she entered the top 10 on 11 June 2012, remaining there for 94 straight weeks and was the year-end number-one doubles player in both 2013 and 2014, and has held the top ranking for a combined total of 87 weeks.

Errani's breakthrough season occurred in 2012. At the Australian Open, she reached the quarterfinals in singles (the first time she advanced past the third round in a Grand Slam singles draw) and was a finalist in doubles. Known as a clay-court specialist,^[3][4] Errani won three titles on clay going into the 2012 French Open, where she reached the finals in both the singles (becoming the second Italian woman to ever reach a Grand Slam singles final, with Francesca Schiavone being the first at the 2010 French Open) and doubles tournaments, winning the doubles title with her partner Roberta Vinci.^[5] They also won the doubles titles at the 2012 US Open, and the 2013 and 2014 Australian Open. By winning the 2014 Wimbledon Women's Doubles title, Errani and Vinci became only the fifth pair in tennis history to complete a Career Grand Slam.^[6] She became the seventh player in the Open Era to achieve a Golden Slam, winning the Olympics with Jasmine Paolini. She won three times the WTA Awards as best doubles team with Vinci and once in 2024 with Paolini.

Her achievement in reaching the 2012 US Open singles semifinals leaves Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam tournament in which Errani has yet to make the quarterfinals in singles. She also made the semifinals at the 2013 French Open, the quarterfinals at the 2014 French Open, 2014 US Open, and 2015 French Open, and qualified to the WTA Finals twice in 2012 and 2013. In 2017, Errani was banned from playing for ten months due to a failed drug test.^[7] At the 2024 Summer Olympics, she was the only player along with fellow countryman Andrea Vavassori to qualify and play at the same time in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Her partnership with Vavassori has proven successful, they taking mixed doubles major titles at 2024 US Open and 2025 French Open at their first participations.