Rossana de los Ríos

Rossana Neffa de los Rios (born 16 September 1975) is a former tennis player from Paraguay. She was born in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, and now resides in Miami, Florida, with her daughter Ana Paula Neffa de los Ríos, who is also a professional tennis player, and her husband Gustavo Neffa, a retired Paraguayan Association football player who played for Boca Juniors. De los Ríos achieved career-high WTA rankings of No. 51 in singles and 52 in doubles. She played doubles with Grand Slam champions such as Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, as well as Jelena Janković and Dinara Safina. She is also a former world-number-one junior player, having won the 1992 Roland Garros Juniors event.

Career 1989–1994 As a 14-year-old, de los Ríos played just three matches, and won the first match of her career on the ITF Circuit in São Paulo. In 1990, she played twelve matches, winning six of them. In May 1991, she won her first ever ITF title, in Francaville, and the next month lost the final in Modena. In September, she won her second ITF title, in Lima, without dropping a set; her win–loss record for the year was 40–18. The following year, she won her third title, in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in October, where she beat Silvia Farina Elia. The following week she reached the final in Asunción, and then the final in Mildura. Her win–loss record for the year was 34–19. As well as being the world number-one junior in 1992 and winning the 1992 Junior French Open, beating Paola Suárez 6–4, 6–0 in the final.

At the 1992 Summer Olympics, she would meet her future partner, Gustavo Neffa, who was at the tournament representing the Paraguay national under-23 football team whilst they were representing Paraguay's tennis team.

In 1993, she made the final in Caserta in June as she turned professional. As the world number 118, she caused a big upset at the Puerto Rican Open by defeating top seed and world No. 30, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy in the first round, finishing the year with 20 wins and 18 losses. In 1994, she only played until April, and won only two of ten matches, before retiring to start a family.

1995–1999 De los Ríos married Gustavo Neffa in 1994, and gave birth to Ana-Paula on January 17, 1997. With the marriage, she suspended her career until 1999-2000 when she returned to the WTA Tour in June 1999, after a five-year absence. At the Games, she defeated Květa Peschke 6–3, 6–0 in the first round and Lindsay Davenport w/o. Jelena Dokić defeated them in the third round. De los Ríos finished the year with her return to the ITF circuit which saw them win 12 of her next 17 matches, including the finals at Miramar and Pittsburgh. In 2000, she won 45 matches and lost 21.

2001 Did not win two matches back-to-back until Madrid in May. In the first round, she defeated Cristina Torrens Valero 6–1, 6–0, and then recorded her greatest victory to date, with a three-set win over world No. 6 (at the time), Monica Seles. The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Sport: She was defeated in the quarterfinals, however. At the French Open in June, Rossana defeated Elena Likhovtseva in the opening round before losing a tight match in the second round to Petra Mandula. She then lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Jelena Dokić. In Knokke-Heist (Tier IV) in July, Rossana defeated world No. 20 (at the time) Silvia Farina Elia 6–3, 6–1 and reached the quarterfinals. Two months later, Rossana recorded her best WTA Tour appearance to date, advancing to the semifinals of Salvador, Bahia (Tier II) including another win over Silvia Farina Elia. Second seed Jelena Dokić put them run to an end. She finished the year with another semifinal in Pattaya City (Tier V), losing to Patty Schnyder in three sets. Her win–loss record finished at 25–28.

On 12 November 2001, she ranked 51.

2002 Advanced to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time in January. Reached the quarterfinals of Bogotá in February. Won just three of her next 13 matches until the French Open in June, where she recorded a third-round appearance but fell to Elena Dementieva. Advanced to the second round of Wimbledon but was defeated at the hands of Monica Seles. In September, Rossana reached the quarterfinals of Bali (Tier III) by upsetting top seed Tamarine Tanasugarn. She was then defeated by Conchita Martínez in straight sets. In Bratislava (Tier V), Rossana stunned Francesca Schiavone in straight sets and reached the quarterfinals. She led Slovenian Maja Matevžič 6–1, 5–2 but bowed out 6–1, 5–7, 1–6. She won 21 matches in total during the year, and lost 30.

2003 Rossana had a disappointing 2003 season. She did not reach the quarterfinals or better in any WTA Tour tournament, but on the ITF Circuit she did manage to advance to the semifinals of Troy in October. She lost in the opening rounds of the Australian Open and the French Open, and was defeated 6–0, 6–0 by Kim Clijsters in the first round at Wimbledon. She won 29 matches (18 of which were in qualifying) and lost 29 matches. In 2003, de los Ríos ranked 52 in doubles.

2004–2005 and injuries In 2004, Rossana did not compete in any WTA or ITF tournament until May due to injury. She won two matches in qualifying for the French Open in just her second tournament of the year, but lost in the final round. The following week she made the semifinals of Allentown on the ITF Circuit, as well as the final of College Park in July. She lost in the first round of qualification at the US Open in September, but rebounded with a semifinal at Ashburn on the ITF Circuit and more impressively, qualified for Philadelphia (Tier II) and reached the second round before being defeated by Anastasia Myskina. She won 19 matches during the year and lost a total of 13.

Things began well for Rossana in 2005, starting with a semifinal appearance in Waikoloa. However, a knee injury kept them out of play from February to October. Upon them return to the ITF Circuit, Rossana had fallen over 100 positions on the WTA rankings- from No. 186 to 289. In her return tournament, she impressively reached the semifinals of Pelham, Alabama. In October, she reached the quarterfinals of San Francisco. She won nine matches out of 16 for the year.

2006 Was Rossana's second most successful year on the WTA Tour. Although she won just five of her first nine matches, it was Indian Harbour Beach in May which saw Rossana reach her first ITF final since College Park in 2004. Ranked as low as No. 452, she came through in qualifying, winning seven consecutive matches en route to the final. She was defeated by Edina Gallovits despite Rossana leading 5–0 in the final set and having six match points. Despite the loss, next week Rossana went on to reach the final in Palm Beach Gardens, beating the eighth, fourth and second seeds, respectively, before losing in the final. In July, she qualified for Cincinnati (Tier III) but lost to world No. 26 (at the time) Katarina Srebotnik, after serving for the set at 5–3 in the second set. She reached the quarterfinals in Lexington, Kentucky later in the month, but lost to Stéphanie Dubois, despite leading 4–2 in the final set. She fell in the first round qualifying of the US Open to Erika Takao, in what was her first Grand Slam qualifying match in two years.

In November, she recorded her worst loss of the year in qualifying for Pittsburgh, but reversed it the next week with an impressive win over sixth seed Aleksandra Wozniak, to record her best win of the year. She went on to reach the semifinals. Two weeks later in December, de los Ríos claimed her first ITF title since 1999, winning the Santaluz Club Open tournament in San Diego, United States, She won a match in qualifying at the Sydney Medibank International. At the Australian Open, she was defeated 6–3 and 6–2 by Kirsten Flipkens on 19 January. She represented Paraguay in the Federation Cup two weeks later, where Paraguay lost 0–3 to Puerto Rico and 0–3 to Brazil, but defeated Uruguay 3–0 and Mexico 2–0 to secure Paraguay's position in the Americas Zone I for 2009. In February, Rossana played her first WTA Tour main-draw match for the year in Viña del Mar. She defeated Carla Suarez Navarro, which marked her first WTA main-draw victory since Philadelphia in 2004. She also reached the second round in Bogotá and Miami, which resulted in her breaking back inside the top 100 for the first time since 2003. Rossana then reached the final of $25k Pelham, Alabama and in May she qualified for Strasbourg, winning three qualifying matches. She competed in Roland Garros and for the first time in 19 Grand Slam events, Rossana's ranking was high enough for her to directly enter the main draw.

2010 At the 2010 Australian Open, de los Ríos was eliminated in the first round by Marion Bartoli. In the 2010 Roland Garros, she was defeated 4–6, 6–1 and 6–0 by Samantha Stosur. She has not played in any WTA or ITF tournaments since the 2010 US Open.

WTA Tour finals Doubles: 2 (runner-ups) Winner – LegendGrand Slam Tier I Tier II (0–1)Tier III, IV & V (0–1)

ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 0–1 May 2002 Madrid Open, Spain Clay Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Martina Navratilova Natasha Zvereva 2–6, 3–6Loss 0–2 Sep 2002 Brasil Open, Brazil Hard Émilie Loit Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez 4–6, 1–6

ITF finals Legend$75,000 tournaments$50,000 tournaments$25,000 tournaments$10,000 tournaments

Singles (11–14) ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponent ScoreWin 1. 13 May 1991 Francavilla, Italy Clay Ginevra Mugnaini 6–3, 7–5Loss 1. 17 June 1991 Modena, Italy Clay Sybille Niox-Château 0–6, 1–6Win 2. 23 September 1991 Lima, Peru Clay Larissa Schaerer 6–3, 6–1Win 3. 28 September 1992 Santa Maria, Italy Clay Marzia Grossi 6–4, 6–0Loss 2. 26 October 1992 Asunción, Paraguay Clay Larissa Schaerer 5–7, 1–6Loss 3. 30 November 1992 Mildura, Australia Hard Tessa Price 3–6, 3–6Loss 4. 7 June 1993 Caserta, Italy Clay Sarah Pitkowski-Malcor 5–7, 3–6Win 4. 30 August 1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Melisa Arévalo 6–0, 6–2Loss 5. 10 April 2000 La Cañada, United States Clay Yi Jingqian 6–3, 5–7, 3–6 Loss 6. 1 May 2000 Virginia Beach, United States Clay Marie-Ève Pelletier 6–7(5–7), 2–6Loss 7. 9 October 2000 Miramar, United States Clay Alina Jidkova 6–1, 6–7(2–7), 2–6Loss 8. 6 November 2000 Pittsburgh, United States Hard Sandra Cacic 5–7, 6–1, 2–6 Loss 9. 11 July 2004 College Park, United States Hard Olga Puchkova 5–7, 6–4, 2–6 Loss 10. 6 May 2006 Indian Harbour Beach, United States Clay Edina Gallovits-Hall 6–3, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(0–7) Loss 11. 16 May 2006 Palm Beach, United States Clay Jorgelina Cravero 2–6, 4–6Win 5. 29 November 2006 San Diego, United States Hard Ivana Abramović 6–0, 6–2Win 6. 8 May 2007 Palm Beach, United States Clay Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 7–5, 6–4Win 7. 3 September 2007 Save Cup, Italy Clay Alisa Kleybanova 6–4, 3–6, 6–1 Win 8. 17 September 2007 Albuquerque, United States Hard Maret Ani 7–6(8–6), 1–6, 6–2 Loss 12. 31 March 2008 Pelham, United States Clay Raquel Kops-Jones 3–6, 4–6Loss 13. 15 September 2008 Albuquerque, United States Hard Julie Ditty 4–6, 6–7(3–7) Loss 14. 3 February 3009 Cali, Colombia Clay Anastasia Yakimova 3–6, 0–6Win 9. 30 March 2009 Pelham, United States Clay Jorgelina Cravero 6–4, 6–1Win 10. 1 November 2009 Bayamón, Puerto Rico Hard Mirjana Lučić 6–3, 6–4Win 11. 6 December 2009 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Paula Ormaechea 7–5, 6–1

Doubles (7–3) ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponents ScoreWin 1. 26 August 1991 São Paulo, Brazil Clay Larissa Schaerer 6–4, 6–4Win 2. 23 September 1991 Lima, Peru Clay Larissa Schaerer 6–2, 6–3Win 3. 30 September 1991 La Paz, Bolivia Clay Larissa Schaerer 6–3, 7–5Win 4. 30 August 1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Geraldine Aizenberg 7–5, 6–1Win 5. 19 September 1999 Asunción, Paraguay Hard Larissa Schaerer Mariana Mesa Aliénor Tricerri 6–2, 6–3Win 6. 14 November 1999 Monterrey, Mexico Hard Mariana Díaz Oliva Alice Canepa Clarisa Fernandez 4–6, 7–6(6), 6–3Loss 1. 15 October 2000 Miramar, United States Clay Samantha Reeves Liezel Huber Lisa McShea 3–5, 1–4, 1–4Loss 2. 19 October 2003 Sedona, United States Clay Alina Jidkova Yan Zi Zheng Jie 6–7(2), 6–7(3)Loss 3. 10 June 2007 Zubr Cup, Czech Republic Clay Edina Gallovits Lucie Hradecká Renata Voráčová 7–5, 3–6, 2–6Win 7. 19 November 2007 Mexico City, Mexico Hard Surina De Beer Daniela Múñoz Gallegos Valeria Pulido 6–3, 6–1

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Personal life She was known for trading her fame for love, when she married Paraguayan footballer Gustavo Neffa.