The 21st century
Italy · born Bologna, 1987 · Wimbledon doubles champion 2014 with Roberta Vinci, completing a career Grand Slam, and Olympic doubles champion 2024
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2014
Wimbledon ladies' doubles title with Roberta Vinci
5th
Pair to complete a career Grand Slam in women's doubles
1st
Italian women, with Vinci, to win a Wimbledon title
56
Minutes for the 2014 final, won 6-1, 6-3
2
Rosmalen doubles titles, 2009 and 2012
Sara Errani was born in Bologna on 29 April 1987, the daughter of a greengrocer and a pharmacist. At 12 she went to the Nick Bollettieri academy in Florida, and at 16 moved to Valencia to train. Only 1.64 metres tall, she built a game on retrieving, tactics and touch, and was best on clay.
Her great season was 2012: she reached the French Open singles final and won the French Open and US Open doubles with Roberta Vinci. The pair added the Australian Open in 2013 and 2014 and Wimbledon in 2014 to complete a career Grand Slam. In singles she reached No. 5 in 2013.
In 2017 she tested positive for letrozole. The ITF tribunal, and later the Court of Arbitration for Sport, accepted that it came from her mother's medication, which had found its way into a family meal; she was banned for two months, and in 2018 the CAS extended the ban to ten months. She rebuilt her career, and with Jasmine Paolini won the Olympic doubles gold in Paris in 2024 and the French Open doubles in 2025, completing a career Golden Slam in doubles.
| Wimbledon final 2014 | With Vinci, seeded second, beat Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, seeded 14th, 6-1, 6-3 in 56 minutes under the closed roof |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2014, second round | With Vinci beat Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 after facing five match points in the second-set tie-break, won 12-10 |
| Wimbledon singles 2012 | Lost in the third round to Yaroslava Shvedova, who won the first set without losing a point, the only golden set at a major in the Open Era |
| Rosmalen doubles | Won with Flavia Pennetta in 2009 and with Roberta Vinci in 2012 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Women's doubles | with Roberta Vinci |
| 's-Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen) | ||
| 2009 | Women's doubles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | with Flavia Pennetta |
| 2012 | Women's doubles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | with Roberta Vinci |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I thought about it all day. Even on court, during the match, I thought about it. It's something historic."
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon, 2012
In the third round of the 2012 singles Yaroslava Shvedova won the first set against Errani without conceding a point, 24 in a row. The only other known golden set at Wimbledon was played by Lottie Dod in 1891.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)Wimbledon, 2012
Earlier that year her first-round match against Coco Vandeweghe was stopped by rain with Errani leading 6-1, 5-3 and advantage. When it resumed the next afternoon Vandeweghe double-faulted, and the match was over in two minutes.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)Wimbledon, 2014
"I don't think I ever was as tense as I was today. Not even singles," Errani said after the final. She and Vinci fell to the ground and hugged at the end, then finished each other's sentences in the press conference.
Source: Associated Press, July 2014Rome, 2023
At 36 she asked her coach what would happen if the Errani of ten years earlier played her current self. "He said, 'Easy for you of 10 years ago!'" she recalled, laughing.
Source: WTA, May 2023Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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