Virginia Ruano Pascual is a Spanish professional female tennis player. She has won 3 career singles titles and 40 doubles titles, including 9 Grand Slam titles (8 partnering Paola Suarez of Argentina, 1 partnering Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain). Virginia and Paola reached nine consecutive Grand Slam finals (won 5, lost 4) and they reached at least the semi-finals of the last 12 Grand Slam tournaments they played in.
Background
Her father, Juan Manuel, works for Iberia Airlines; her mother, Virginia, is a housewife. Her brother, Juan Ramon, is a tennis pro at a club and also serves as her coach and her sister, Marbella, works in administration. Initially, she hyphenated her family names, but she has omitted the hyphen since 1998.
Career
1989 - Played first events of career on ITF Circuit. 1990 - Played first Tour main draw at Estoril, falling 1r; fell in Tour qualifying
three times; won two doubles titles on ITF Circuit. 1991 - QF at Sao Paulo; fell 1r once and in Tour qualifying once; won four doubles titles on ITF Circuit.1992 - Reached 2r once; fell 1r three times (incl. Grand Slam main draw debut at US Open) and in Tour qualifying four times (incl. Roland Garros); won one singles title and three doubles titles on ITF Circuit. 1993 - QF twice, at Liege and Kitzbuhel; reached 2r twice; fell 1r six times (incl. US Open) and in Tour qualifying twice (incl. Roland Garros). 1994 - Fell 1r five times (incl. Australian Open, Roland Garros) and in Tour qualifying five times. 1995 - First Top 100 season; reached first Grand Slam QF at Roland Garros (l. to Martinez); reached 3r once and 2r five times; fell 1r seven times (incl. Wimbledon, US Open); made Top 100 debut on May 8 (at No.98); won one singles title and one doubles title on ITF Circuit; played w/Suarez for first time at Toronto (l. 1r). 1996 - QF at Hobart; reached 3r once and 2r five times (incl. Olympics); fell 1r nine times (incl. all four majors; played all four in same season for first time); won one singles title on ITF Circuit; played one more match w/Suarez, falling 1r at ITF Circuit event. 1997 - Won first Tour singles title at Cardiff (d. Dechaume-Balleret in final); SF at Warsaw (l. to Paulus); QF twice, at Madrid and Palermo; reached 3r once (Roland
Garros) and 2r four times (incl. Australian Open, Wimbledon); fell 1r twice (incl. US Open) and in Tour qualifying five times; played seven of 13 Tour doubles events w/Suarez. 1998 - Won second Tour singles title at Budapest (d. Farina Elia in final); QF at Hamburg; reached 4r once (Wimbledon; S.Williams ret. during 3r match, then l. to V.Williams in 4r), 3r three times (incl. Roland Garros, US Open) and 2r six times (incl. Australian Open); fell 1r five times; played 10 of 14 Tour doubles
events w/Suarez, winning three titles. 1999 - QF at Hobart; reached 3r three times (incl. US Open) and 2r five times (incl.
Australian Open); fell 1r seven times (incl. Roland Garros, Wimbledon) and in Tour qualifying twice; played 10 of 17 Tour doubles events w/Suarez, winning one title. 2000 - SF at Madrid (l. to Leon Garcia); reached 2r five times (incl. US Open); fell
1r twice (incl. Australian Open) and in Tour qualifying seven times; competed at Roland Garros and Wimbledon only in doubles; played 14 of 16 Tour doubles events w/Suarez, winning two titles (and reaching first Grand Slam final at
Roland Garros); played first Tour Championships w/Suarez (l. first match). 2001 - QF at Antwerp; reached 3r twice (Australian Open, US Open) and 2r seven times (incl. Roland Garros, Wimbledon); fell 1r eight times; notched stunning upset
of world No.1 Hingis in Wimbledon 1r (was third time in Wimbledon seeding history that top seed lost 1r, after Graf in 1994 and Hingis in 1999); played 13 of 19 Tour doubles events w/Suarez, winning two titles (incl. first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros); played second Tour Championships w/Suarez (ret. vs. Raymond/Stubbs w/Suarez's ankle injury); won two titles with other partners; also won first (and so far only) Grand Slam mixed doubles title at Roland Garros (w/Carbonell); won one singles title on ITF Circuit. 2002 - SF at Brussels (l. to Casanova); QF three times, at Warsaw, Rome and Sopot;
reached 3r once and 2r seven times (incl. Roland Garros, Wimbledon); fell 1r nine times (incl. other two majors) and in Tour qualifying once; played 19 of 21 Tour doubles events w/Suarez, winning seven titles (incl. two more Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and US Open); played third Tour Championships w/Suarez (l. first match); won one title with other partners. 2003 - Won third Tour singles title at Tashkent (d. Obata in final); QF at Australian Open (second Grand Slam QF; l. to Henin); reached 3r twice and 2r six times; fell 1r eight times (incl. other three majors); another stellar year in doubles, playing 17 of 18 events w/Suarez, winning five titles (incl. fourth Grand Slam title at US Open and Tour Championships; also runners-up at other three Grand Slams); on September 8, overtook Suarez to become new doubles No.1 for one week (Sugiyama would take over on September 15). 2004 - QF at Hasselt; reached 3r twice (Roland Garros, Wimbledon) and 2r six times
(incl. other two majors); fell 1r seven times and in Tour qualifying five times; another great year in doubles, playing 16 of 19 events w/Suarez, winning six titles (incl. fifth, sixth and seventh Grand Slam titles at Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open); played fifth Tour Championships w/Suarez (l. first match); on July 26, overtook Suarez to return to No.1, holding it for 64 straight weeks (was co-ranked No.1 w/Suarez for three of those weeks); would lose top spot to Black on October 15, 2005; Roland Garros was ninth straight major final for the team (unmatched since Navratilova/Shriver reached 11 straight between 1983 Wimbledon and 1985 Australian Open). 2005 - SF at Pattaya City (l. to Groenefeld); reached 2r seven times (incl. Roland Garros); fell 1r 10 times (incl. other three majors) and in Tour qualifying four times; won five doubles titles, three w/Suarez (incl. eighth Grand Slam title together at Roland Garros) and two w/Martinez; qualified for sixth straight Tour Championships w/Martinez (first time without Suarez; l. first match); Suarez missed all post-Roland Garros events w/hip injury. 2006 - SF at Seoul (l. to Sugiyama); QF at Amelia Island; reached 4r once (Australian Open), 3r once and 2r four times (incl. Wimbledon, US Open); fell 1r five times (incl. Roland Garros) and in Tour qualifying twice; won three Tour doubles
titles (all w/Suarez; team tally reached 32) but highlight was reaching Wimbledon final (w/Suarez, l. to Yan/Zheng; now 8-6 lifetime in Grand Slam doubles finals, 0-3 at Wimbledon - would have been sixth team in Tour history to complete career doubles Grand Slam, having already won others at least once each). 2007 - QF at Guangzhou; reached 3r once (Wimbledon) and 2r seven times (incl. Australian Open); fell 1r five times (incl. US Open) and in Tour qualifying four times (incl. Roland Garros); won one Tour doubles title (w/Medina Garrigues); played w/Suarez at Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami (went
2-3), their last three events together (Suarez retired from Tour after US Open). 2008 - QF at Stockholm; reached 3r once (Australian Open) and 2r five times (incl. Wimbledon, US Open); fell 1r five times (incl. Roland Garros) and in Tour
qualifying three times; stellar doubles season, playing mostly w/Medina Garrigues - won 39th through 41st Tour doubles titles, incl. Roland Garros (d. Dellacqua/Schiavone in final; was ninth Grand Slam doubles title and first without Suarez); also won Olympic silver medal (w/Medina Garrigues; l. to Williams/Williams in final); year-end rankings were No.105 in singles and No.5 in doubles; surpassed $5 million in career prize money (third Spanish woman, after Sanchez-Vicario and Martinez). 2009 - Ninth Top 10 doubles season, highlighted by 10th Grand Slam doubles title at Roland Garros (as No.3 seeds and defending champions w/Medina Garrigues, d. top seeds Black/Huber in SF and No.12 seeds Azarenka/Vesnina in final); runner-up once, at Marbella (w/Medina Garrigues; l. to Jans/Rosolska in final); ended season at No.10 in doubles (previous Top 10 finishes were 2000-2006 and 2008); best singles results were three 2r finishes, at Australian Open (l. to No.11
seed Wozniacki), Marbella (l. to No.4 seed Medina Garrigues) and Roland Garros (l. to No.2 seed S.Williams); fell 1r twice and in Tour qualifying six times (incl. US Open).