Rossana De Los Rios

• Residence: Asuncion, Paraguay / Miami, USA
• DOB: September 16, 1975
• Birthplace: Asuncion, Paraguay
• Height: 5' 7" (1.70 m)
• Weight: 120 lbs. (54.5 kg)
• Plays: Right-handed (two-handed backhand)

Biography

As of October 13, 2008, Rossana De Los Rios is ranked 92 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. She was born in the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion, and now lives in Miami, USA, with her 10-year-old daughter Ana Paula Neffa de los Rios and her husband Gustavo Neffa, a retired Paraguayan football player who used to play for the Boca Juniors. Rossana achieved a career high singles ranking of No. 51 in September 2001, and has been as high as No. 52 in doubles. She has played doubles with players such as Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

De los Rios was a successful tennis player on the junior tennis circuit. She was the world number one junior in 1992 and won the 1992 Junior French Open, beating Paola Suarez 6–4 6–0 in the final. She turned professional in 1993, but within a year she had retired from professional tennis, citing her new marriage and her desire to raise a family. Five years later, however, Rossana rededicated herself, and made an inspiring run to the fourth round at the 2000 French Open, which was not only impressive for a player who had not played professionally for five years, but also made it through the qualifying rounds and included a win over Amanda Coetzer.

After a series of injuries forced her out of action for some time in 2004 and most of 2005, Rossana found great success in 2006 and her WTA Ranking sky rocketed up over 150 places to just outside the top 200. In the past couple of years, Rossana has re-entered the top 100 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings on a number of occasions, and, as of April 2009, she places at number 96 in the world.

Career History