Born: 23/6/1980 Nationality: Italian Seeded: 29 World ranking: 31 US Open best: 4th round (2002) Recent record: 2002: 4th round 2001: 1st round 2000: 3rd round

Schiavone's counter-attacking game has brought her some success since she broke through at the French Open two years ago.

The Italian defeated world number 13 Amanda Coetzer on her way to the quarter-finals in 2001 but she had a disappointing year in 2002 and dropped 10 ranking places from the previous season.

This year she has set about making improvements once again and she reached the final in Canberra in January and followed that with quarter-finals in Scottsdale and Warsaw.

While clay is her favourite surface, Schiavone is adept on hard courts and made a surprise appearance in the fourth round of the US Open last year.

She has been in good form heading into this year's event, making the semi-finals of the Los Angeles tournament before going out to world number one Kim Clijsters.