Born: 16/4/72 Nationality: Spanish Seeded: 22 World ranking: 24 Wimbledon best: Champion (1994) Recent record: 2003: 3rd round 2002: 3rd round 2001: Quarter-finals

A former world number two and Wimbledon champion 10 years ago, there was every reason to think Martinez was heading for retirement until last year.

The days in the 1990s when she was a Grand Slam contender seemed long gone and her last title came in 2000.

But she had something of a revival last season that saw her ranked as high as 12 going into the US Open.

Martinez's slow-paced baseline game based on looping groundstrokes has generally looked out of touch compared with the aggression of the Williams sisters and the Belgian pair of Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters.

But experience counts, and Martinez used all hers to earn some notable results on her favoured clay and in the grass-court season.

And that has continued in 2004 as she has been a regular in the latter stages of tournaments, where it has usually been only the very best in the game that have been able to stop her.