Opening Serves
Shaughnessy made her debut on the WTA Tour in 1996 at a tournament in Budapest, and broke into the top 100 in 1998. In 2000, Shaughnessy won her first WTA singles title at Beijing, defeating Iroda Tulyaganova in the final, and breaking into the top fifty. In her breakout year of 2001, Shaughnessy achieved a career-high singles ranking of #11, won the second singles title of her career at Quebec City, and reached the finals of Hamburg and her home tournament in Scottsdale. She also recorded wins over world number five Conchita Martínez, world number four Monica Seles, and world number two Venus Williams.
In 2002, Shaughnessy began the season by reaching the final of Sydney, and recaptured her career-high #11 ranking. She also reached the quarterfinals or better of four other tournaments that year, with wins over top five players Jelena Dokić and Serena Williams. In 2003, Shaughnessy had another excellent year, featuring the second year end top twenty finish of her career. Shaughnessy captured her third career singles title in Canberra, and also had strong Grand Slam results, reaching her first career Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, and reaching the Round of 16 at both the US Open and Australian Open. Shaughnessy also scored an upset over world number two Venus Williams in the Round of 16 of the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami. In 2004, Shaughnessy produced sub-par results, finishing just inside of the top 40, with only one top five win, over Anastasia Myskina in Dubai. However, in 2004 Shaughnessy produced the best doubles results of her career, winning seven tournaments with partner Nadia Petrova, including the WTA Year End Championships in Los Angeles. This doubles partnership is now over as Petrova is looking for a new partner for 2006.
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