María Sánchez Lorenzo, the sexy Spanish Selesian, recently announced
her retirement from professional tennis at the age of 28 due to
sciatica (aka low-back injury). :-(

"I decided to end my tennis career at the WTA tour. At this time I
can't run and play tennis. If I ever recover my rankings will be too
low to play in the main draws. After thinking a long time, I decided
to stop and begin something different."

From http://home.planet.nl/~dijkslag.gerrit/
>>>
After she also withdrew from her hometown ITF Barcelona tournament
María decided to stop her tennis career. After 15 years of being a
tennispro María's body doesn't allow her to play anymore. She beat
a lot of high ranked players in those years, but unfortunately she
couldn't beat sciatica.

María is happy now the decision is made. She will bring a lot of
time with her friends and family back in Salamanca and lucky enough
her sciatica doesn't hurt her in daily life.
<<<

I first saw María play (and discovered that she was a Selesian) when
she played Monica Seles in the first round of Wimbledon 1998. Her
backhand was an orthodox two-handed backhand, but for her forehand,
she would switch her hands around to hit what was, in effect, a left-
handed two-handed backhand. In this she differed from Monica and
Marion Bartoli, who play their two-handed forehands cross-handed.

María's only WTA singles-title came at Knokke-Heist 1999, where she
beat Denisa Chládková in the final. Her best-ever Grand Slam was the
Australian Open 1999, where she thrashed Jana Novotná 6-3 6-0 to
reach the fourth round. Her highest-ever singles-ranking was #33 (in
2004).

The last tournament of her career was the US Open 2006, where she
lost in the first round to 24th seed Li,Na 4-6 6-3 6-0.

María finished her career as a member of my demi-fanship, i.e. my
second tier of favourite players:

My Eternal Fanship:
1. Monica Seles
2. Maria Sharapova
3. Daniela Hantuchová
4. Jelena Dokic
5. Iva Majoli (retired)
6. Karina Habšudová (retired)
7. Iroda Tulyaganova
8. Vera Zvonarëva
9. Nicole Vaidišová

My casual demi-fanship:
10. Anna Chakvetadze
11. Tatiana Golovin
12. Maria Kirilenko
13. Sania Mirza
14. Ana Ivanovic
15. Karolina Šprem
16. Gisela Dulko
17. Magdaléna Rybáriková
18. María Sánchez Lorenzo

Unlike my Eternal Fanship, my demi-fanship does /not/ persist after
retirement, so I hereby transfer her to the category known as
"Other nice players (retired)":

María Sánchez Lorenzo
Amanda Coetzer
Anke Huber
Jana Novotná
Dominique van Roost (née Monami)
Magdalena Maleeva
Katerina Maleeva
Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière
Sabine Appelmans
Barbara Schett
Ruxandra Dragomir
Kimiko Date
Elena Makarova
Anne-Gaëlle Sidot
Jana Kandarr
Silvia Farina Elia
Corina Morariu
Lisa McShea
Anousjka van Exel

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/seles/selesians.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selesians/