María Emilia Salerni

María Emilia Salerni was an Argentine tennis player who played professionally from 1999 to 2009. Salerni achieved a career-best singles ranking of #65 in the world in February 2008 and a doubles ranking of #45 in the world in September 2002. As a junior player she had a strong start to her career, winning the girls’ doubles title at the 1999 US Open with compatriot Gisela Dulko. The following year Salerni won the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon and the US Open, along with the girls’ doubles title at Wimbledon with the Czech player Dája Bedáňová. As a result she was named the ITF Junior World Champion in 2000.

As a professional Salerni won 12 singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. Despite her success, she never won a WTA singles title, with a best result of finishing as the runner-up at the 2008 Copa Colsanitas in Colombia. She did win two WTA doubles titles, however, the first with Gisela Dulko at the 2003 Morocco Open, followed with victory at the 2004 Tournoi de Québec with American Carly Gullickson. In 2000 Salerni played in the singles at the Sydney Olympics, beating Natasha Zverava in the first round, before losing to Sabine Appelmans.