Born
in Monzón, Huesca, Martínez turned professional
in 1988. In 1992, she was a silver medalist in doubles at
the Olympic Games in Barcelona (partnering Arantxa Sánchez
Vicario) and the runner-up in women's doubles at the French
Open.
In 1993, Martínez became the first
Spanish woman since Lili de Alvarez in 1928
to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, where
she lost to Steffi Graf 7-6, 6-3. Martinez
beat Graf for the first and only time in
her career, at a tournament in Philadelphia.
At the Italian Open, Martinez became the
first Spaniard to win the tournament since
de Alvarez in 1930.
In 1994, Martínez reached the Wimbledon
singles final, where she faced 9-time former
Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova.
Navratilova's last Wimbledon triumph had
come four years earlier, but many observers
felt that the 37 year-old Czech-born American
was the favourite going into the match given
her long track record of success on grass
courts, whereas Martínez's most significant
tournament victories up to that time had
been on slower-playing surfaces, particularly
clay courts. Martínez, however, won
the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
In 1995, Martínez was a semifinalist
at all four Grand Slam tournaments and reached
her career-high singles ranking of World
No. 2.
In 1996, Martínez became the only
player to win the Italian Open singles title
four consecutive years. She also partnered
Sánchez Vicario to claim a women's
doubles Olympic bronze medal in Atlanta,
Georgia.
In 1998, Martínez reached her second
career Grand Slam singles final. She was
defeated in the final of the Australian
Open by Martina Hingis 6-3, 6-3. She also
helped Spain win the Fed Cup that year,
beating Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-3,
2-6, 9-7 in three hours and 19 minutes in
the final.
Martínez reached the final of the
French Open in 2000, where she lost to Mary
Pierce 6-2, 7-5 after beating Sanchez-Vicario
in a semifinal. She also won the German
Open, beating Hingis in a semifinal and
Amanda Coetzer in the final.
In 2001, Martínez was a runner-up
in the women's doubles at the French Open
(partnering Jelena Dokic). Martinez also
reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for
the first time in six years but lost to
Justine Henin of Belgium.
Martínez won her second Olympic
silver medal in the women's doubles in 2004
in Athens, Greece (partnering Virginia Ruano
Pascual).
In 2005, Martínez won her first
singles title in five years at Pattaya,
Thailand, bringing her career total to 33
top-level singles titles, 9 of which were
Tier I events, and 13 doubles titles.
On April 15, 2006, at the age of 33 and after 18 years
of playing professionally, she announced her retirement,
having won more professional singles tournaments than any
other Spanish female tennis player.
