To date, Schiavone is the last one-handed backhand player to win a Grand Slam title on the women's tour.

Schiavone played in the longest ever women's singles match at a Grand Slam tournament, when she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–4, 1–6, 16–14 in the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open women's singles draw, the match lasted 4 hours and 44 minutes and in the process secured her first and only quarterfinal at the Australian Open.

She and her Italian teammates Mara Santangelo, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci beat the Belgian team 3–2 in the 2006 Fed Cup final.

Justine Henin had to retire in the fifth and final match due to an injury in her right knee, which let Italy win their first Fed Cup trophy.

Partnering with Australian Casey Dellacqua, Schiavone was the runner-up in the women's doubles competition at the 2008 French Open where they lost to Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

At the Australian Open, Francesca defeated Frenchwomen Alizé Cornet 0–6, 7–5, 6–0, and Julie Coin 6–3, 6–4 first before upsetting No.

She beat Alberta Brianti, Tathiana Garbin, Carla Suárez Navarro, Yaroslava Shvedova, and Roberta Vinci all in straight sets to win her third WTA title at the Barcelona Ladies Open.

3, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets to become the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles event.

The semifinals of the French Open consisted of four players (Jelena Janković, Elena Dementieva, Samantha Stosur and Schiavone) who had never won a Grand Slam singles event; nevertheless, most in the tennis community, including ESPN's tennis commentary team of Mary Joe Fernández, Patrick McEnroe, and Brad Gilbert singled out Schiavone as the one player who was not a serious contender to win the title.

Because of this previous result, and Stosur's victories over four-time French Open champion Justine Henin, world No.

However, on 5 June 2010, Schiavone defied expectations to become the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating Stosur 6–4, 7–6.

[9] The victory made her only the third Italian player to win a Grand Slam event in singles, after Nicola Pietrangeli and Adriano Panatta.

She also became the oldest woman to win a first Grand Slam title in the Open Era, beating the previous record by Jana Novotná.

Schiavone reached the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup, where she fell to top seed Caroline Wozniacki.

Seeded sixth at the Australian Open, Schiavone advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in her career upon a victory over 23rd-seeded and two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The fourth-round encounter lasted nearly five hours (4:44; 47 games in total), and Schiavone saved six match points before finally prevailing 6–4, 1–6, 16–14.

Schiavone began her clay-court season with a round of 16 loss to Radwańska at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

[11][12] She then switched to the grass courts, falling to Agnieszka Radwańska at the Eastbourne International in her only Wimbledon warmup.

[13] During the Canadian Open, Schiavone won her opening-round match against Ekaterina Makarova but fell in the third round to Lucie Šafářová.

[14] Schiavone struggled whilst representing Italy at Fed Cup versus Ukraine, losing to a non-top-100 player Lesia Tsurenko comprehensively 1–6, 2–6 and barely getting past Kateryna Bondarenko, 6–7, 7–5, 6–4.

At the Indian Wells Open, she (as 10th seed) avenged her Fed Cup loss by beating Lesia Tsurenko, 6–2, 6–4, before retiring against Lucie Šafářová in the third round after losing the first set 6–2.

She represented Italy in Fed Cup semifinals against Czech Republic, losing both of her matches to Lucie Šafářová and to Petra Kvitová.

Schiavone then competed at the Pan Pacific Open where she defeated Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round but then lost to Sam Stosur.

She then suffered three consecutive first-round losses to Li Na at Beijing, to Olga Puchkova at Osaka and to Urszula Radwańska at Moscow.