Beatriz Haddad Maia

Beatriz Haddad Maia is one of the most accomplished Brazilian female professional tennis players ever.

Beatriz Haddad Maia was born on May 30, 1996, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to her father, Ayrton Elias Maia Filho, and her mother, Lais Scaff Haddad, who was a successful tennis player in Brazil. Her grandmother, Arlette Scaff Haddad, also played tennis successfully in Brazil.

Haddad Maia peaked at No. 15 in the rankings during her junior career. She had a lot of success in doubles, particularly as a junior. This included being the runner-up in the junior doubles at the French Open in 2012 and 2013 and a semifinalist in the junior doubles at Wimbledon in 2011.

The Brazilian played a small number of WTA matches from 2013-2016 and finished 2016 ranked just outside the Top 200. Her breakthrough came in 2017. She made the final at the WTA 250 event in Korea, narrowly losing to Jelena Ostapenko, and finished the season inside the Top 100.

Life then became very complicated for Haddad Maia. After an injury-hit 2018 season, she was provisionally suspended on July 23, 2019, after testing positive for metabolites of two selective androgen receptor modulator substances.

Although the International Tennis Federation acknowledged that Haddad Maia bore no significant fault for the violation, she still received a 10-month suspension, backdated to when the provisional suspension was given.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she did not return until September 2020. Haddad Maia competed on the ITF Tour in late 2020 and throughout most of 2021 after the drop in her ranking. She recovered extremely impressively to win nine ITF events, which allowed her to climb the rankings and end the year inside the Top 100.

A terrific 2022 season followed for Haddad Maia. She claimed her first two WTA titles in June. These both came on the grass at the Nottingham Open and the Birmingham Classic, beating Alison Riske and Shuai Zhang, respectively.

The Brazilian also reached her first WTA 1000 final at the Canadian Open in Toronto in 2022. After beating Martina Trevisan and Leylah Fernandez, she stunningly defeated Iga Swiatek 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to progress to the quarterfinal. Further victories against Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova took her to the final, but Simona Halep then proved to be one hurdle too many.

There were two big moments for Haddad Maia in 2023. The first was a maiden Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open. She achieved this with four consecutive triumphs in a third set, showing her mental and physical strength.

The eventual champion, Swiatek, beat her in the semifinal. Haddad Maia then ended 2023 by winning the title at the WTA Elite Trophy. She did not drop a set throughout the tournament in triumphs against Madison Keys, Caroline Garcia, Daria Kasatkina in the semifinal, and Zheng Qinwen in the final.