Bernarda Pera is a Croatian-American professional tennis player who was born on December 3, 1994, in Zadar, Croatia. At the young age of 16, her family moved to the United States, much to the benefit of her tennis career.
Following a successful youth career, she spent the first years of her professional career at the ITF level, gradually gaining more and more traction in the hope of propelling herself onto the main draw WTA circuit.
She finally started to see the fruits of her labor in 2017 when she made her WTA debut at the Guangzhou Open in China. Despite losing in the first round to sixth seed Alize Cornet, the three-set battle set her up for more success.
The following season, she got her first win at the Grand Slam level when her formidable run at the Australian Open eventually came to an end in the third round when she lost to Barbora Strycova.
As she continued to work on improving her game, she saw more success on the doubles court, reaching the French Open semifinal in 2021. The next season, her endless efforts were finally getting their just rewards. The 2022 Budapest Open proved to be her first WTA title after she beat Aleksandra Krunic in the final.
To round off what proved to be an unforgettable July 2022, she won yet another title at the Hamburg Open just after, proving too strong for Anett Kontaveit in the final. 2022 was also a year that will remain in her memory thanks to her doubles career, as it was when she managed to achieve her career-best ranking of 35 in the world.
Just a year after her stellar performances on the singles court, she reached her career-high ranking of world number 27. A recent dip in form has meant the American has not managed to maintain as high a ranking as she would have hoped for.
