Harriet Dart is a British professional tennis player who was born on July 28, 1996, in Hampstead, United Kingdom. Starting tennis at age 7, Dart showed promise early, getting whisked into the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) setup from an early age.
A regular member of the ITF Tour since 2013, Dart was ready to make her WTA Tour debut in 2015 at the Eastbourne International. In those early days, it became customary that Dart made appearances at the British grass tournaments, with her profiting off wildcards to make inroads in the rankings.
Despite losing in the first round, it was a step in the right direction for a promising young talent. It was not an immediate move to the WTA Tour that greeted Dart after her debut but rather a continued grind to reach where she wanted to be.
In 2018 she made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, coming up against seventh seed Karolina Pliskova. It was a tough test, but the plucky Brit managed to take a set off the seasoned pro. This gave her a desire for more, with her going into next season’s SW19 Championships determined to get that elusive first win.
Her wish was granted, with her seeing off Christina McHale in the first round, before going on to beat Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second. Her magical run, which had captured the nation’s hearts, was ended by the number-one seed, Ashleigh Barty.
This did the opposite of disheartening the youngster though, with her going on to reach the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon in 2021, all the while progressing on the singles tour, by now a valued WTA member. For the first time in her career, she reached the fourth round of a WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells in 2022 before going on to break into the world's Top 85 in July of the same season.
She pushed on from there, reaching two consecutive WTA quarterfinals in 2023, at the Nottingham Open and Birmingham Classic. Fast-forward to the 2024 season and Dart continued the progress. She reached her first WTA semifinal at the 2024 Transylvania Open, losing out only to eventual winner Karolina Pliskova.
