From Doping Ban To Top 10: Who Is Beatriz Haddad Maia
WTA
Beatriz Haddad Maia will break into the Top 10 in singles on the WTA Tour for the first time in her career.
The Brazilian player was born in Sao Paulo in 1996. Haddad Maia grew up in a family of Lebanese descent, and her mother and grandmother were both tennis players in Brazil.
Haddad Maia began her professional tennis career in 2014, and she was relatively successful during her junior days. The Brazilian player reached the girls' doubles final at the Roland Garros two times.
But her career took an unexpected twist in 2019. Haddad Maia received a ten-month ban from tennis after testing positive for the anabolic steroids SARM S-22 and SARM LGD-4033.
Haddad Maia started her climb up the WTA Rankings after returning to the tennis courts. She proved her qualities by reaching the semi-finals of the 2023 Roland Garros. Thanks to that result, she secured her debut in the Top 10.
During her run at the Roland Garros, the Brazilian player also spoke about how injuries stopped her progress. That, however, seemed to be inevitable.
"Well, I think four surgeries are not easy, yeah, to come back. I had tough moments in my career. Also a part of the surgeries I had two bones that I broke in the back and the shoulder that I had to stop again."
"So for the body I had to stop six or seven times in my career for months and starting again. Also, I was one year out from the tour, so it's not easy to keep the level and improve the tennis when we are always, like, coming back."
Haddad Maia also explained how challenging it was for her to start again. She had to build her way up, and playing many lower-tier tournaments was difficult for many reasons, but it also helped her.
"Also, the level that you play. When you play futures and challenger tournaments, you have different level of tennis as well, so you need to build your mentality, your tennis. I was, yeah, consolidating myself in these levels, and I had to fight a lot to be here, to build my game."
"Also, I think my team works very hard, and they are young people who dreams the same thing as me. So I think that's why we are now having our best moments."
