Rebecca Peterson (born 6 August 1995) is a Swedish professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 43 in singles and world No. 87 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Peterson has reached three singles finals on the WTA Tour, winning two of them. She has also reached one WTA Tour doubles final in 2015, in which she also succeeded to win the title. She also owns a doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. On the ITF Women's Circuit, she won twelve singles and six doubles titles.
She had her breakthrough into the top 100 in May 2018, so she could play in main draw at most of the WTA Tour tournaments. She got most recognition in 2019, when she won two singles titles and also made her first top-ten win, against Sloane Stephens at the Washington Open. Also, in 2019, she entered top 50 for the first time. She made her Grand Slam debut at the 2017 US Open where she lost in the first round to Denisa Allertová. Among other players, Rebecca is most famous for her aggressive style of play, and she loves to force her forehand. During the 2018 season, she and Johanna Larsson took turns for the Swedish No. 1 in the WTA rankings.[1][2] After Larsson's retirement in February 2020, Peterson was left as the only Swede inside the top 100 of the WTA rankings.
Early life and background
Rebecca Peterson was born to a Swedish mother, Annelie, and an Estonian father, Mart, in Stockholm. She has one sister, Berit.[3] Her father is her current tennis coach, together with Bosse Ericsson. Rebecca prefers aggressive game style, and likes to control the game with her forehand. While growing up she enjoyed watching Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.[4][5]
Junior career
Peterson began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit at age 13. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 24 as a junior, and won one singles title and four doubles titles, winning all of them in 2010. In singles, her first tournament was Salk Open in January 2009, where she also got her first win, but then lost in the second round.[6] In doubles, her first tournament was the Estonian Junior Open, held in June 2009, where she again lost in the first round. At the same tournament, she reached quarterfinals in singles.[7]
In 2010, she played her first doubles final at the Salk Open, and also won the title.[8] In May 2010, she played in the semifinals of Tennis Sweden Junior Cup in singles, whilst in doubles she won title.[9] In October 2010, she won the Mian-Chang Cup International Junior Championships, her first junior singles title. There, she also won title in doubles.[10]
In June 2012, she played her first junior major event, at the French Open, where in singles, after passing qualifying, she reached the third round, while in doubles she lost in the second round.[11] In Wimbledon and the US Open, she lost in the first round in both singles and doubles.[12][13] In 2013, she played the second round of the Australian Open in singles, and the first round in doubles.[14] Her last junior tournament was the European Summer Cups in September 2013.[15]
Professional career
2009–12: Playing in both juniors and seniors on the ITF Circuit
Despite the fact that she made her first doubles match on the ITF Women's Circuit in October 2009, she also continued to play in juniors. In 2010, she played qualifying for the Swedish Open but failed to reach main draw.[16] Her first singles tournament was in November 2010 at Stockholm where she defeated German player Alina Wessel in the first round but lost to Alison Van Uytvanck in the second.[17] In 2011, Peterson won only one singles and one doubles match, both at Båstad in May.[18][19]
2012–17: First steps on the WTA Tour
Peterson at the 2015 Nürnberger Versicherungscup
Peterson debuted on the WTA Tour in 2012, where she was handed a wildcard in both singles and doubles at the 2012 Swedish Open. However, she failed in both competition in the first round.[20] In 2013, Peterson also was handed a wildcard for the 2013 Swedish Open, in both singles and doubles, but again failed to reach second round in both competitions.[21]
At the 2015 Rio Open, she failed to qualify in singles but in doubles she booked her first WTA Tour final and succeeded to win the title.[25] At 2015 Nürnberger Versicherungscup, she passed qualifying and then lost to Angelique Kerber. At the Swedish Open, this time in doubles her ranking allowed her to enter the main draw; however, she lost in the first round. But she reached quarterfinals in singles as a wildcard player. At the US Open, she played her first qualifying round at a Grand Slam tournament and finished in the second round. At the Guangzhou Open, Peterson reached second round in singles and semifinals in doubles.
In 2016, Peterson had unnotable results, often reaching first or second rounds but failed to get into main draw at all four Grand Slam tournaments. In doubles, she reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Colsanitas and Swedish Open. In 2017, Peterson played at Wimbledon where she was stopped in qualifying. Her first main-draw appearance on WTA Tour came at the Swedish Open where she lost in the first round in singles, but in doubles reached the quarterfinals.
Peterson started year as world No. 149, so she was forced to play qualifying for the Australian Open in order to play in main draw but failed in round one, losing to Liu Fangzhou in three sets. Then, she reached second round at the Newport Beach Challenger, as well as quarterfinals at Midland.
She qualified for the Mexican Open and defeated Alizé Cornet, Monica Puig, Zhang Shuai, before losing to Stefanie Vögele in the semifinal.[26] At that time, it was her first significant result, reaching her first singles semifinal on WTA Tour. At the Indian Wells Open, she failed in the first round of qualifying, unlike in Miami, where she lost in the first round of the main draw. In Morocco, she lost in the first round in singles but reached semifinals in doubles. In May, she played at the Open de Cagnes-sur-Mer, where she defeated Dayana Yastremska in the final.[27] This led her directly into the top 100, where she debuted.
At the US Open (as in Wimbledon), she entered without qualifying, and made her first third round at a major event, winning against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Vania King, respectively, before Kaia Kanepi defeated her in round three.[29] Her last tournament of 2018 was the Wuhan Open where she qualified for the main draw. In the first round, she defeated Tímea Babos but then Caroline Wozniacki was better in the second.[30]
2019: Breakthrough into top 50, two WTA Tour singles titles
At the Washington Open, she upset No. 8 Sloane Stephens, that mark her first top-10 win but then was defeated by Camila Giorgi. Following up, she failed to qualify for the main draw of the Premier 5 Rogers Cup. Then, her next step was another Premier 5 tournament, the Western & Southern Open, where she passed qualifying and defeated Johanna Konta in first round, then Veronika Kudermetova in order to reach third round of a Premier 5/Premier Mandatory tournament for the first time.[36] No. 3 seed Karolína Plíšková then stopped her from reaching her first Premier 5/Premier Mandatory quarterfinal.[37] At the US Open, she defeated Monica Puig in the first round but lost in the second round to Dayana Yastremska. This was first year that Rebecca played at all four majors in the main draw.
During the Asian tour Peterson had a breakthrough. At the Jiangxi International Open, she entered into her first singles final, where she defeated Elena Rybakina.[38] At the Wuhan Open, she won two qualifying matches, and then in the main draw, she defeated Camila Giorgi but lost to Petra Martić in the following round. At China Open, she also passed qualifying but was stopped in the first round of the main draw by Simona Halep.[39] Her last tournament of the year was the Tianjin Open, where she won her second career singles title, defeating Heather Watson in the final.[40] On 14 October, she entered the top 50 for the first time in her career.[41]
2020–21: Health problems and limited play due to COVID, loss of form
A few months of inactivity due to the COVID-19 pandemic helped Peterson rest and cure from her back problems, before she played at the Palermo Ladies Open, the first WTA tournament after tennis returned in August 2020.[46] There she faced Camila Giorgi but did not make it to the second round.[47] At the Cincinnati Open, she lost to Elise Mertens.[48]
2022: First top-5 win, Australian Open quarterfinal in doubles
Peterson started her 2022 season at the first edition of the Melbourne Summer Set 2. She lost in the second round to qualifier and eventual finalist, Aliaksandra Sasnovich.[54] Getting past qualifying at the Adelaide International 2, she stunned top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the first round in three sets.[55] She was defeated in the second round by Madison Brengle.[56] At the Australian Open, she beat Australian wildcard Daria Saville, who was coming back from Achilles surgery, in the first round.[57] She was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by seventh seed Iga Świątek.[58] At the same tournament, she reached the quarterfinals of a major for the first time in her career, partnering Anastasia Potapova.
2023: First WTA Tour final since 2019 & back to top 100
Ranked No. 140 at the 2023 Mérida Open, she reached her second semifinal as a qualifier at a tournament in Mexico (first was in 2018 at the Abierto Mexicano) defeating fifth seed Alycia Parks and top seed Magda Linette in straight sets. Next she defeated Caty McNally to reach the final.[60][61] As a result, she returned to the top 100 at No. 99 on 27 February 2023, raising up 40 positions.
At Indian Wells, she reached the third round defeating Marta Kostyuk and (after retirement) 22nd seed Zhang Shuai. It was only her second third round of a WTA 1000. Next, she defeated Jil Teichmann to reach the fourth round for the first time in her career at this level. As a result, she moved close to 30 positions up in the rankings to world No. 76 on 20 March 2023.[62]
In August 2019, after Wimbledon Championships, Peterson started a collaboration with Swedish star coach Thomas Högstedt, who previously trained, among others, Maria Sharapova. Together with him, Peterson debuted in the top 50, and also won two WTA singles titles. After six months, in February 2020, they split.[66] She is currently coached by her father (Mart Peterson) and Bosse Eriksson.
Playing style
Peterson's backhand
Peterson is one of the most aggressive tennis players on tour. Her most significant shot is forehand, that she also stated in interview with Live Tennis Italy: "My best shot is the forehand and I try to play by always varying the shot and looking for new solutions."[67] In another interview, Peterson's former coach Thomas Högstedt talked about his impression of Peterson: "Rebecca knows a lot about how she feels herself, other big players maybe more just see how they beat the opponent – if you win the first set then you put in extra gear and decide. It is easy to feel after you are nervous or tired, but the best do not think so much about how they themselves feel. They only think about how to mentally crack the opponent. It's something she needs to work on. I think that bit is very important." Speaking about her game, Hogstedt says: "She has an incredibly good forehand, plays a bit like a men's player with quite a lot of topspin... Very serious, incredibly well trained." Her dad, Mart Peterson, who has also been her coach for most of her career, says: "Hogstedt has helped my daughter a lot and made her tougher. It has been a lot of help. She has become tougher against herself and tougher against her opponents."[68]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
DNQ
A
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
1 2 Edition is split into the two years due to COVID-19.
↑ The first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
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