Country (sports) | United States |
---|---|
Born | Williamston, Michigan, U.S. | December 17, 1997
Height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
College | North Carolina (2016–2021) |
Singles | |
Career titles | 0 (1 ITF) |
Highest ranking | No. 576 (October 9, 2023) |
Current ranking | No. 602 (November 6, 2023) |
Doubles | |
Career titles | 0 (1 ITF) |
Highest ranking | No. 525 (October 23, 2023) |
Current ranking | No. 547 (November 6, 2023) |
Sara Daavettila (born December 17, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. Born in Michigan to a former college player, she had a successful junior career. She went undefeated in two seasons of high school tennis. She played five years of college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels, reaching a peak NCAA Division I singles ranking of No. 1. She reached at least the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships three times. Since turning professional she has played on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, where she has won one singles title and one doubles title.
Daavettila grew up in Williamston, Michigan, the oldest of six siblings. [1] She started playing tennis at age three or four. [2] [3] Her mother, who played college tennis at Western Michigan University, coached her from a young age. [1] [4] She performed well at United States Tennis Association (USTA) events as a junior, winning ten national titles and more than twenty USTA Midwest titles. [1] [5]
Homeschooled until tenth grade, Daavettila enrolled in Williamston High School, in Division 3 of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), for her sophomore year in 2013–14. She said she did so partly to have a chance to play her friend, senior Alexandria Najarian of Cranbrook Kingswood, before she left for college at the University of Michigan. Daavettila went undefeated in seventeen matches on her way to the state championship final, where she faced Najarian, the three-time defending champion. Daavettila won 6–2, 6–1, handing Najarian the only defeat of her high school career. [2] [6]
Daavettila played again for the Williamston Hornets in 2014–15. Having not lost a set as a sophomore, she did not lose a game her entire junior season in twenty-four matches, becoming the first high school player to do so, and defended her state championship. [7] [8] [5] She returned to homeschooling her senior year to have more time for USTA competitions. [4] She verbally committed to the University of North Carolina by early 2015 and signed a letter of intent in November 2015. [3] [5] She was considered the top recruit of the class of 2016. [9] [10]
Daavettila began playing for the North Carolina Tar Heels as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)'s top-ranked incoming freshman of 2016–17. [11] She won the ITA Carolina Regionals singles title in the fall of 2016. [12] She played mostly at No. 2 singles in the regular season, going 20–7 to help North Carolina win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship, and was named ACC Freshman of the Year. She reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in singles, finishing the season ranked No. 14 in singles with an overall record of 43–11. [9] [13]
Daavettila went 29–12 in singles in her sophomore season in 2017–18. She helped North Carolina win the ITA Team Indoor Championship, being named most outstanding player, and defend the ACC Championship. [9] [14] She and teammate Alle Sanford reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championships in doubles, having entering the event as an alternate. [15] North Carolina again defended the ACC Championship in her junior season in 2018–19 and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championships as a team. Daavettila again won the ITA Carolina Regionals singles title and made the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles tournament, finishing the year with a singles record of 32–8 and ranked at No. 12. [9] [16]
Daavettila won the ITA National Fall Championships singles title in the fall of 2019–20, beating No. 1 Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami in the semifinals and Anna Turati of Texas in the final. [17] She went 23–2 in singles and 13–5 in doubles to rank No. 5 in singles and No. 4 in doubles with Alexa Graham at the end of the pandemic-shortened season. [9] [18] This season and next season, she was again named most outstanding player at the ITA Team Indoor Championships, helping North Carolina win consecutive indoor titles in 2020 and 2021. [9] She reached the No. 1 singles ranking in April 2021 as she went 22–2 in her final season. [9] North Carolina, on a 48-match winning streak, won the ACC Championship but were upset in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships, where Daavettila made the NCAA singles semifinals. [9] [19] [20] Her college career ended ranked No. 3 in singles and doubles, and she received the ACC Player of the Year Award and the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top college tennis player. [9] [21] She graduated with a bachelor's degree in communication studies in May 2021. [9]
Daavettila debuted on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's World Tennis Tour in 2013 at age 15. [22] She was selected to the USTA Collegiate Summer Team in mid-2021. [23] She reached her first ITF doubles final at the W15 tournament in San Diego, California, in June 2022, partnering former North Carolina teammate Makenna Jones, and reached her first ITF singles final at the W15 event in Champaign, Illinois, in November 2022. [22] She won her first professional titles at the next year's W15 event in San Diego in June 2023, where she won in singles and doubles with Katherine Hui. [24]
Audra Marie Cohen is an American former professional tennis player and current college tennis coach. She was the # 1 collegiate female tennis player in the United States in 2007. At the University of Miami in 2005-2006 she was named the ITA National Player of the Year and was the National Indoor Champion, and in 2006-07 she won the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship, the NCAA Singles Championship, and the ITA National Player of the Year award. She is currently the head women's tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma.
Bradley Klahn is an American former professional tennis player from Poway, California.
The North Carolina Tar Heels women's tennis team, commonly referred to as Carolina, represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in NCAA Division I college tennis. North Carolina currently competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and plays its home matches at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
Jarmere Jenkins is a retired American professional tennis player who became the hitting partner for Serena Williams. He was the 2013 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Player of the Year and male ACC Athlete of the Year after earning the national championships in indoor singles, outdoor doubles and team competition while also finishing runner up in outdoor singles. He was the first Atlantic Coast Conference athlete to win ACC athlete of the year solely for tennis accomplishments. In his first full year as a pro, he cracked the top 200 in the 2014 year end rankings at 193, but the costs of travel became prohibitive for him and he retired in 2017.
Jamie Loeb is an American tennis player.
Christopher Eubanks is an American professional tennis player. He played college tennis for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. There, he was a two-time All-American and twice named ACC Player of the Year. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 29, achieved on July 31, 2023. In doubles, he achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 182 on September 14, 2020.
Francesca Di Lorenzo is an American tennis player.
William Blumberg is an American professional tennis player. A former college player at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Blumberg has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 74 achieved on September 12, 2022. He reached a career-high of World No. 438 in singles on February 18, 2019.
Abigail Forbes is an American tennis player.
Cameron Morra is an American tennis player. Morra has reached a career-high WTA ranking of 1008 in singles and 868 in doubles. She made her main draw debut at the 2019 Citi Open partnering with Alana Smith in doubles.
Brianna Alexis Smalls Pinto is an American professional soccer player who currently plays as a midfielder for North Carolina Courage of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
Elizabeth Scotty is an American tennis player who plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels. She has won three national doubles titles: at the NCAA Division I Championships with Makenna Jones in 2021 and at the ITA National Fall Championships with Fiona Crawley in 2021 and Reese Brantmeier in 2023.
Reese Brantmeier is an American tennis player. She plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels.
The 2019 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships were men's and women's tennis tournaments played concurrently from May 3 to May 25, 2019, at campus sites and at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. The events marked the 74th edition of the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship and the 38th edition of the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship.
Aranza Vázquez Montaño is a Mexican diver. She represented Mexico at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the individual 3-metre springboard.
Fiona Maeve Crawley is an American tennis player who plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels. In 2023, she helped North Carolina win the NCAA Team Championships and won the NCAA doubles title with Carson Tanguilig. She won the ITA National Fall Championships with Elizabeth Scotty in 2021.
Carson Tanguilig is an American tennis player. She plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels. In 2023, she helped North Carolina win its first national championship and won the national doubles title with Fiona Crawley.
Lea Ma is an American professional tennis player. She played college tennis for the Georgia Bulldogs and was ranked No. 3 nationally at the end of her college career.
Mary Stoiana is an American tennis player. She plays college tennis for the Texas A&M Aggies and has been ranked as high as No. 2 in NCAA Division I singles and doubles.
Brian Joseph Kalbas is an American college tennis coach. He has been the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels women's tennis team since 2003. He played college tennis and started his coaching career at the University of Notre Dame before becoming the head women's tennis coach at the College of William & Mary in 1992. He is a three-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Coach of the Year and the winningest women's tennis coach in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) history.