Carla Suárez Navarro

Early and personal life

Suárez Navarro was born in Las Palmas to a handball player, José Luís, and a former gymnast, Lali. She started playing tennis when she was 9 and moved to Barcelona in 2007 in order to train at the Pro-Ab Team Tennis Academy. She admires Steffi Graf, Lleyton Hewitt, Justine Henin and Michael Jordan.

2008–2009

At the French Open, Suárez Navarro reached the quarter-finals of her first Grand Slam main draw tournament. After she won three qualifying matches, she defeated former World No. 1 Amélie Mauresmo of France in the second round 6–3, 6–4, Australian Casey Dellacqua in the third round, and 26th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round 6–3, 6–2. Suárez Navarro then lost to third-seeded Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals 6–3, 6–2. At Wimbledon, Suárez Navarro lost to second-seeded Janković in the second round 6–1, 6–3.

Suárez Navarro reached the second Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career at the 2009 Australian Open before being defeated by Elena Dementieva 6–2, 6–2. She upset Venus Williams in the second round 2–6, 6–3, 7–5. This was her first win over a top 10 player.

In March, Suárez Navarro reached her first final on the WTA Tour at the Andalucia Tennis Experience, a clay court event in Marbella, Spain. She lost to Jelena Janković in the final 6–3, 3–6, 6–3.

At Roland Garros seeded 22, she defeated Edina Gallovits 6–1, 6–4 and Lucie Hradecká 6–2, 6–4, before losing to Victoria Azarenka in the third round 7–5, 5–7, 2–6.

At Wimbledon, Suárez Navarro defeated #25 Kaia Kanepi in the first round and Ekaterina Makarova in the second round. She faced defending champion Venus Williams for the first time since the 2009 Australian Open but was unable to repeat the upset win, losing 0–6, 4–6.

2010

Suárez Navarro had a good start to 2010, making the second round of the 2010 ASB Classic in Auckland before losing to top seed Flavia Pennetta in straight sets. She then made the quarter-final of the 2010 Moorilla Hobart International before losing to No.2 seed Shahar Pe'er 6–4, 6–7, 5–7.

At the 2010 Australian Open, Suárez Navarro made it to the third round before losing to top seed, the defending (and eventual) champion Serena Williams, 0–6, 3–6.

She was upset in the first round of the 2010 Copa BBVA-Colsanitas by World No.198 Kristina Antoniychuk 1–6, 4–6, then made it to the semi-finals of the 2010 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco before losing to Polona Hercog 3–6, 5–7.

Unseeded at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California, Suárez Navarro reached the fourth round, losing to Alisa Kleybanova 6–2, 6–7, 4–6. Along the way, she gained one of the biggest wins of her career by defeating World No.3 and top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–4, 4–6, 6–1 in the second round.

She reached the final of the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella for the second year in a row, losing to Flavia Pennetta 2–6, 6–4, 3–6.

Suarez Navarro suffered an ankle injury at the tournament in Fes, Morocco. She returned to play in the 2010 French Open, losing her first-round match to Olga Govortsova 6–7, 1–6, she remained sidelined until the 2010 US Open.

2011

Carla began the season at the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland. As the ninth seed, she was upset in round two by Heather Watson. She also lost early in Hobart to Alberta Brianti.

Going into the Australian Open, she defeated American Christina McHale by 4–6, 6–3, 6–4; but lost to eventual titlist Kim Clijsters of Belgium in the following round. Next she represented Spain at the Fed Cup against Estonia in Tallinn, where she had a 1–1 record; getting past Anett Kontaveit but falling to Kaia Kanepi.

Then, Suárez followed an early loss in Paris with a semifinal and a quarterfinal, in Bogotá and Acapulco, respectively. An elbow injury caused her to stop playing for two and a half months and withdraw from Roland Garros.

She returned to the competition at the 2011 Open GDF Suez de Marseille, where she beat Sun Shengnan and Aleksandra Wozniak to make the quarterfinals, but was beaten by homecrowd favourite Pauline Parmentier.

She failed to qualify for Wimbledon, losing to Ekaterina Ivanova in round two.

In early September, Suárez reached round four of the US Open for the first time, defeating Mathilde Johansson, Simona Halep and compatriot Silvia Soler Espinosa. However, her run was ended by Andrea Petkovic.

2012

Carla Suárez Navarro was impressive in the 2012 French Open, reaching the third round. In the first round, Suarez Navarro comfortably beat Tamarine Tanasugarn, 6–0, 6–2. In the second round she faced Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan, and beat her 4–6, 6–4, 6–1. In the third round she lost to Yaroslava Shvedova, also from Kazakhstan, 6–4, 7–5, who had just returned from an injury.

At Wimbledon 2012 Carla Suárez Navarro only made it to the first round, but it was against fifth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia. She was well beaten losing 6–1, 6–3.

At Italiacom Open, she reached the quarterfinals, losing to Laura Robson 4–6 6–2 3–6.

In the London 2012 Olympics, she beat Samantha Stosur in a thrilling first round match, 3–6, 7–5, 10–8, avenging her first round defeat to the Australian at Wimbledon the previous month.

2015: Top 10 WTA Ranking

At the 2015 Australian Open she lost in the first round to Carina Witthöft in straight sets. At the 2015 BNP Paribas Open she reached the Quarter Finals before losing to Simona Halep in three sets. Her good form on the American Hardcourts continued with a run to her first Premier Mandatory final at the 2015 Miami Open. She defeated Agnieszka Radwańska, Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic before losing, 2-6, 0-6, in the final to Serena Williams. Despite this defeat she entered the top ten of the world rankings for the first time in her career. Another good run at the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open resulted in a quarter final defeat to Williams, again in straight sets. In Rome at the 2015 Internazionali BNL d'Italia she reached her first final at Premier 5 level. She recorded three victories over top ten players at the same event for the first time, with victories over Eugenie Bouchard, Petra Kvitová and Simona Halep before losing to Maria Sharapova in three sets.

At the 2015 French Open she was seeded eighth. She lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of Wimbledon that year, and her results for the rest of the year were inauspicious apart from reaching the quarterfinals in Moscow in October and a crushing 6-0 6-0 victory over an injured Andrea Petkovic at Zhuhai in November. Carla ended the year ranked 13th.

2016: First Premier 5 title

Suárez Navarro made a good start to the year. She reached the semifinals at Brisbane, losing to Angelique Kerber, and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska. As a result, she moved back up to world number 8 on February 1. She then defeated Jelena Janković in Spain's Fed Cup tie against Serbia.

At the Dubai Tennis Championships, she received a first round bye but fell to eventual semifinalist Caroline Garcia. Her next tournament was the Qatar Open where she also received a first round bye and defeated Donna Vekic, Timea Bacsinszky, Elena Vesnina and Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the final, ensuring a new career-high ranking of world number 6. She then avenged her first round loss to Jelena Ostapenko in the previous year's Wimbledon with a three set win over Ostapenko, earning her first Premier title and her biggest title to date.

Playing style

Suárez Navarro uses a single-handed backhand, unlike most female players of her era. She has said in interviews that her favorite shot is her cross-court backhand and that her favorite surfaces are clay and hard. Frew McMillan has said, "There's something of Justine Henin about her game. She has a great variety of shots."

Apparel and equipment

Suárez Navarro wears Lotto clothing and uses the Wilson Six. One racquet made by Wilson.

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Current through 2017 Australian Open.