Michelle Larcher de Brito

Larcher de Brito played on the ITF Junior circuit from August 2006 to December 2007, winning three singles tournaments. In Grand Slam tournaments, she made it to the singles quarterfinals of the 2007 French Open and the doubles quarterfinals of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships. She won her last tournament, the 2007 Orange Bowl, becoming, at 14 years, 10 months and 11 days, the second youngest champion of the event's history after Nicole Vaidišová. She was also the youngest player ever to win the U-16 Eddie Herr Championship (in 2005 when she was 12). Her best junior ranking was 20th with a 44–15 singles record and a 10–17 doubles record.

Larcher de Brito at the 2007 Coleman Vision Tennis Championships in Albuquerque

Larcher de Brito made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in early February 2007, at the $75,000 hard-court tournament in Midland, Michigan, United States. There, as an unranked wild card, she lost in the first round of both singles (against world No. 185 Kristina Brandi) and doubles, teaming with Gréta Arn, against the pairing of Julie Ditty and Natalie Grandin). She would make her WTA Tour debut as an unranked wild card at the Miami Open, reaching the second round before falling to the 16th seed Daniela Hantuchová in straight sets. At 14 years, one month and three days, Brito became the seventh-youngest player in the history of the WTA tour to win a singles main draw match by beating Meghann Shaughnessy in the first round and the youngest since the Age Eligibility Rule was implemented in 1995. Despite this achievement, due to her age, she wasn't allowed to play any more senior tournaments until September. During that time, she played for the Sacramento Capitals in the World Team Tennis, becoming the youngest player ever to be drafted in the competition. She would be instrumental in the Capitals victory in the 2007 championship. In her return to the circuit, she became the first Portuguese player to reach a semifinal at a $75k event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, losing to third seed Rossana de los Ríos. The feat allowed her to debut in the WTA rankings at world No. 364.

Facing Serena Williams at the 2008 Bank of the West Classic

In February, Larcher de Brito defeated world No. 124 Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro in the first round of the 2008 Cellular South Cup – Singles, but she lost in the second round to the world No. 43 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets.

On 28 March 2008, on her return to the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, she upset world No. 16 Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round. She would then lose to world No. 19 Shahar Pe'er. In the first round she defeated world No. 75 Ekaterina Makarova in three sets. The following month, she debuted on her home tournament in Portugal, the Estoril Open. She lost to world No. 471 Sanda Mamić.

In June, she failed to qualify for Wimbledon, losing to world No. 105 Stéphanie Foretz Gacon in the preliminary rounds.

On 16 July 2008, she nearly won the best victory of her career, narrowly losing to former world number one player Serena Williams in three sets.[5] The day before, she had beaten world number 34 Gisela Dulko in straight sets.[6]

Based on her good Bank of the West Classic tournament performance, where she won three qualifying matches and one main draw match, on 21 July 2008, Larcher de Brito's WTA singles ranking rose 56 places from the previous week, from No. 226 to 170 in the world, her then best ranking ever. With that ranking she became the highest ranked female Portuguese player, ahead of then world No. 192 Neuza Silva. At the Roger's Cup, Larcher de Brito won two qualifying matches to make it into the main draw. She then went on to defeat world No. 97 Vania King in the first round and world No. 18 Flavia Pennetta in the second before losing to fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. After such a great performance by the 15-year-old, she rose to No. 131 in the world, making her the highest ranked Portuguese tennis player of all time.

At the US Open, Larcher de Brito reached the third round of qualifying, beating world No. 165 Angela Haynes and world No. 169 Abigail Spears, but lost to Raluca Olaru in straight sets.

Her most significant result of the season came in October at the Tashkent Open where she reached her first quarterfinal on the WTA Tour. She would lose to third seed and eventual champion Sorana Cîrstea, after she defeated Andreja Klepač and Tatiana Poutchek in the first two rounds.

Larcher de Brito obtained an invite from the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association twice again to play 2009 JB Group Classic for Team Europe with Jelena Janković and Ágnes Szávay, they lost to Team America (include two Americans Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Argentine Gisela Dulko) 1–2 in the semifinals and then they lost to Team Asia Pacific (include Chinese Zheng Jie, Indian Sania Mirza and Zhang Ling from Hong Kong) 0–3 in the Silver Group final.

Larcher de Brito begun the season at the Australian Open where she reached the second qualifying round losing to world No. 169 Alberta Brianti. This was followed by a second round finish in Memphis, losing to world No. 52 Anne Keothavong, after defeating world No. 91 Sofia Arvidsson in the first round and a qualification to Indian Wells, losing to world No. 107 Urszula Radwańska in the first round. In Miami, after successful tournaments as a wild card the two previous years, she failed to qualify this time by losing in the first qualifying round to Aravane Rezaï.

In April, she debuted in the Fed Cup, helping Portugal qualify to the Europe/Africa Group I with a 2–1 singles record.

At Estoril in May, she lost in straight sets to world No. 165 Elena Bovina in the third qualifying round, but qualified to the main tournament as a lucky loser. She lost to seventh seed Shahar Pe'er. The following week at the Madrid Open, as the last direct acceptance into the qualifying draw, she reached the final round where she lost to Anna-Lena Grönefeld, after defeating Olga Govortsova in three sets.

On 22 May 2009, de Brito qualified for her first Grand Slam tournament main draw at the French Open after winning the final round of the qualifying by beating world No. 152 Kristína Kučová, world No. 177 Yuliana Fedak and world No. 151 Ekaterina Ivanova. She became the first Portuguese female player ever to do so. After overcoming Melanie South in the first round, Larcher de Brito once again made history by becoming the first Portuguese player overall to qualify for the third round of a Grand Slam by beating world No. 15 Zheng Jie. She would lose to home player Aravane Rezaï, a game in which her opponent made a number of complaints about the amount of noise coming from the Portuguese.[7] With her third round result, she entered the top 100 for the first time, a ranking of world No. 90.

After failing to qualify for the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, where she lost in the second round to Chanelle Scheepers, she received a wild card to participate in Wimbledon, before winning the Tradition-ICAP Liverpool International, an exhibition tournament, where she beat fellow Wimbledon wild card Laura Robson in the final. At Wimbledon, she defeated Klára Zakopalová in the first round but fell to world No. 43 Francesca Schiavone in the second. After the good results in Europe, she returned to the United States to compete on the US Open Series tournaments. However, her results were disappointing, first in Los Angeles, where she received a wild card, losing to Sorana Cîrstea, then as a qualifier in Cincinnati losing to Yaroslava Shvedova and Toronto against world No. 69 Petra Kvitová.

Following those results it was announced that she signed a three-year deal with the famous Mouratoglou Academy to prepare herself during the European seasons.[8] At the US Open, Larcher de Brito reached the second round, beating 97 Mathilde Johansson, before losing to world No. 19 Li Na. She finished the year by losing to Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in the first round of qualifying in Luxembourg.

Playing in the qualifying phase at the Australian Open, Larcher de Brito failed to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament since the previous year's Australian Open, losing in the first qualifying round to Ekaterina Dzehalevich. This was followed by a four-match losing run in the Fed Cup in February (that saw the Portugal relegated to Europe/Africa Group II) and a third successive second round showing in Memphis, losing to Anne Keothavong.

Larcher de Brito at the 2010 Bank of the West Classic

After first round exits at Indian Wells (after she won two qualifying matches against Klára Zakopalová and world No. 115 Arantxa Rus, she lost to Alexandra Dulgheru) and Miami (where she lost to world No. 40 Sorana Cîrstea), she found more success in the clay-court season with second round showings at Charleston (where she lost to Patty Schnyder) and Estoril (after she defeated world No. 71 Alizé Cornet in the first round, she lost to Sorana Cîrstea). Despite signs of improvement, she failed to qualify to the main draw at the French Open, losing to Misaki Doi in the second qualifying round in three sets.

Larcher de Brito at the 2010 Family Circle Cup

In June came her best result of the season, a third round showing in Birmingham, where she lost to Kaia Kanepi, after defeating Ekaterina Dzehalevich and Olga Govortsova in the first two rounds. This was followed with a first round loss at Wimbledon against world No. 1 and eventual champion Serena Williams. The American hard-court season also proved to be unsuccessful with failed qualification attempts at Stanford and San Diego and a first round loss at the US Open against world No. 159 Sania Mirza (after she won three qualifying matches against Karolína Plíšková, Anastasiya Yakimova and Alexandra Panova). She finished the year at the $75k event in Albuquerque with another first round, straight set-loss to Daria Gavrilova.

Larcher de Brito started the season by playing in a $25k event in Plantation, losing in the first round to world No. 323 Julia Boserup in straight sets. She then took part in another $25k event in Lutz, losing in the second round to Jessica Pegula in a close three set-match. At her third event, at the $25k event in Rancho Santa Fe, California, Larcher de Brito won her first career title, beating world No. 189 Madison Brengle in the final. Afterwards she took part at the $100k event in Midland, losing in the second round to Ahsha Rolle. In Miami she lost in the second round of qualifying to the former world junior No. 1 Arantxa Rus, after having defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková in the first round.

In April, at the $50k event in Charlottesville, Virginia, Larcher de Brito lost to Stéphanie Dubois in the final.

In May, she failed to qualify to the main draw at the French Open, losing to world No. 202 Elena Bogdan in the first qualifying round.

In June, she reached the semifinals of the $75k event in Nottingham, losing to Olga Govortsova in straight sets.

In August, returning from injury, she won in the first round of qualifying for the US Open, beating Lesia Tsurenko in three sets in two hours 51 minutes with an incredible 19 double-faults. In the second round, she defeated world No. 193 Anna Floris in only 56 minutes. In the third round, she lost to Karin Knapp in a long three-setter.

In September, she won in the second round of qualifying to the Bell Challenge, beating Amra Sadiković. In the third round, she lost to Gail Brodsky.

In October, Larcher de Brito was the third seed at the $25k tournament in Bayamón. In the first round, she defeated Yolima Ogando, in the second Teliana Pereira, in the quarterfinals she beat the No. 5 seed Madison Brengle. In her semifinal against Catalina Castaño, she again won in straight sets to book a final appearance against Monica Puig, winning in straight sets for her second career title.

In November, at the $75k event in Phoenix, Larcher de Brito lost to world No. 175 Sesil Karatantcheva in the final, after defeating first seed Irina Falconi in the first round and third seed Mandy Minella in the semifinals.

Playing in the qualifying phase at the Australian Open, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round to knock out Kathrin Wörle. In the second round, she defeated Arantxa Parra Santonja. In the third round, she lost to the world No. 140 Stefanie Vögele.

Larcher de Brito at the 2012 Fed Cup in Israel

This was followed by participation in the Fed Cup in February. After a straight sets-loss to Elena Baltacha, Portugal's overall 3–0 loss to Great Britain, Larcher de Brito, 99 places lower than her Israeli opponent Shahar Pe'er, played a solid baseline game and capitalised on the Israeli's errors to register a straight set-thrashing of the home favourite. She also beat Michaëlla Krajicek and Dia Evtimova to help Portugal to achieve fifth place in the Europe/Africa group. After that, at the $25k event in Surprise, Arizona, Larcher de Brito won her third career title, defeating world No. 172 Claire Feuerstein in the final.

In April, playing in the qualifying phase at Charleston, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round to Alexandra Stevenson. In the second round, she lost to Karolína Plíšková. A week later, at the $25k event in Pelham, Larcher de Brito lost to the Edina Gallovits-Hall in the semifinals, after defeating the Julia Boserup in the first round and the young Australian Sacha Jones in the quarterfinals.

In May, playing in the qualifying phase at Brussels, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round to Ysaline Bonaventure. In the second round, she lost to the world No. 98 Arantxa Rus. A week later, she failed to qualify to the main draw at the French Open, losing to Tatjana Malek in the first qualifying round.

In June, she reached the second round in the $75k tournament in Nottingham, where she lost to Elena Baltacha, after winning three matches in qualifying and defeating Ayumi Morita in the first round. A week later, playing in the qualifying phase at Birmingham, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round Līga Dekmeijere. In the second round, she defeated Chan Yung-jan and qualified for the tournament main draw. Then she won in the first round, defeating Bojana Jovanovski in three sets. In the second round, she lost to Melanie Oudin. This was followed with a first round victory in the qualifying phase at Wimbledon against Ajla Tomljanović. In the second round, she lost to Karolína Plíšková.

In July, Michelle received a wild card to the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. In the first round she won eleven straight games from 7–5, 2–0 down and eventually knocked out Jarmila Gajdošová. In the second round, she lost to sixth seed Chanelle Scheepers. A week later, playing in the qualifying phase at the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, she beat Julia Boserup in the first round. In the second round she defeated Melanie Oudin and qualified for the tournament main draw. In the first round, she lost to Misaki Doi. This was followed with a first round victory in the qualifying phase at Washington against Alessandra Parra. In the second record she defeated Gabriela Paz and qualified for the tournament main draw. Larcher de Brito battled past Croat Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in a three-set thriller. She also had to endure a short delay because of temperatures rising to unplayable levels, but came out victorious against the German-born Lučić to labour into the second round. She broke her rival's serve twice and jumped to a 5–1 lead. Apart from wasting her chance of serving out the opening set with a breadstick, Larcher de Brito plucked her serve once more and clicked the opener with a 6–3 win. Lučić-Baroni re-focused in the follow-up set and got back in action. She earned the critical break in the fourth game and leaped to a 4–1 lead. The Croat held her remaining serves with poise and sealed the equalizer by winning six games to two. Larcher de Brito regained her strength in the final set, after Lučić-Baroni held her serve in the second game, the Portuguese unleashed her good form and went on a five-game streak, subsequently pulling out the decider with a breadstick. In the second round, she lost to world No. 50 Sloane Stephens.

In August, at the Rogers Cup, Larcher de Brito won the first round of qualifying against Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets. In the second round, she defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. In the final round, she defeated Lučić-Baroni to qualify for the main draw. In the first round proper, she lost to Simona Halep. Later, she won the first round of qualifying at the US Open, beating Ekaterina Dzehalevich. She lost, however, to Elina Svitolina in the second round.

In September, she lost in the first round of the Bell Challenge, to Petra Rampre. Later, she reached the semifinal at the $75k event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, losing to Maria Sanchez in straight sets despite saving seven match points.

In October, she reached the semifinals of the $25k event in Troy, losing to Sharon Fichman after saving five match points.

Michelle Larcher de Brito 2013

Larcher de Brito at the 2013 Fed Cup in Israel

Playing in the qualifying phase at the Australian Open, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round over Azra Hadzic. In the second round she defeated Cristina Mitu. In the third round, Larcher de Brito needed more than two hours to defeat South Africa's Chanel Simmonds, triumphing in a titanic three set-clash on Court 10 to make her Australian Open main draw debut. In the first round, she was defeated by 19th seed Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets. This was followed by participation in the Fed Cup in February. After a straight sets-loss to Tímea Babos in Portugal's overall 3–0 loss to Hungary, Michelle defeated Heather Watson. Laura Robson and Heather Watson held their nerve in a deciding doubles rubber against Portugal to secure Great Britain's second victory at the Fed Cup in Israel. Watson and Robson are occasional doubles partners, teaming up at the previous year's Olympic Games, and they easily saw off Larcher de Brito and Joana Valle Costa to earn Britain a 2–1 victory in the tie. In the last round, she defeated Jelena Simić from Bosnia and in doubles with Bárbara Luz they defeated Anita Husarić and Dea Herdželaš with the loss of just one game. This was followed by a loss in the qualifying in Memphis at the hands of world No. 96 Jana Čepelová.

At the qualification to the Indian Wells Masters in March, Larcher de Brito defeated Misaki Doi in the first round. In the second round, she qualified to the main draw, defeating Anastasia Rodionova. In the main draw first round, she lost to Alexandra Dulgheru, the ex-top-25 player from Romania. Later, playing in the qualifying phase at the Family Circle Cup, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round (Hayley Carter) but lost to Jessica Pegula in the second.

In May, in the qualification to the Brussels Open, Larcher de Brito won in the first qualifying round over Alicja Rosolska. In the second round, she lost to Yulia Putintseva. Later, she failed to qualify to the main draw at the French Open, where she lost in the first round of the qualifying to Maryna Zanevska. In June, playing in the qualifying phase at Birmingham, Larcher de Brito lost in the first qualifying round to Arantxa Parra Santonja. At Wimbledon, she qualified for the main draw by defeating Chanel Simmonds, Claire Feuerstein and Shahar Pe'er. In the first round of the main draw, Larcher de Brito defeated Melanie Oudin in three sets. In the second round, she defeated 2004 champion and world No. 3 Maria Sharapova in straight sets. In the third round, however, she lost to the unseeded Karin Knapp from Italy.

In July, Larcher de Brito played in the qualifying phase of the Bank of the West Classic, defeating Julia Boserup in the second round. In the third round she defeated Natalie Grandin and qualified for the main draw where she lost to sixth seed Varvara Lepchenko. Lepchenko nearly let a 6–2, 5–1 lead slip away but eventually closed. The American won the match on her sixth match point. This was followed with a first-round victory in the qualifying phase at Washington against Louisa Chirico. In the second record she defeated Victoria Duval to qualify for the main draw, but lost here to world No. 40 Madison Keys. A week later, at the Roger's Cup, Larcher de Brito lost in the first round of qualifying to Paula Ormaechea of Argentina.

In August, Larcher de Brito won the first round of US Open qualifying, beating Chiara Scholl. In the second round, she laboured to a three-set victory over Kazakhstani Zarina Diyas. To qualify for the Grand Slam main draw, she defeated Elena Baltacha in three sets. In round one of the main draw, Larcher de Brito defeated world No. 124 Eleni Daniilidou, but lost to Maria Kirilenko in round two.

In September, she lost in the first round of the Bell Challenge Julie Coin of France. She would contest six more tournaments in the season, playing ITF tournaments in the United States. She was mostly unsuccessful and only advanced to one quarterfinal. She ended the year ranked world No. 109 – her highest season-ending ranking.

Larcher de Brito elected to skip the Australian Open and remain in the United States, where she lost in the first round of an $25k tournament to Aleksandra Wozniak. She then qualified for the main draw in BNP Paribas Open, but went down in the first round to Karolína Plíšková. She continued to play in American events until the French Open. Ranked world number 117, she entered the qualifying draw and defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Irina Ramialison, and Allie Kiick for a spot in the main draw. She did, however, lose in the first round to Julia Görges of Germany.

She began her grass court season in Nottingham, where she advanced to the semifinals. Larcher de Brito had lost the first set of her first three matches before coming back to win. Her run was ended in the semifinals by Zarina Diyas in straight sets. At Wimbledon, Larcher de Brito again played qualifying and had little trouble, defeating all three opponents in straight sets. She would then record her season-best win in the main draw, with a three-set win over two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. She followed it up with another three-set win over Australian wild card Jarmila Gajdošová in the second round. She was defeated by Agnieszka Radwańska in the round of 32.

At the Aegon Classic, as a qualifier, she defeated lucky loser Zheng Saisai in the first round before producing the biggest win of her career by beating world No. 7 Ana Ivanovic in three sets, before losing to Daniela Hantuchová in the third round. Larcher de Brito only played one other tournament in 2015, Wimbledon, where she failed to qualify for the main draw.[9]