Michelle Larcher de Brito

Michelle Larcher de Brito

File:MichelledeBrito.JPG
Country (sports)	Portugal
Residence	Bradenton, Florida, U.S./ Lisbon, Portugal
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Turned pro	February 7, 2007
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Prize money	US$ 155,565
Singles
Career record	44–32 (58%)
Career titles	0 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 90 (June 8, 2009)
Grand Slam singles results
French Open	3R (2009)
Wimbledon	2R (2009)
Doubles
Career record	1–3 (25%)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	N/A
Last updated on: June 24, 2009.

Micaela Larcher de Brito also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito (born 29 January 1993 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese tennis player. Michelle's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. She was coached by Nick Bollettieri until the end of 2007. Currently she is training full time with her father, António Larcher de Brito. She achieved a career-high ranking of 90 on June 8, 2009.

Michelle's impressive results at such a young age have prompted Nick Bollettieri to tip her as a possible Top 10 player. She is known for her loud grunts while executing shots, being noted for surpassing in decibels the likes of Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles, Victoria Azarenka and Venus and Serena Williams, other famous "grunters". In response to criticism from fellow players about this, she defended herself by saying, "I could (stop grunting), but, you know, it won't feel natural, because it feels like something is missing in my game if I just stop."

Family and personal life

Michelle's coach and father, António, is Portuguese, born in Angola. Her mother, Caroline, is from South Africa. She has two older brothers who are twins, Sebastião and Sérgio.

She began playing at the age of three when her father introduced her at a local club in Lisbon. She is a baseliner whose main attributes are her groundstrokes and movement, and she prefers hard and grass courts. Her favorite players are Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Rafael Nadal.

In a recent interview, she said it was her dream to play an exhibition match in a football stadium, preferably Benfica's Estádio da Luz in her native Lisbon.

She won the 2008 Revelation Award from the Fundação Luso-Brasileira (Portuguese-Brazilian Foundation) and, as a result, she appeared in the pages of Elle Portugal.

Career

Junior

Michelle played in 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 place with a 44-15 singles record and a 10-17 doubles record.

2007

Michelle made her debut on the ITF circuit in early February, 2007, in the $75.000, hard court tournament in Midland, Michigan, United States. There, as an unranked wild card, she lost in the first round both singles (lost 4–6, 6–2, 7–5 against Kristina Brandi) and doubles (teaming with Greta Arn, lost 6–4, 6–2 against the pair of Julie Ditty and Natalie Grandin). She would make WTA Tour debut as unranked wild card at the Miami Open, reaching the second round before falling to No.16 seed Daniela Hantuchová 7–5 6–0. At 14 years, 1 month and 3 days, Brito became the seventh-youngest in the WTA tour history to win a singles main draw match by beating Meghann Shaughnessy 3–6, 6–2 7–6(3) 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, Michelle 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, Michelle became the first Portuguese player to reach a semifinal at a $75,000 ITF event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, losing to no.3 seed Rossana de los Ríos 7–5, 3–6, 7–5. The feat allowed her to debut in the WTA rankings at no.364, with no one younger ahead of her.

2008

Larcher de Brito playing Serena Williams in July 2008.

On 28 March 2008, on her return to Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, upset World No. 16 Agnieszka Radwańska, 2–6, 6–3, 7–5 in the 2nd round. She would then lose to World No. 15 Shahar Pe'er 6–0, 6–2. The following month, Michelle debuted on her home tournament in Portugal, the Estoril Open. She lost to Sanda Mamić 2–6, 6–0, 6–4.

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, 6–4 3–6 2–6. The day before, she had beaten world number 34 Gisela Dulko in straight sets, 7–5, 7–6.

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, de Brito's WTA singles ranking rose 56 places from the previous week, from number 226 to 170 in the world, her then best ranking ever. With that ranking she became (and still is) the highest ranked Portuguese women's player, ahead of then No. 192 Neuza Silva. At the Roger's Cup, Michelle won two qualifying matches to make it into the main draw. She then went on to defeat Vania King 2–6, 6–3, 6–3 in the first round and Flavia Pennetta 6–3, 0–6, 6–3 in the second round before losing to no. 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7–5, 2–6, 6–4. After such a great performance by the 15-year old, she rose to number 131 in the world, making her the highest ranking Portuguese tennis player of all time.

Her most significant result of the season came in October at the Tashkent Open where she reached her first quarterfinal in the Tour. She would lose to third seed and eventual champion Sorana Cirstea 6–2, 7–6(5).

2009

File:Michelle Larcher de Brito Wimbledon.jpg

Larcher de Brito after defeating Klara Zakopalová at Wimbledon.

Michelle begun the season at the Australian Open where she reached the second qualifying round losing to Alberta Brianti 6–2, 6–3. This was followed by a second round finish in Memphis, losing to Anne Keothavong, and a qualification to Indian Wells losing to 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 6–1, 6–2 in the first qualifying round to Aravane Rezaï.

In April, Michelle 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 6–0, 6–2 to Elena Bovina in the third qualifying round, but qualified to the main tournament as a lucky loser. She lost to seventh seed Shahar Peer 4-6, 6-0, 6-0. The following week at the Madrid Open, as the last direct acceptance in the qualifying draw, she reached the final round where she lost to Anna-Lena Grönefeld 6–1, 6–0.

On May 22, 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 Ekaterina Ivanova 0-6 6-4 6-4. She became the first Portuguese female player to do so. After overcoming Melanie South 0–6, 7–6 (5), 7–5 in the first round, de Brito once again made history by becoming the first Portuguese player overall to qualify to the third round of a Grand Slam by beating World no. 15 Jie Zheng 6–4, 6–3, in the greatest victory ever for a Portuguese female tennis player. She would lose to home player Aravane Rezaï 7–6 (3), 6–2, a game in which her opponent made a number of complaints about the amount of noise coming from de Brito. With her third round result, she entered the top 100 for the first time, as the world no. 90.

After a failed qualification in Birmingham, 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 6–4, 2–6, 10–6 in the final. At Wimbledon, she defeated Klára Zakopalová in the first round 6–2, 7–5 but fell to Francesca Schiavone in the second 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).

Controversy

During the 2009 French Open and Wimbledon tournaments, Michelle Larcher de Brito came under criticism for what by some was considered excessive grunting. Some players and commentators have voiced suspicions that the grunting is used as an unsportmanlike tactic to distract the opponent and that this tactic is actually taught by Nick Bollettieri, who is responsible for the training of Larcher de Brito and other grunting tennis greats. Bollettieri has denied this by saying: "My staff and I have never taught grunting. It isn’t something that is done deliberately to hurt their opponents." He also called for some sort of regulation: "Players on both the men’s and women’s tours grunt. Something eventually needs to be done." Michelle Larcher de Brito also denies being unsportmanlike and has stated: "Nobody can tell me to stop grunting. Tennis is an individual sport and I'm an individual player. If they have to fine me, go ahead, because I'd rather get fined than lose a match because I had to stop grunting [...] If it has inconvenienced the other player, there's nothing I can really do about it, because I don't really want to change anything. [...] I'm here to win. That's it. If people don't like my grunting they can always leave.". On a more conciliatory note, however, Larcher de Brito has also recently remarked: "I’m 16 and I’m still learning. Maybe I can eventually put it under control. I don’t know, but I’ll try. It comes from Seles; it comes from Sharapova. It comes from great players.". Like Larcher de Brito, Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova were also trained by Nick Bollettieri.

Career statistics

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament when the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through June 24, 2009.

Tournament	2007	2008	2009	Career SR	Career W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	LQ	0 / 0	0–0
French Open	A	A	3R	0 / 1	2–1
Wimbledon	A	LQ	2R	0 / 1	1–1
US Open	A	LQ		0 / 0	0–0
SR	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 2	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	3–2	N/A	3–2
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	1R	0 / 1	0–1
Miami	2R	3R	LQ	0 / 2	3–2
Madrid	Not Held		LQ	0 / 0	0–0
SR	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 3	N/A
Win-Loss	1–1	2–1	0–1	N/A	3–3
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Montreal/Toronto	A	3R		0 / 1	2–1
SR	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 0	0 / 1	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	2–1	0–0	N/A	2–1
Other WTA Premier Tournaments
Stanford	A	2R		0 / 1	1–1
Los Angeles	A	LQ		0 / 0	0–0
SR	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 0	0 / 1	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	1–1	0–0	N/A	1–1
WTA International Tournaments
Memphis	A	2R	2R	0 / 2	2–2
Estoril	A	1R	1R	0 / 2	0–2
Fes	A	LQ	A	0 / 0	0–0
Birmingham	A	A	LQ	0 / 0	0–0
Quebec City	A	LQ		0 / 0	0–0
Tashkent	A	QF		0 / 1	2–1
SR	0 / 0	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 5	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	3–3	1–2	N/A	4–5
Career Statistics
Tournaments played	1	6	5	Career total: 12
Finals reached	0	0	0	Career total: 0
Tournaments Won	0	0	0	Career total: 0
Statistics by surface
Hardcourt Win-Loss	1–1	8–5	3–3	N/A	12–9
Clay Win-Loss	0–0	0–1	2–2	N/A	2–3
Grass Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	1–1	N/A	1–1
Carpet Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	N/A	0–0
Overall Win-Loss	1–1	8–6	6–6	N/A	15–131
Win (%)	50%	57%	50%	Career Win (%): 54%
Year-end ranking	312	124	91	N/A	N/A

• Fed Cup matches are included in the statistics. Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses.

If ITF women's circuit (Hardcourt: 10–7) and WTA Qualifying (Clay: 6–4; Grass: 1–2; Hardcourt: 12–6) participations are included, then her overall win-loss record stands at 44–32.

Fed Cup

Michelle debuted for the Portugal Fed Cup team in 2009 and helped in the team's promotion to the Europe/Africa Group I. She has a 2-1 singles record (2–1 overall).

Participations (3)

Singles (3)

Edition	Round	Date	Against	Surface	Opponent	W–L	Result
2009 Fed Cup Europe/Africa Group II	2R	22–24 April 2009	Morocco	Hard	Fatima El Allami	Win	6–4, 7–5
			Latvia	Hard	Anastasija Sevastova	Lose	2–6, 3–6
	GII Play-Offs	25 April 2009	South Africa	Hard	Natalie Grandin	Win	6–4, 6–3

External links

• Michelle Larcher de Brito at the Women's Tennis Association
• Michelle Larcher de Brito at the Billie Jean King Cup
• Template:ITF junior profile