Claire Liu (born May 25, 2000) is an American

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. On 24th October 2022, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 60. In 2017, she was the world No. 1 in the junior rankings, after winning the Wimbledon girls' singles title, and finishing runner-up at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

. Liu also won a junior

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

doubles title at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

with Usue Arconada in 2016. As a professional, Liu has won one singles title and one doubles title on the

WTA Challenger Tour WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger series ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

Personal life

Claire grew up in Thousand Oaks, California. Both her parents are

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

immigrants.

Junior career

Junior Grand Slam results - Singles: * Australian Open: - * French Open: F (2017) * Wimbledon: W (2017) * US Open: 2R (2013, 2016) Junior Grand Slam results - Doubles: * Australian Open: * French Open: QF (2017) * Wimbledon: W (2016) * US Open: QF (2016) Liu won the Junior Wimbledon doubles tournament in 2016 with fellow American Usue Arconada, defeating

Mariam Bolkvadze Mariam Bolkvadze ( ka, მარიამ ბოლქვაძე, tr, ; born 1 January 1998) is a tennis player from Georgia. On 7 March 2022, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 151, and on 21 March 2022, she peaked at No. ...

and

Caty McNally Catherine "Caty" McNally (born November 20, 2001) is an American tennis player. She achieved her highest doubles ranking of world No. 11 on 4 April 2022. On 7 November 2022, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 94. She is best known ...

in the final, in straight sets. The following year, after losing in the Junior French Open final to

Whitney Osuigwe Whitney Osuigwe ( ; born April 17, 2002) is an American tennis player. In 2017, Osuigwe was the ITF Junior World Champion. She won the juniors 2017 French Open to become the first American to win the girls' singles event in Paris in 28 years. ...

, she came back to win the

singles title against

Ann Li Ann Louie Li (born January 17, 1995 in Bangkok, Thailand), popularly known as Ann Li, is a Filipino–Taiwanese businesswoman, fashion influencer, former actress, model, photographer, and television personality. She splits her time between Ma ...

, making her the first American girl to win the event since

Chanda Rubin Chanda Rubin (born February 18, 1976) is an American former top-10 professional tennis player. During her career, she reached the semifinals at the 1996 Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open three times, and had wins over world- ...

in 1992. With this Grand Slam success, Liu rose to world No. 1 in the girls' junior rankings.

Professional career

2015: Grand Slam debut in qualifying competition

She won her first professional title in March 2015, at an Orlando clay-court tournament on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

. At age 14, Liu was the youngest tennis player to win a professional tournament since

Anna Kournikova Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova ( rus, Анна Сергеевна Курникова, p=ˈanːə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ˈkurnʲɪkəvə, a=Anna_kournikova.ogg; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player and American televisio ...

in 1996. At the 2015 US Open on her debut, Liu was granted a wildcard into the qualifying tournament. She beat

Verónica Cepede Royg Verónica Cepede Royg (; born 21 January 1992) is a professional Paraguayan tennis player. On 7 August 2017, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of No. 73 whilst her best doubles ranking is No. 85, achieved on 19 September 2016. Cepede ...

and ninth seed

Jana Čepelová Jana Čepelová (; born 29 May 1993) is an inactive Slovak tennis player. She has won seven singles titles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 12 May 2014, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 50. On 18 May 2015, she p ...

in her first two matches before losing to the 26th seed,

Alexandra Panova Alexandra Alexandrovna Panova (russian: Александра Александровна Панова; born 2 March 1989) is a Russian professional tennis player. On 30 July 2012, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 71. On 18 ...

, in the final round. Liu, alongside

Taylor Fritz Taylor Harry Fritz (born October 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on October 10, 2022, and a doubles ranking of w ...

, was also given a wildcard for the mixed-doubles event; they were defeated in the first round by the fourth seeds and eventual champions,

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, sk, Martina Hingisová; 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis is the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks a ...

and

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

2017: Grand Slam debut in singles and doubles

After securing two ITF tournament wins in 2017, Liu was granted again a wildcard into the qualifying for the US Open. She defeated all three of her opponents in the qualifying tournament, earning her a spot in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam championship for the first time. There, she was defeated in the first round, in straight sets by

Duan Yingying Duan Yingying (; born 3 July 1989) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In her career, she won one singles title and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, and two WTA Challenger doubles titles, as well as eleven singles and three d ...

. In their Grand Slam doubles main-draw debut, Liu and Taylor Johnson lost in the first round at the US Open.

2018: First major win

At the

2018 Wimbledon Championships The 2018 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday, 2 July 2018 and ...

, Liu advanced to the main draw by winning all of her qualifying matches. She lost in the second round to the eventual champion

Angelique Kerber Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 1, for a total of 34 weeks, and won three major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and the 2018 Wim ...

. Liu was the only player in the tournament to win a set against Kerber.

2019-2021: Top 100 debut

In October 2019, Liu won her 4th title on the ITF Circuit at a $25k tournament in

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

. After finishing as a runner-up in two tournaments in 2020 and another two in 2021, Liu won consecutive tournaments in May 2021 at a $60k tournament in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

and a $100k tournament in Charleston. As a result she reached the top 100 on 23 August 2021.

2022: First WTA final, top 75

In May, she reached her maiden WTA Tour tournament final in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

losing to

Martina Trevisan Martina Trevisan (; born 3 November 1993) is an Italian professional tennis player. Trevisan is the current Italian No. 1, has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 24 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and in 2021 had a peak doubles r ...

who was also a first-time WTA finalist. As a result she reached the top 75 on 23 May 2022.

Performance timelines

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

''Current through the 2022 Tunis.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 US Open.''

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 10 (6 titles, 4 runner–ups)

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner–up)

Girls' doubles: 1 (title)

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Claire 2000 births Living people American female tennis players People from Thousand Oaks, California Tennis people from California Wimbledon junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles American sportspeople of Chinese descent Chinese-American tennis players Sportspeople from Ventura County, California 21st-century American women