Maria Fernanda Barbato Alves
(; born 17 April 1983), also known as Nanda Alves, is a retired Brazilian

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. As of 1 March 2010, Alves was ranked world No. 262, and was the highest ranked Brazilian player.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour , Rankings , Singles Nationalities , Brazil
She enjoyed success on the ITF Circuit, winning 23 singles and 58 doubles titles.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour , Players , Stats , Maria Fernanda Alves
Alves made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

debut at

Copa Colsanitas The Copa Colsanitas is a women's professional tennis tournament held in Bogotá, Colombia at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento. Held since 1998, this WTA 250 tournament is played on outdoor clay courts A clay court is one of the types of tenni ...

in 2004, and played qualifications for all four

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 ...

events.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour , Players , Activity , Maria Fernanda Alves
Partnering with Vanessa Henke, she took part in the

2005 Australian Open The 2005 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 until 30 January 2005. Roger Federer was unsuccessful in defending his 2004 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Marat Safin ...

doubles event, but they lost to

Daniela Hantuchová Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Masters, defeating Mar ...

and

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

in the first round. After

2016 Brasil Tennis Cup The 2016 Brasil Tennis Cup was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 4th edition of the Brasil Tennis Cup, a WTA International tournaments of the 2016 WTA Tour. It took place in Florianópolis, Brazil from July 3 ...

, Alves retired from professional tennis.

Personal life

Alves was born on 17 April 1983 to Carlos José Alves and Maria Cristina Barbato Alves, who were both professional tennis players.Official Website: Nanda e a Família
She resides in her hometown

Florianópolis Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina, in the South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as well as part of the mainland. It has a populat ...

, Santa Catarina.Maria Fernanda Alves
at the

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there a ...

Alves began playing tennis aged four, along with her older sister Maria Cláudia. She cites

Jennifer Capriati Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics. C ...

(of whom she said, "Capriati, because she played really well; she had problems with

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...

and she escaped. I admire her determination to get out of that hole."),

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

and

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...

as her role models, and clay as her favourite surface. Alves often works with kids in her father's tennis camp in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

.Nanda Kids: Conheça o projeto Nanda Kids
Some of the players who practised in that camp are former world No. 1 player

Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the French Open singles title three times ( 1997, 2000, and 2001), and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000. During his career he ...

Marcelo Melo Marcelo is a given name, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Marcellus. The Italian version of the name is Marcello, differing in having an additional "l". Marcelo may refer to: * Marcelo Costa de Andrade (born 1967), Brazilian serial killer, rapi ...

, André Sá and others. She was coached by her father Carlos and former tennis professional

Thomaz Koch Thomaz Koch (born 11 May 1945) is a former tennis player from Brazil, who was a quarterfinalist at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. National Championships. He won at least 14 singles titles (three in the Open Era) and three doubles ti ...

Equipment

Alves played i
Solfire
gear and used Dunlop racket, model ''Aerogel 500 Tour''.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour , Players , Info (Player Gear) , Maria Fernanda Alves

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 40 (23 titles, 17 runner-ups)

Doubles: 104 (58 titles, 46 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alves, Maria Fernanda 1983 births Brazilian female tennis players Living people Sportspeople from Florianópolis 20th-century Brazilian women 21st-century Brazilian women