Kayla Day (born September 28, 1999) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 122 by the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenn ...

(WTA). As a junior, she won one junior Grand Slam title, at the 2016 US Open. There, she also finished runner–up in the girls' doubles event, partnering with

Caroline Dolehide Caroline Dolehide ( ; born September 5, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 102 in July 2018. Her best performances on the WTA Tour came in doubles at the 2019 and the 2022 US Opens ...

. Despite having success as junior, Day is mostly spending time playing at 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 ...

instead of

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 tou ...

, due to her ranking. She officially turned professional in 2017, at the Australian Open.

Early life and background

Kayla started playing tennis when she was seven years old. Her mother is from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Junior career

Kayla was No. 1 in the girls' 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s US national rankings. In 2016, she climbed to No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings by winning the 2016 Junior US Open, reaching the semifinals at the 2016 Wimbledon, and reaching the final at the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

the previous year. She also achieved her best doubles result at a Grand Slam as a runner-up at the 2016 Junior US Open with partner

. She won the 2016 Girls 18s National Championships to earn a wildcard into the main draw of the US Open. Kayla has been coached from the beginning by Larry Mousouris, who is also the coach of record to two other Junior US Open winners, Michael Falberg and Tim Triguero.

Professional career

2016-2017: Turned professional, first title, Grand Slam & Premier-level debut

Day made her

debut at the Connecticut Open in New Haven, after reaching the main draw as a

lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw, usually when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness, injury ...

, having defeated

Naomi Broady Naomi Broady (; born 28 February 1990) is a British tennis player. She has won one WTA doubles title, as well as nine singles titles and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 7 March 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of w ...

and

Kirsten Flipkens Kirsten "Flipper" Flipkens (; born 10 January 1986) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Flipkens has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, winning the 2012 T ...

along the way. The following week, she played in her first career Grand Slam at the US Open and won her first match against compatriot Madison Brengle. Shortly after turning 17, Day won her first career title at a $50k tournament in Macon, Georgia. The following week at Scottsdale, she reached the semifinals to enter the top 200 for the first time. With her combined performance at these two events, Day won the Australian ''Open Wild Card Challenge'' to earn a spot in the main draw at the first major event of 2017. Day picked up her first WTA Tour wins of the season — and first wins of her career at a Premier Mandatory event — at the 2017 Indian Wells Open, including a victory over 2017 Australian Open semifinalist

Mirjana Lučić-Baroni Mirjana Lučić-Baroni (; ; born 9 March 1982) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. She enjoyed a meteoric rise on the WTA Tour in the late 1990s, during which she set several "youngest-ever" records. She captured the women's doubles ...

to reach the third round of the tournament.

2022: WTA 1000 level main-draw qualification

After almost five years of absence at the WTA 1000 level she qualified for the main draw at the

Guadalajara Open The Guadalajara Open is a defunct men's tennis tournament that was played on the Grand Prix tennis circuit in 1978. The event was held in Guadalajara, Mexico and was played on outdoor clay courts. Unseeded Gene Mayer won the singles title while S ...

where she lost in the first round to

Eugenie Bouchard Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard (; french: Eugénie Bouchard, ; born February 25, 1994) is a Canadian tennis player. At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a Grand Slam t ...

.https://www.tenniscanada.com/news/guadalajara-2022-tuesday/

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner–ups)

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner–up)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' singles: 1 (title)

Girls' doubles: 1 (runner-up)

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Kayla Tennis people from California Living people 1999 births American female tennis players US Open (tennis) junior champions Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California American people of Czech descent Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles 21st-century American women