Céline Naef (born 25 June 2005) is a Swiss

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 121 in singles, achieved on 16 October 2023, and No. 122 in doubles, reached on 18 November 2024. Naef has won 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. Sometimes called the WTA Challenger tour (analogous to the men's ATP Challenger Series),

along with six singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Career

Junior years

Naef had a successful junior career. Her career-high ranking as a junior was world No. 4. In 2022, Naef won a prestigious tournament for juniors, the

Trofeo Bonfiglio The Trofeo Bonfiglio ("Bonfiglio Trophy"), also known as the Campionati Internazionali d'Italia Juniores ("International Junior Championships of Italy"), is a prestigious junior tennis tournament held on outdoor red clay courts in Milan, Italy. It ...

(Grade A). In 2022, Naef reached the final of the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

, partnering

Nikola Bartůňková Nikola Bartůňková (born 25 February 2006) is a Czech tennis player. Bartůňková has a career-high singles ranking by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) of 226, achieved on 8 April 2024, and a career-high WTA doubles ranking of 320, achiev ...

. In July 2022, she played in the final of the European Youth Championship held in

Klosters Klosters is a Switzerland, Swiss village in the Prättigau, politically part of the Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality of Klosters-Serneus, which belongs to the political district Prättigau/Davos Region, Prättigau/Davos in the Cantons o ...

, Switzerland which she lost to

Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva (born 9 August 2005) is an Andorran professional tennis player. At the age of 14, she won the 2020 Australian Open – Girls' singles, 2020 Australian Open girls' singles title. On 14 November 2022, she reached her b ...

2022: ITF Circuit titles

Naef played and won her first final in Monastir, Tunisia, in March 2022. In October 2022, she became champion in both singles and doubles in Reims, France. A week later, she won another singles title in

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (, ; Norman: ''Tchidbouo'') is a port city in the department of Manche, Normandy, northwestern France, established on 1 January 2016.Irene Burillo Escorihuela Irene Burillo Escorihuela (born 23 July 1997) is a Spanish professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 207 in singles, achieved in January 2022, and No. 272 in doubles, achieved on 7 August 2023. She has won six singles ...

in the final.

2023: WTA Tour debut, major and top 125 debuts

Naef started the season with a title in

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

, England where she became the champion by defeating British Eliz Maloney in the final. In February, Naef played her first $40k tournament finals, and became the champion in both singles and doubles in Porto, Portugal. The 17 years old made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

debut as a wildcard at the 2023 Rosmalen Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and recorded her first tour-level win at the grass court event, defeating wildcard

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 11 wee ...

. Next, she defeated eighth seed

Caty McNally Catherine "Caty" McNally (born November 20, 2001) is an American professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 54 on 22 May 2023 and her best WTA doubles ranking of No. 11 on 4 April 2022. She has won ei ...

, before losing to top seed

Veronika Kudermetova Veronika Eduardovna Kudermetova (born 24 April 1997) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 9, achieved on 24 October 2022, and a best WTA doubles ranking of No. 2, reached on 6 June 2022. In ...

in the quarterfinals. She made her Grand Slam tournament debut 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 * W ...

after qualifying but lost in the first round to 22nd seed

Anastasia Potapova Anastasia Sergeyevna Potapova. (born 30 March 2001) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of No. 21 by the WTA rankings, WTA, achieved on 19 June 2023, and a doubles ranking of world No. 40, reached on 5 ...

2024

Ranked No. 161, she received again a wildcard for the Rosmalen Open in 's-Hertogenbosch and defeated qualifier

Elizabeth Mandlik Elizabeth Hana Mandlik (born 19 May 2001) is an American tennis player. She is the daughter of Grand Slam champion Hana Mandlíková. Mandlik has career-high rankings by the WTA of 97 in singles and 187 in doubles. She has won eight singles tit ...

, before losing to second seed and eventual champion

Liudmila Samsonova Liudmila Dmitrievna Samsonova ( rus, Людмила Дмитриевна Самсонова, , lʲʊdˈmʲiɫə sɐmˈsonəvə; born 11 November 1998) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 12 in singles ...

. Partnering fellow Swiss player

Belinda Bencic Belinda Bencic (; born 10 March 1997) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 4 which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won nine career singles titles, including Tennis at the 2020 ...

, she was runner-up in the doubles at the WTA 125 Open Angers Arena Loire, losing to

Monica Niculescu Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA as high as No. 28 in singles and No. 11 in doubles. She has won three singles and 10 dou ...

and

Elena-Gabriela Ruse Elena-Gabriela Ruse (born 6 November 1997) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 51 and a doubles ranking of No. 32 achieved in May 2022 and 2023 respectively. She is currently the No. ...

in the final. The following week Naef reached the singles final at the WTA 125 Open de Limoges with wins over ninth seed Oceane Dodin,

Sara Saito is a Japanese tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 159, achieved on 16 December 2024. She reached her career-high doubles ranking of No. 484 on 18 March 2024. Career 2023: Juniors She has a career-high ITF jun ...

, fifth seed

Erika Andreeva Erika Aleksandrovna Andreeva ( rus, Эрика Александровна Андреева, p=ˈɛrʲɪkə ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvnə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvə, born 24 June 2004) is a Russian tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world N ...

and

Elsa Jacquemot Elsa Jacquemot (born 3 May 2003) is a French tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 113 in singles achieved on 9 June 2025 and No. 325 in doubles. Career 2020: WTA and Major debuts, Roland Garros Junior champion Jacquemot ...

. She lost the championship match to seventh seed

Viktorija Golubic Viktorija Golubic (; ; born 16 October 1992) is a Swiss professional tennis player. On 28 February 2022, she reached her career-high singles WTA ranking of No. 35. On 17 April 2023, she peaked at No. 61 in the doubles rankings. She is the curre ...

. Despite her defeat, Naef rose 28 places in the WTA rankings as a result of her run to the final, ending the 2024 season at World No.153.

Performance timeline

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

Singles

''Current through the 2024 Wuhan Open.''

Junior Grand Slam tournament finals

Girls' doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 9 (7 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Doubles: 7 (6 titles, 1 runner-ups)

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naef, Céline 2005 births Living people Swiss female tennis players 21st-century Swiss sportswomen Sportspeople from the canton of Schwyz