Monica Puig

Monica Puig Marchán[lower-alpha 1] (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican professional tennis player and the reigning Olympic champion. She is also a Central American and Caribbean champion and Pan American silver medalist. She is the first Puerto Rican in history to win an Olympic gold medal while representing Puerto Rico.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Puig and the second or maternal family name is Marchán.
Monica Puig
Puig at the 2019 French Open
Full nameMonica Puig Marchán
Country (sports) Puerto Rico
ResidenceChicago, Illinois, U.S.
Born (1993-09-27) September 27, 1993
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned pro2010
PlaysRight-handed
(two-handed backhand)
CoachPhilippe DeHaes
Prize moneyUS$ 3,411,976
Singles
Career record303–210 (59.1%)
Career titles2
Highest rankingNo. 27 (September 26, 2016)
Current rankingNo. 90 (March 16, 2020)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open3R (2016)
French Open3R (2013, 2016, 2019)
Wimbledon4R (2013)
US Open2R (2014, 2018)
Other tournaments
Olympic GamesW (2016)
Doubles
Career record18–36 (33.3%)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 210 (May 25, 2015)
Current rankingNo. 425 (March 16, 2020)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open2R (2018)
French Open1R (2014, 2015, 2016)
Wimbledon2R (2016)
US Open1R (2013, 2014, 2016)
Team competitions
Fed Cup27–12 (69.2%)
Medal record
Women's tennis
Representing  Puerto Rico
Olympic Games
2016 Rio de JaneiroSingles
Pan American Games
2011 GuadalajaraSingles
2015 TorontoSingles
Central American and Caribbean Games
2010 MayagüezSingles
2014 VeracruzSingles
2018 BarranquillaSingles
2018 BarranquillaDoubles
2010 MayagüezMixed doubles
Last updated on: April 6, 2020.

Having turned professional in 2010, Puig has won two WTA singles titles and six ITF singles titles. On 26 September 2016, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 27. On 25 May 2015, she peaked at No. 210 in the doubles rankings.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Puig won the gold medal and the ninth overall medalist for Puerto Rico. With the feat, she also became the first Latin American champion in the women's singles discipline, and is the only unseeded female player to win the gold medal since the reintroduction of tennis in 1988.

Early life

Mónica (later Monica) Puig Marchán was born to a Cuban American father, José Puig, and a Puerto Rican mother, Astrid Marchán.[1] Puig stated her paternal grandparents are Catalan.[lower-alpha 2][2][3][4]

Tennis career

Junior career

In 2007, she entered her first tournament at the Prince Cup, but withdrew from the qualifying draw.

In 2008, she started the season with a surprise run to the final of the Costa Rica Bowl (grade 3) as a qualifier losing in straight sets to Eugenie Bouchard. She continued her good form, winning two out of three tournaments. Puig continued good results in small grade-3 and-4 tournaments. In her first grade-1 tournament in Lexington, she defeated Charlotte Calhoun before going out to Lauren Embree. She continued to participate in bigger tournaments, though not with as much success as she had in the smaller ones.

Puig had her breakthrough season in 2009; she started doing much better in the bigger tournaments. She reached her first grade-1 final in Casablanca, losing to Mai Grage of Denmark. She continued playing consistently, highlights of the latter months of the year included a semifinal appearance at a grade-B1 tournament in Tulsa, losing to Bouchard in three sets. In her next tournament, she won the doubles title.

In 2010, she continued her successes at a higher level. Puig started the year reaching the final of the 32nd International Casablanca Junior Cup (grade A), falling easily to Sachie Ishizu of Japan. She then reached another final a week later at the Coffee Bowl (grade 1) losing to An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium in straights. Puig followed that up with a semifinal appearance at a grade-1 tournament in Barranquilla. Consistent results followed, before a huge grade-A title at the 27th Copa Gerdau, defeating Jessica Pegula in the final. After a semifinal appearance at another grade-A calibre tournament, she fell in the quarterfinals of the French Open. After that, she failed to advance past the quarterfinals of any of her tournaments until the US Open, where she lost to Yulia Putintseva. Puig finished the season with a flourish, falling in the quarterfinals of Osaka (grade A), the final of Mérida (grade 1) and the semis of Key Biscayne (grade A), both to Lauren Davis.

In July, Puig won the gold medal in women's singles at the Central American and Caribbean Games.[5] At the Youth Olympics in Singapore, she was the second seed in the singles event but lost in the first round to Zheng Saisai of China in straight sets.[6]

2011: Junior Grand Slam finals in Melbourne and Roland Garros

In January, Puig won the Loy Yang Traralgon International defeating Yulia Putintseva of Russia.[7] Puig was also in the juniors event of the Australian Open. She qualified for the final but lost to Belgian An-Sophie Mestach.[8][9] On February 20, Puig won the singles title in Surprise, Arizona defeating Slovak Lenka Wienerová in straight sets.[10]

Puig received a wild card into the qualifying draw of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. She defeated Anne Keothavong in the first round but was then knocked out by Sorana Cîrstea in three sets.

In the juniors event of the French Open, she also qualified for the final but lost to Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

Puig won the silver medal at the Pan American Games after defeating Christina McHale of the United States to advance to the gold medal round. She lost to Irina Falconi of the United States in the final.

2012: Reaching the top 200

In January 2012, Puig entered the WTA Tour's ASB Classic in Auckland, ranked 213 in the world. She won the first and second round of qualifying matches, but lost in the last round to the No. 145 in the world, Karolína Plíšková. On 16 January, Puig entered the Australian Open qualifying draw ranked 209. She lost in the second round to Kirsten Flipkens. At the $25,000 Andrézieux-Bouthéon tournament, she won two qualifying matches but lost in the first round to Magda Linette of Poland.

In the following month, Puig played on the qualifying draw of two WTA Tour events, Bogotá and Monterrey, without being able to get past the first round of the main draw. She received a wild card to play in the Indian Wells Masters qualifying draw, but, in the second round, lost to world No. 66, Eleni Daniilidou. Her breakthrough came when she reached the final of the Poza Rica $25,000 tournament unseeded. The last two matches prior to the final included wins against tournament seeds No. 4 and 1, although she lost to second seed Yaroslava Shvedova.

The second breakthrough of 2012 occurred when she won the first $50,000 tournament of her career at Joué-lès-Tours, France. Puig opened the first round by eliminating the top-seed and world ranked 87, Alexandra Panova. In the semifinals, she defeated An-Sophie Mestach, the same opponent to whom she lost in the 2011 Australian Open junior final.

2013: Entering the top 100
Puig at the 2013 French Open

Puig began her season at the Brisbane International. After coming through qualifying, she reached the second round where she lost to fourth seed Angelique Kerber.[11] At the Australian Open, Puig was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Qiang Wang.

In Paris at the Open GDF Suez, Puig lost in the final round of qualifying to Stefanie Vögele. Seeded eighth at the Dow Corning Tennis Classic, Puig reached the semifinal where she was defeated by top seed and eventual champion Lauren Davis.[12]

2014: First WTA title, high ranking of No. 41

In May, she played and won her first WTA final in Strasbourg, defeating Sílvia Soler Espinosa. This success took her to her highest WTA ranking 41st.

In October 2014, Puig won first place at the WTA Rising Stars Invitational in Singapore. Puig defeated Zheng Saisai in two sets.[13] At the end of the year, she was world No. 59.

In this same year, she also won the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico representing Puerto Rico.[14]

2015: Lesser results, still in top 100

2016: Breakthrough and Olympic gold medal

Puig started the season strongly in Sydney. As a qualifier, she went on to defeat Magdaléna Rybáriková, Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Samantha Stosur, and Belinda Bencic before losing in her second WTA final to Svetlana Kuznetsova.

At the Australian Open, she reached the third round, defeating Magda Linette and Kristýna Plíšková before losing to the fourth seed Agnieszka Radwańska. At the French Open, she repeated her Australian Open success to reach the third round, defeating Olga Govortsova and Julia Görges, before losing to the 15th seed Madison Keys. In the Aegon International, Puig progressed as far as to the semifinals after beating Kristina Mladenovic. Weeks later, she progressed on Wimbledon and faced home player Johanna Konta in the first round, in which Puig lost to Konta in two sets.

At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Puig won the women's singles gold medal by defeating Polona Hercog, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Laura Siegemund, Petra Kvitová, and finally Angelique Kerber. Puig became the second unseeded player to win a medal at the Olympics after Alicia Molik had won bronze in Athens and the first athlete representing Puerto Rico to win a gold medal in any sport.[15][16] In Puerto Rico's Olympic history, Puig is the ninth sportsperson and the first sportswoman to win an Olympic medal. She is the first Latin American representative to win the gold medal in singles and the second to win a medal after Gabriela Sabatini won silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics.[17] In November, Puig was presented the award for Best Female Athlete in Rio 2016 presented by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).[18][19]

She was not originally seeded at the US Open, but after a withdrawal of seeded Sloane Stephens, Puig became the 32nd seed. She lost in the first round to Zheng Saisai, and also in doubles with Mariana Duque-Mariño to Nicole Gibbs and Nao Hibino.

2017: Loss of form

Concluding her 2016 season with a career best year-end ranking of 32, Puig was unable to replicate her success throughout 2017 and fell out of the top 50 in June.[20] By losing in three sets to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in the first round of the US Open, Puig concluded her 2017 season without advancing past the second round of any Grand Slam or Premier Mandatory tournament. However, she did end the season on a high note by reaching her fourth career WTA final at BGL Luxembourg Open.

2018

After convincingly dispatching Samantha Stosur in the first round of the Miami Open, Puig came back from a first-set deficit to upset the second seed Caroline Wozniacki in three sets for the fourth top-10 win of her career and a spot in the third round of the Premier Mandatory tournament.[21] In May, Puig announced that she would withdraw from both the Internationaux de Strasbourg and French Open tournaments because of a hip injury.[22]

Coaching

Puig has had multiple coaches in her career, including Alain De Vos (2008–2014), Ricardo Sánchez (2014–2015), Juan Todero (2015–2018), and Kamau Murray and Othmane Garma (2019).[23][24] In September 2019, she announced Philippe DeHaes as her new coach.[25]

World TeamTennis

Puig has played one season of World TeamTennis making her debut in 2019 with the Vegas Rollers for their inaugural season. It has been announced that Puig will return to the Vegas Rollers during the 2020 WTT season set to begin July 12 at The Greenbrier.[26]

Personal life

Puig is dating Major League Baseball player Derek Dietrich. The two began their relationship in 2018.[27] In August of 2019, Puig served a baseball to Dietrich from the mound before a game, in lieu of throwing out the first pitch.[28]

Significant finals

Olympic final

Singles: 1 gold medal
Result Year Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Gold 2016 Summer Olympics Rio Hard Angelique Kerber 6–4, 4–6, 6–1

Career statistics
Main article: Monica Puig career statistics

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# A NH
(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Tournament201220132014201520162017201820192020SRW–LWin %
Australian Open Q2 Q1 2R 2R 3R 2R 2R 1R A 0 / 6 6–6 50%
French Open Q3 3R 1R 1R 3R 2R A 3R 0 / 6 7–6 54%
Wimbledon A 4R 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R NH 0 / 7 4-7 36%
US Open Q1 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 0 / 7 2–7 22%
Win–Loss 0–0 5–3 2–4 1–4 4–4 2–4 2–3 3–4 0–0 0 / 26 19–26 42%
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See also

References

Notes

  1. Spanish: Mónica Puig Marchán,
    pronounced [ˈmonika ˈpwiɣ maɾˈtʃan];
    Catalan pronunciation: [ˈputʃ]
  2. "Mis abuelos son Catalanes", "My grandparents are Catalans. -lavanguardia.com.

Footnotes

  1. "Monica Puig". WTA Tennis. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  2. "Mónica Puig: raíces catalanas en la final femenina". La Vanguardia. August 12, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2019. Mis abuelos son Catalanes ("My grandparents are Catalans")
  3. "The Championships, Wimbledon 2018 - Official Site by IBM". www.wimbledon.com.
  4. WTA Staff (April 15, 2015). "Puig Visits USANA In Colombia". WTA Tennis. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  5. "Tennis ace Monica Puig nets gold in Mayagüez". July 31, 2010. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  6. "Singapore challenge ends on opening day". International Tennis Federation. August 15, 2010. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  7. Monica Puig (Activity)
  8. "Australian Open Notebook". Metro. January 29, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  9. "Cae en la final Mónica Puig". El Nuevo Día. January 29, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  10. "ITF Tennis.com $25,000 Surprise, AZ, 2011". February 20, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
  11. Pye, John (January 2, 2013). "Azarenka beats Lisicki, reaches Brisbane quarters". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  12. Thompson, Lee (February 10, 2013). "Lauren Davis tops one comeback with another to reach finals of Dow Corning Tennis Classic". www.mlive.com.
  13. Figueroa, Alex (October 21, 2014). "Mónica Puig campeona en Singapur". El Nuevo Día.
  14. Giusti, Carlos Rivera (November 27, 2014). "Mónica Puig sale de oro en los Centroamericanos (galería)". NOTICEL. O2 Comunicaciones Inc. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  15. Hannah Wilks (August 11, 2016). "Petra Kvitova vs Monica Puig Rio Olympics tennis live: Winner will guarantee themselves an Olympic medal". LiveTennis.com. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  16. Dan Wolken (August 12, 2016). "Monica Puig tops Petra Kvitova, will go to play and win Puerto Rico's first gold". USAToday. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  17. Chu García (August 13, 2016). "Mónica: segunda latinoamericana en el podio". Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  18. ELNUEVODIA.COM (November 15, 2016). "Premian a Mónica Puig como Mejor Atleta Femenina de Río". El Nuevo Dia. El Nuevo Día. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  19. https://mobile.twitter.com/ANOC_Olympic/status/798585940704919552
  20. WTA (June 12, 2017). "WTA Rankings on 2017-06-12". WTAtennis.com. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  21. "Puig bounces back from bagel, stuns Wozniacki in Miami". March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  22. "Monica Puig announces heartbroken news". Tennis World. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  23. "Monica Puig has announced that Kamau Murray has joined her coaching team". WTA. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  24. "Monica Puig brings Kamau Murray on as new coach". Tennis Life. January 29, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  25. "Puig announces new collaboration with coach Dehaes". WTA. September 6, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  26. "World TeamTennis Adds Stars Tiafoe, Puig, Roanic, Bouchard, & Sock As Rosters Set For 2020". WTT.com. June 16, 2020.
  27. https://mobile.twitter.com/monicaace93/status/979514794054209536
  28. https://www.mlb.com/cut4/monica-puig-serves-first-pitch-for-reds
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