Having recently been knocking on the door of elite women’s tennis more and more loudly, Hailey Baptiste burst through it last week (28 April) in Madrid.
The 24-year-old American stunned world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to make her first WTA 1000 semi-final at the Mutua Madrid Open, saving six match points along the way.
But for those inside the sport, it was a result many had seen coming.
“It’s incredible to see her improvement,” former world No. 1 Tracy Austin said on the Tennis Channel. “The mental work that she’s done… to trust herself against somebody who has been in those big moments so many more times.
“It’s remarkable.”
Tennis is no longer a sport reserved for teenaged breakthroughs. In 2019, at the age of 17, Baptiste stunned world No. 17 Madison Keys in her WTA debut, in front of a home crowd at the D.C. Open.
It’s been a winding, twisting road since then for the D.C. native.
“I’ve definitely put in the work,” Baptiste said in a separate interview on the Tennis Channel. “I’ve been in the gutter and have had to climb out of it a thousand times.
“I’ve visualised myself in these moments; I’ve been close to these moments. I could kind of smell it. I’ve put myself in positions to get the reps to be a little more comfortable when I get closer to the finish line.”
Baptiste is now a little closer to the top of the game, too, ranked a career-high world No. 25 this week (4 May) as the tour arrives at the Italian Open in Rome, with Roland-Garros set to begin later this month (24 May).
It marks a massive shift from a year ago, as Baptiste eyes being a (top 32) seed at a Grand Slam for the first time. She entered Rome in 2025 as world No. 90.
“I feel like I’ve earned this,” she said in Madrid.
Hailey Baptiste: Rise of a new American star
It was a decade ago that Hailey’s mother, Shari, had started her a GoFundMe page to help raise finances for her burgeoning career. Growing up in the D.C. area, she had trained at the Junior Tennis Champions Centre in College Park, Maryland, the same facility where Frances Tiafoe had started his tennis journey, too.
“I started playing when I was four,” she told reporters in 2019, after that breakout win over Keys.
Her father was her first coach before she made her way into the Washington Tennis Education Foundation and then – from there – the JTCC. In 2017, she made the move to Orlando to work across the USTA national campus there,
She nearly cracked the top 100 in 2022, but then was able to do so in March of 2024 after – ironically – a dramatic three-set loss to Keys in Indian Wells.
Baptiste is part of a generation of American women’s tennis that includes Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova, and others – like her – who are looking to climb into that next rung, including Ann Li, Peyton Stearns and Caty McNally.
“We all want each other to do well,” she added of Gauff and McNally in 2019.
But an athlete’s rise is never in a straight line. Baptiste has surrounded herself with strong, reliable voices, including a brief spell with Tiafoe’s twin brother, Franklin Tiafoe, as her coach.
Through all that time, Frances has remained a close, constant figure in Baptiste’s circle. Last year, the two featured in a video series for the ATP and WTA called Tour Tales.
“My brother!” Baptiste says to Tiafoe at one point, a wide grin on her face.
“You’re literally me!” Tiafoe adds, relating to his longtime friend.
2025 also marked a monumental moment for Baptiste on the doubles court when Venus Williams asked her to play together. The two paired up in D.C.
The win over Sabalenka in Madrid did not come from nowhere. A few weeks earlier, in Miami, Baptiste had fallen to Sabalenka in a tight two-setter in the quarter-finals.
She had registered wins over other top-10 foes in recent weeks in Elina Svitolina (Miami) and Jasmine Paolini (Madrid), and had pushed her longtime friend Gauff to three sets in the third round of the Australian Open in January, the first time she had made it that far.
“She was dictating a lot; especially on her forehand,” Gauff said of Baptiste’s power after the match.
Baptiste does play with a plethora of power, but also with a court sense that few others possess: She has a wicked slice backhand that can neutralise and confound, which pairs well with that aforementioned forehand and a booming, tricky first serve.
Her variety, she says, comes from playing at the JTCC with the likes of Tiafoe and other big-hitting older guys.
“She played great,” described Sabalenka after the Madrid match, where Baptiste saved six match points. “She played really brave tennis on those match points.”
Baptiste will look for more of that brave tennis as she aims to push even higher. She’s now the No. 6 American behind Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Anisimova, Iva Jovic and Keys. While we’re far from it, it’s a worthy reminder that only up to four singles spots will be available to Team USA at LA28.
No matter the progress on paper, Baptiste remains committed to the kind of game she wants to play, even if it remains uniquely hers.
“Tennis has always been somewhere where I’m expressing myself,” she explained in Australia.
“Coaches sometimes don’t agree with the way that I play, or my shot selection, but I kind of just have the mindset of doing what I want on the court, like hitting the shots that I want even if it’s a crazy shot or it makes zero sense.”
“Sometimes that’s what I want to do, and I do it.”
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
