Beatriz Haddad Maia

Beatriz "Bia" Haddad Maia (born 30 May 1996) is a Brazilian professional tennis player. On 12 June 2023, she reached a career-high in the WTA rankings at world No. 10 in singles on 12 June 2023 and in doubles on 8 May 2023 becoming the first Brazilian woman to enter the top 10 in singles since the rankings were introduced. Haddad Maia has won three singles and seven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, and reached a major semifinal at the 2023 French Open.

Playing for Brazil Fed Cup team, Haddad Maia has a win–loss record of 28–11 (10–2 in doubles) as of March 2024.

Early life and background
Born in São Paulo to her parents Ayrton Elias Maia Filho and Lais Scaff Haddad, Haddad Maia started playing tennis at the age of 5. She comes from a tennis family of Lebanese descent. Both her mother Lais Scaff Haddad and her grandmother Arlette Scaff Haddad were successful tennis players in Brazil.

She is also the niece of the famous Brazilian Rolando Boldrin (1936–2022).

Career
Haddad Maia peaked at No. 15 in the ITF junior rankings. She won her first professional doubles title at the $10k tournament in Mogi das Cruzes in September 2010, aged 14, playing alongside Flávia Guimarães Bueno, and her first professional singles title at the $10k event in Goiânia in 2011, aged 15.

Her best achievement as a junior player was being doubles runner-up at the French Open twice in 2012 and 2013 partnering with Paraguayan Montserrat González and Ecuadorian Doménica González respectively. She was also a doubles semifinalist at the Wimbledon Championships in 2011 playing alongside Mayya Katsitadze from Russia.

She turned professional in 2014, and in December 2014, she was Brazil's second highest ranked female tennis player.

She made her WTA Tour-level debut at the 2013 Brasil Tennis Cup in Florianópolis as a wildcard. She scored her first WTA Tour main-draw win against Hsu Chieh-yu in the first round, losing to Melinda Czink in the second round. At the same tournament, Haddad Maia made her WTA Tour-level doubles main-draw debut with partner Carla Forte.

In 2014, she was handed a wildcard at both the Rio Open and Brasil Tennis Cup main draws, losing in the first round of singles and doubles of both tournaments. In February 2015, she reached the quarterfinals of the Rio Open as a wildcard. Playing alongside Teliana Pereira, she reached the semifinals in the doubles competition but was forced to withdraw due to the injury sustained in the singles competition.

At Bogotá, Haddad Maia won her first WTA Tour doubles title with compatriot Paula Cristina Gonçalves, defeating Irina Falconi and Shelby Rogers in the final. In July 2015, she suffered a shoulder injury at the Pan American Games in Toronto, resulting in season-ending surgery.

In 2016, Haddad Maia was awarded wildcards from the Rio Open, Miami Open, and Brasil Tennis Cup.

Having fallen to the 367th position in the rankings by 18 July 2016, Haddad Maia recovered almost 200 spots during the second half of 2016, finishing the year with two consecutive $50k titles in Scottsdale and Waco.

2017: Top 100, first singles final
Haddad Maia started her 2017 season in Australia, playing two tournaments in Perth and winning the $25k event in Clare, South Australia in both singles and doubles with partner Genevieve Lorbergs.

At Bogotá, she won her second title at the event. Playing with Argentinian Nadia Podoroska, she defeated Cepede Royg and Magda Linette in the final.

During the European clay season, she entered the qualifying tournament at Stuttgart and lost to Kristýna Plíšková in the quarterfinals.

The following week, Haddad Maia had the best performance of her career at the $100k Open de Cagnes-sur-Mer, when she won the title without dropping a set, defeating Jil Teichmann in the final. As a result, Haddad Maia made her debut in the top 100 of the WTA rankings.

At the French Open's qualifying tournament, Haddad Maia won all three of her qualifying matches, earning a spot in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. Also on clay, she reached the semifinals of the Bol Open, a WTA 125 event, losing to the eventual champion, Aleksandra Krunić.

Haddad Maia received her first direct acceptance at a Grand Slam main draw at Wimbledon, losing in the second round to Simona Halep. In the doubles competition, she reached the third round with Croatian partner Ana Konjuh, losing to Chan Hao-ching and Monica Niculescu.

She gained her first direct acceptance at a WTA Tour-level tournament at the Korean Open. Haddad Maia reached her first tour-level singles final at the tournament, losing to Jeļena Ostapenko.

2018: Injury and hiatus
After the Australian Open, she played for Brazil at the American Fed Cup Zone six rubbers between both singles and doubles and won five of them.

2019–20: Doping suspension and return
Haddad Maia qualified for the Australian Open, reaching the second round of the main draw. She also reached the quarterfinals, as a qualifier, at the WTA Tour event in Acapulco in late February, losing to eventual champion Wang Yafan.

Again out of the qualifying, Haddad Maia reached the semifinals at the Copa Colsanitas, losing to eventual champion Amanda Anisimova.

After retiring due to injury in the first round of qualifying at the French Open, she played a WTA Challenger event in Bol, Croatia during the second week of the French Open. It was there that she reportedly failed the urine test. On 23 July 2019, it was announced by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) that Haddad Maia had been issued an immediate provisional suspension, pending determination of the charge against her at a full hearing, after a positive test for metabolites of two Selective androgen receptor modulator substances. The ITF's announcement stated that Haddad Maia waived the right to an immediate appeal. A full hearing to determine the charge against her was scheduled to be held at a later date.

In February 2020, the ITF issued the verdict that the supplement ingested was contaminated. It defined the suspension for ten months, considering the time she was away. The federation's report didn't release her from responsibilities, citing the case of fellow Brazilian tennis players Marcelo Demoliner, Thomaz Bellucci and Igor Marcondes, who had found themselves in a similar situation. The ITF removed the bigger sentence, which could have gone from two to four years. Haddad Maia was free to return on 22 May, the eve of the Roland Garros tournament. However, without ranking, having dropped to 1342nd during the suspension, she could not compete in that major event, having to start in small tournaments.

After widespread cancellation of tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to play in September 2020 at the ITF event of Montemor-o-Novo in Portugal. Haddad won the title and three more on Portuguese soil in the next month. A hand injury led to an enchondroma diagnosis, forcing her to go through a season-ending surgery.

2021: Indian Wells fourth round, back to top 100
In October, at the rescheduled Indian Wells Open, Haddad Maia lost in qualifying but was awarded a spot in the main draw following the withdrawal of 29th seed Nadia Podoroska. She upset Karolína Plíšková to advance to the fourth round. The performance was enough to return to the top 100.

2022: Major doubles & WTA 1000 singles finals, top 15 in singles & doubles, WTA Finals


Haddad Maia playded doubles at Melbourne with Anna Danilina, and they reached the final, making Haddad only the third Brazilian woman in a final of a Grand Slam tournament, after Maria Bueno and Cláudia Monteiro. Haddad Maia rose to No. 40 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Her best performance after the Australian Open was in the Monterrey Open, reaching the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Leylah Fernandez. Haddad also managed another upset over a top-5 player at the Miami Open, beating world No. 3, Maria Sakkari, to reach the third round on a WTA 1000 level for the third time in her career.

In May, she won her first WTA 125 tournament, the Open de Saint-Malo, defeating Russian Anna Blinkova in the final, and she won the doubles at the Trophee Lagardère in Paris with Mladenovic while also being runner-up in the singles to Claire Liu. As a result, Haddad Maia surpassed her previous career-high of 57 in the singles rankings with No. 49, becoming the first Brazilian in the top 50 since Teliana Pereira in 2015.

Haddad won her biggest singles title at the WTA 250 Nottingham Open, while also winning the doubles tournament alongside Zhang Shuai. The results boosted her to the top 40 in the singles and top 30 in doubles rankings. She followed this victory by facing Zhang in the final of the Birmingham Classic, where Haddad won her second singles title after the Chinese retired in the first set. The title propelled her into the top 30 in singles for the first time in her career. She joined Ons Jabeur, who won in Berlin less than an hour earlier, and Iga Świątek as players to win multiple WTA Tour titles in the season. She was also the first Brazilian to win in the tournament 40-year history. Gisele Miró had the best previous result by a player from Brazil, reaching the second round in 1989. When Haddad lost her Eastbourne International semifinal match to Petra Kvitová, she had 12 wins and a walkover, the longest winning streak on grass courts since Serena Williams a decade earlier. Despite impressive form in the warm-up grass-court tournaments, she lost in the first round of Wimbledon.

Ranked No. 24 in singles at the start of the Canadian Open, she reached the final by defeating Martina Trevisan, Leylah Fernandez, Iga Świątek, and Belinda Bencic. As a result, she reached the top 20 in the singles rankings, on 15 August 2022. Haddad Maia then breezed past former number one, Karolína Plíšková, to become the first Brazilian woman ever to reach a WTA 1000 final. She lost the final against Simona Halep, in three sets.

At the WTA 1000 Guadajalara Open, Haddad and Danilina reached the final, and she became the first Brazilian woman in history to qualify for the WTA Finals. Thanks to this result, she also entered the world's top 15 in doubles for the first time. In an unprecedented Brazilian final at the WTA 1000 level against Luisa Stefani and Storm Sanders, they ended runners-up in a tight result, with a score of 7–6, 6–7 and [10–8] in favor of Stefani/Sanders. Haddad Maia finished the season being awarded by the WTA as Most Improved Player of 2022.

2023: First WTA 1000 doubles title, major singles semifinal, top 10 in singles and doubles


At the WTA 500 in Abu Dhabi, she reached the quarterfinals after more than a three-hour battle with Yulia Putintseva. Next, she reached the semifinals, defeating Elena Rybakina and recording a six-match winning streak against top-10 players. She lost the semifinal match to Belinda Bencic in straight sets. As a result, she moved to a career-high ranking of No. 12 on 13 February 2023.

Playing with Laura Siegemund, Haddad reached her second WTA 1000 doubles final in Indian Wells.

She won her first WTA 1000 doubles title at Madrid with Victoria Azarenka, defeating Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff in a final that was followed by controversy as none of the participating players were allowed to make a speech on the podium during the awards ceremony. The organizers subsequently apologized for the mistake. As a result, she reached the top 10 in the doubles rankings on 8 May 2023.

At the Italian Open, Haddad reached quarterfinals at a WTA 1000 level for the second time. Haddad Maia was close to qualifying for the semifinals, but in an extremely long match lasting 3 hours and 41 minutes, the longest of the season, she lost to Anhelina Kalinina. Still in the first set, Haddad felt an injury to her left leg, which ended up limiting her movement in decisive moments of the game.

At the French Open, she became the first Brazilian woman to reach the semifinals since Maria Bueno in 1966. Haddad lost the semifinal to top seed and world No. 1, Iga Świątek. She entered the top 10 in singles on 12 June 2023, becoming the first Brazilian woman to reach this milestone since the creation of the WTA rankings.

Haddad played on the grass courts of the Nottingham Open. In her first-round match, she slipped and felt a strong pain in the back of her knee that limited her movement, leaving her with edema in the region. She lost the match and had to withdraw from the following week's tournament in Birmingham. In the third week of the grass-court season, at the Eastbourne International, she won the first match but was forced to retire from her second-round match against Petra Martić, still due to her knee injury with the score at 4–6, 2–3.

She made up for these losses by having the best campaign of her career at Wimbledon. Haddad won the first three matches and reached the fourth round, during which she was forced to retire due to a lower back injury.

At the US Open, she reached the doubles quarterfinals, losing in a close match to former champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva.

Haddad won both tournaments at the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy, in doubles partnered with Veronika Kudermetova. She finised the season at No. 11, her best end of the season ranking.

2024: Historic Australian Open third round
Her first competition of the season was representing Brazil in the United Cup in Perth, Australia, a mixed team competition for countries. Haddad's evolution in the previous season was decisive for Brazil to qualify for this tournament for the second consecutive time. Although the team's performance was not good, being disqualified in the group stage, the Brazilian number one was the only one to obtain a victory for the team in the women's singles match against Sara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets.

Still on the Australian swing, Haddad participated in the Adelaide International. In the doubles bracket, she formed a partnership with Taylor Townsend. They won the tournament title beating Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, in straight sets in the final.

Then, Haddad entered directly into the Australian Open. In the singles draw, as No. 10 seed, she got past Linda Fruhvirtová in the first round in a three-set match, by Alina Korneeva in the second in straight sets, scoring the first Brazilian to advance from the second round in Australia since Maria Esther Bueno, but lost in the third round to Maria Timofeeva in straight sets. In the doubles bracket, keeping partnership with Townsend and as No. 8 seeds, they reached the round of 16, where they fell to the pair Cristina Bucșa / Alexandra Panova in straight sets. This campaign at the Australian Open placed Haddad back in the top 20 of the doubles rankings, occupying 20th position, gaining three places.

For the Abu Dhabi Open, in preparation for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Haddad decided to partner with compatriot Luisa Stefani, as both have the rankings to play the doubles tournament together, and previously won two ITF tournaments in 2019. She reached both semifinals of Abu Dhabi, but after losing a long match to Daria Kasatkina in the singles tournament, she got injured and pulled out of the doubles match the following day. Her next tournament was the Qatar Ladies Open where she lost in the first round to Wang Xinyu, in straight sets.

Endorsements
For clothing and footwear, Bia was sponsored by Joma from the 2018 to the 2023 season. From the 2024 season onwards, Haddad began to be sponsored by Asics. For rackets, Bia signed a sponsorship with Wilson in 2020.

In addition, Bia also signed sponsorships with companies from various sectors, such as: SMZTO (franchising) since 2021, and since 2023 the Itaú bank, of which she is an "ambassador" having participated in institutional campaigns and the insurance company Prudential.

At the end of 2023, Bia signed a sponsorship with the American jewelry trading company Tiffany & Co., and it is expected that she will wear the brand's products during the 2024 Grand Slam tournaments and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

In January 2024, Bia signed a sponsorship deal with the Brazilian food company Pandurata Alimentos and Chevrolet, a General Motors automobile company.

Awards

 * 2022: WTA Most Improved Player