McCartney Kessler is a late developer on the WTA Tour who came through college tennis and found her first grass success in Nottingham in 2025. Her 2026 swing was uneven until Wimbledon, where a 6-0, 6-0 first-round win and a tight loss to the world No. 1 lifted her to 21st in the GTC Grass Rankings on a GTC Grass Rating of 102.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 102, 21st in the women’s rankings (27th before the season, on 98); provisional
- Pillars: Lawn Form 58, Arsenal 60, Wimbledon 36, Nerve 46
- Nationality: United States
- Best Wimbledon result: Second round (2026)
- Grass titles: Nottingham 2025
- College: University of Florida
How McCartney plays on grass
Kessler plays a direct, baseline-first game. She looks to take the ball early, hit through the court and keep points short, which is a sound approach on grass where long defensive rallies are hard to sustain. Her best tennis comes when she controls the centre of the court and can step in on short balls, as she did through the second set against Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon.
The serve is serviceable rather than a weapon, so she does not collect many free points, and against stronger returners she has to work hard on each service game. Her Arsenal score of 60 reflects a game that is solid in most areas but lacks one shot that consistently wins points on its own. Transition to the net and use of slice are areas where she has room to grow on this surface.
The Nerve figure of 46 is tied to the big moments she has not yet converted. At Wimbledon she held four set points against Sabalenka and won none of them, a result that shows both how close her level is and where the gap remains.
Grass record
Kessler played four years at the University of Florida, where she was a three-time All-American and the 2022 SEC Player of the Year, before committing to the professional tour. Her Wimbledon debut in 2024 ended in the first round against ninth seed Maria Sakkari.
The breakthrough came in 2025 in Nottingham, where she won her first grass title and third WTA title overall, beating Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 7-5 in the final. At Wimbledon that year she was seeded 32nd but lost in the first round to Marketa Vondrousova.
The 2026 grass season
Her rating started at 98 and dipped to 97 after an early exit at Queen’s. As defending champion in Nottingham she lost in the first round to Katie Volynets, which left the rating at 97 and cost her the points from her 2025 title. Eastbourne was the recovery: she reached the quarter-finals before losing to Madison Keys, who went on to win the title, and her rating rose to 98.
At Wimbledon she beat Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-0, 6-0, the first double-bagel win by an unseeded player at the event since Mary Pierce in 2003. In the second round she lost to top seed Aryna Sabalenka 1-6, 6-7(9). After a heavy first set she led 5-3 in the second with two set points and had two more in the tie-break. That week took her rating to 102. It remains provisional because her grass sample is still small.
Looking ahead to 2027
Kessler has no title to defend at Nottingham next year, which makes the early weeks a chance to build ranking points rather than protect them. A schedule of Nottingham, a 500 event and Eastbourne would give her the volume of grass matches the GTC model needs to drop the provisional flag. The realistic Wimbledon target is a first third-round finish, and a second grass title would move her rating into the 105 to 108 range.
