The 21st century
United States · born Calhoun, Georgia, 1999 · right-handed · Nottingham champion 2025
All playersBack to the rankings
1
Grass singles title, Nottingham 2025
6-0, 6-0
First-round win at Wimbledon 2026
4
Set points held against Aryna Sabalenka, Wimbledon 2026
2R
Best Wimbledon result, 2026
Born in Calhoun, Georgia, on 8 July 1999, Kessler signed for the University of Florida in 2017 and became a three-time All-American and the 2022 SEC Player of the Year before turning to the professional tour. Her rise was late and quick: a WTA 125 title in Puerto Vallarta in February 2024, a first WTA title in Cleveland that August, then Hobart in January 2025 and Nottingham in June, followed on 30 June by a career-high No. 30. In August 2025 she won the Canadian Open doubles with Coco Gauff. She ended her 2026 season after the US Open, calling the year physically demanding. Her 2026 grass season brought an Eastbourne quarter-final and, at Wimbledon, a 6-0, 6-0 first-round win before a two-set loss to Aryna Sabalenka.
| Wimbledon singles | Second round 2026; first round 2024 (lost to the ninth seed Maria Sakkari) and 2025 (seeded 32nd, lost to Markéta Vondroušová) |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2026 | Ranked 57th. Beat Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-0, 6-0, the first double-bagel win by an unseeded woman at the Championships since Mary Pierce in 2003; lost to the top seed Aryna Sabalenka 1-6, 6-7 (9) after holding four set points |
| Grass titles | Nottingham 2025, unseeded: beat the top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, Zhu Lin, the two-time defending champion Katie Boulter and Rebecca Šramková, then Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 7-5 in the final |
| 2026 warm-ups | Nottingham, as defending champion: lost to Katie Volynets in the first round. Eastbourne: beat Daria Kasatkina and Anhelina Kalinina, then lost the quarter-final to Madison Keys, the eventual champion, 3-6, 1-6 |
| Nottingham | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Women's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"She really tested me today, and I'm really happy to pass the test."
The person behind the player.
Gainesville 2012
Roland Thornqvist, Florida's head coach, first saw her at a summer amateur tournament on the university's courts in the July heat. "She was 13 years old and not afraid at all," he recalled. When two players left the team she enrolled a semester early, in January 2018. "There was no learning curve," Thornqvist said of her first season.
Source: Florida Gators2022 · Turning professional
After four and a half years of college tennis she did not rush into the professional game. "It took me a few months to decide that I wanted to do it because I knew it had to be done full force or not at all," she said. Her brother McClain, who had played for the Florida men's team, became her coach on tour. "We were always around each other, which makes it fun."
Source: Tennis.comNottingham 2025
Unseeded, she beat the top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia and Katie Boulter, champion in the two previous years, then Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 7-5 in the final. It was her first grass title and her third WTA title, in her second season on the WTA Tour, and the ranking points put her in line for a seeding at Wimbledon.
Source: USTAWimbledon 2026 · First round
Ranked 57th, she beat Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-0, 6-0, her first match win at Wimbledon after first-round defeats in 2024 and 2025. Reuters noted that she was the only player in the women's draw to reach the second round without dropping a game. Her reward was a meeting with the world No. 1.
Source: The Star (Reuters)Wimbledon 2026 · Second round
Shut out in the first set by Aryna Sabalenka, she began coming to the net, broke for 4-2 and led 5-2. She served for the set at 5-3 with two set points, then had two more in the tie-break. Sabalenka saved all four and won 6-1, 7-6 (9). "She really stepped in, she played super aggressive," Sabalenka said.
Source: WTAFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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