Claire Liu

Claire Liu was born in Thousand Oaks, California, in May 2000 and came to the tour with the best junior file of her age group: 2017 ended with her at No. 1 in the world junior rankings, holding a Wimbledon girls' singles title that no American girl had won since Chanda Rubin in 1992, plus a runner-up finish in the French Open girls' event. Her senior major debut followed at the 2017 US Open. A year on, through qualifying at Wimbledon, she was the only player to take a set off eventual champion Angelique Kerber.

She is right-handed with a two-handed backhand, 5-foot-7, and she does not serve her way out of trouble — the tennis comes from the return end, as evidenced by 42 percent of return points won in 2026 against an ace rate under one percent. The depth off both wings travels to grass and slow clay alike, though holding has always been where the ceiling sits, at 64.7 percent of service games last checked.

The 2023 season set every mark. Liu reached a career-high WTA No. 52 on January 30 of that year, made the Miami round of 32 off a first-round win over then-No. 46 Katerina Siniakova, pushed into second rounds in Melbourne and Paris — Iga Swiatek ended the latter — and made an autumn quarterfinal at the Korea Open that Jessica Pegula closed out. The year's ledger read 9-14.

As of September 2026 she sits at WTA No. 111 with 704 points, 211 places above where she stood a year earlier. Wimbledon gave her a first third round at a major, and Coco Gauff needed three sets to stop it, Liu taking the second 7-6(5) in their only meeting on record.