Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito (born 29 January 1993), known by the anglicized name Michelle Larcher de Brito, is a Portuguese former professional tennis player. She is the former Portuguese No. 1. Larcher de Brito won four singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit in her career. On 6 July 2009, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 76.
Upon entering the 2009 French Open, Larcher de Brito became the second Portuguese female player ever to appear in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament (after Deborah Fiuza in the 1975 Australian Open). She reached the third round, which remains her best ever result at a major (repeated at the 2013 and 2014 Wimbledon Championships). Playing for the Portugal Fed Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 25–23.
Larcher de Brito is now a real estate agent.
Biography Larcher de Brito was born in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. She moved with her family to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where she remained until the end of 2007. She trained full-time with her father, António Larcher de Brito, who is Portuguese and from Angola. Her mother, Caroline, is from South Africa. She has two older brothers who are twins, Sérgio and Sebastião, born in 1989. She began playing at the age of 3 when her father introduced her at a local club. As a baseliner whose main attributes are her groundstrokes and movement, she won the 2008 Revelation Award from the Fundação Luso-Brasileira (Portuguese-Brazilian Foundation) and, as a result, appeared in the pages of Elle Portugal.Larcher de Brito Strikes a Pose For Elle Portugal. WTATour.com, 25 January 2009 In 2009, she won the Confederação do Desporto de Portugal (Portuguese Sports Confederation) female athlete of the year award against such rivals as Vanessa Fernandes and Telma Monteiro.
Career Junior Larcher de Brito played on the ITF Junior Circuit from August 2006 to December 2007, winning three singles tournaments. At Grand Slam tournaments, she made it to the singles quarterfinals of the 2007 French Open and the doubles quarterfinals of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships. She won her last tournament, the 2007 Orange Bowl, becoming, at 14 years, 10 months and 11 days, the second youngest champion of the event's history after Nicole Vaidišová. She was also the youngest player ever to win the U-16 Eddie Herr Championship (in 2005 when she was 12). Her best junior ranking was 19th with a 54–16 singles record and a 10–17 doubles record.
2007
Larcher de Brito made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in early February 2007, at the $75k hardcourt tournament in Midland, Michigan. There, as an unranked wildcard, she lost in the first round of both singles (against world No. 185, Kristina Brandi) and doubles, teaming with Gréta Arn, against the pairing of Julie Ditty and Natalie Grandin). She would make her WTA Tour debut as an unranked wildcard at the Miami Open, reaching the second round before falling to the 16th seed Daniela Hantuchová in straight sets. At 14 years, one month and three days, Brito became the seventh-youngest player in the history of the WTA tour to win a singles main draw match by beating Meghann Shaughnessy in the first round and the youngest since the Age Eligibility Rule was implemented in 1995. Despite this achievement, due to her age, she wasn't allowed to play any more senior tournaments until September. During that time, she played for the Sacramento Capitals in the World TeamTennis, becoming the youngest player ever to be drafted in the competition. She would be instrumental in the Capitals victory in the 2007 championship. In her return to the ITF Circuit, she became the first Portuguese player to reach a semifinal at a $75k event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, losing to third seed Rossana de los Ríos. The feat allowed her to debut in the WTA rankings at world No. 364.
2008
In February, Larcher de Brito defeated world No. 124, Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, in the first round of the Cellular South Cup, but lost in the second round to the world No. 43, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.
On 28 March 2008, on her return to the Miami Masters, she upset world No. 16, Agnieszka Radwańska, in the second round. She would then lose to world No. 19, Shahar Pe'er. In the first round she defeated world No. 75, Ekaterina Makarova, in three sets. The following month, she debuted on her home tournament, the Portugal Open, where she lost to world No. 471, Sanda Mamić.
In June, she failed to qualify for Wimbledon, losing to world No. 105, Stéphanie Foretz Gacon, in the preliminary rounds.
On 16 July 2008, she nearly won the best victory of her career, narrowly losing to former world No. 1 player, Serena Williams, in three sets. The day before, she had beaten world No. 34, Gisela Dulko, in straight sets.Main Draw Results 07/15/08 Bank of the West Classic, 15 July 2008.
Based on her good Bank of the West Classic tournament performance, where she won three qualifying matches and one main draw match, on 21 July 2008, Larcher de Brito's WTA singles ranking rose 56 places from the previous week, from No. 226 to 170 in the world, her then best ranking ever. With that ranking she became the highest ranked female Portuguese player, ahead of then world No. 192, Neuza Silva. At the Canada Masters, Larcher de Brito won two qualifying matches to make it into the main draw. She then went on to defeat world No. 97, Vania King, in the first round and world No. 18, Flavia Pennetta, in the second, before losing to fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. After such a great performance by the 15-year-old, she rose to No. 131 in the world, making her the highest ranked Portuguese tennis player of all time.
At the US Open, Larcher de Brito reached the third round of qualifying, beating world No. 165, Angela Haynes, and world No. 169, Abigail Spears, but lost to Raluca Olaru in straight sets.
Her most significant result of the season came in October at the Tashkent Open where she reached her first quarterfinal on the WTA Tour. She would lose to third seed and eventual champion Sorana Cîrstea, after she defeated Andreja Klepač and Tatiana Poutchek in the first two rounds.
2009 Larcher de Brito obtained an invite from the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association twice again to play 2009 JB Group Classic for Team Europe with Jelena Janković and Ágnes Szávay, they lost to Team America (include two Americans Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Argentine Gisela Dulko) 1–2 in the semifinals and then they lost to Team Asia Pacific (include Chinese Zheng Jie, Indian Sania Mirza and Zhang Ling from Hong Kong) 0–3 in the Silver Group final.
Larcher de Brito begun the season at the Australian Open where she reached the second qualifying round losing to world No. 169, Alberta Brianti. This was followed by a second round finish in Memphis, losing to world No. 52, Anne Keothavong, after defeating world No. 91, Sofia Arvidsson, in the first round and a qualification to Indian Wells, losing to world No. 107, Urszula Radwańska, in the first round. In Miami, after successful tournaments as a wildcard the two previous years, she failed to qualify this time by losing in the first qualifying round to Aravane Rezaï.
In April, she debuted in the Fed Cup, helping Portugal qualify to the Europe/Africa Group I with a 2–1 singles record.
At Estoril in May, she lost in straight sets to world No. 165, Elena Bovina, in the third qualifying round, but qualified to the main tournament as a lucky loser. She lost to seventh seed Shahar Pe'er. The following week at the Madrid Open, as the last direct acceptance into the qualifying draw, she reached the final round where she lost to Anna-Lena Grönefeld, after defeating Olga Govortsova in three sets.
On 22 May 2009, de Brito qualified for her first Grand Slam tournament main draw at the French Open after winning the final round of the qualifying by beating world No. 152, Kristína Kučová, world No. 177, Yuliana Fedak, and world No. 151, Ekaterina Ivanova. She became the first Portuguese female player ever to do so. After overcoming Melanie South in the first round, Larcher de Brito once again made history by becoming the first Portuguese player overall to qualify for the third round of a Grand Slam by beating world No. 15, Zheng Jie. She would lose to home player Aravane Rezaï, a game in which her opponent made a number of complaints about the amount of noise coming from the Portuguese.Rezai rises above shrieks of Larcher de Brito The Independent, 30 May 2009 With her third round result, she entered the top 100 for the first time, a ranking of world No. 90.
After failing to qualify for the Birmingham Classic, where she lost in the second round to Chanelle Scheepers, she received a wildcard to participate in Wimbledon, before winning the Tradition-ICAP Liverpool International, an exhibition tournament, where she beat fellow Wimbledon wildcard Laura Robson in the final. At Wimbledon, she defeated Klára Zakopalová in the first round but fell to world No. 43, Francesca Schiavone, in the second. After the good results in Europe, she returned to the United States to compete on the US Open Series tournaments. However, her results were disappointing, first in Los Angeles, where she received a wildcard, losing to Sorana Cîrstea, then as a qualifier in Cincinnati losing to Yaroslava Shvedova and Toronto against world No. 69, Petra Kvitová.
Following those results it was announced that she signed a three-year deal with the famous Mouratoglou Tennis Academy to prepare herself during the European seasons.Michelle Larcher de Brito joins the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy At the US Open, Larcher de Brito reached the second round, beating No. 97 Mathilde Johansson, before losing to world No. 19, Li Na. She finished the year by losing to Kirsten Flipkens in the first round of qualifying in Luxembourg.
2010 Playing in the qualifying phase at the Australian Open, Larcher de Brito failed to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament since the previous year's Australian Open, losing in the first qualifying round to Ekaterina Dzehalevich. This was followed by a four-match losing run in the Fed Cup in February (that saw the Portugal relegated to Europe/Africa Group II) and a third successive second round showing in Memphis, losing to Anne Keothavong.
After first round exits at Indian Wells (after she won two qualifying matches against Klára Zakopalová and world No. 115, Arantxa Rus, she lost to Alexandra Dulgheru) and Miami (where she lost to world No. 40, Sorana Cîrstea), she found more success in the clay-court season with second round showings at Charleston (where she lost to Patty Schnyder) and Estoril (after she defeated world No. 71, Alizé Cornet, in the first round, she lost to Sorana Cîrstea). Despite signs of improvement, she failed to qualify to the main draw at the French Open, losing to Misaki Doi in the second qualifying round in three sets.
In June came her best result of the season, a third round showing in Birmingham, where she lost to Kaia Kanepi, after defeating Ekaterina Dzehalevich and Olga Govortsova in the first two rounds. This was followed with a first round loss at Wimbledon against world No. 1 and eventual champion, Serena Williams. The American hardcourt season also proved to be unsuccessful with failed qualification attempts at Stanford and San Diego and a first round loss at the US Open against world No. 159, Sania Mirza (after she won three qualifying matches against Karolína Plíšková, Anastasiya Yakimova and Alexandra Panova). She finished the year at the $75k event in Albuquerque with another first round, straight set-loss to Daria Gavrilova.
2011