Céline Naef (born 25 June 2005) is a Swiss tennis player.
She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 121 in singles, achieved on 16 October 2023, and No. 194 in doubles, reached on 1 July 2024.[1]
Naef has won one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour along with six singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
Career
Junior years
Naef had a successful junior career. Her career-high ranking as a junior was world No. 4. In 2022, Naef won a prestigious tournament for juniors, the Trofeo Bonfiglio (Grade A).[2] In 2022, Naef reached the final of the 2022 French Open, partnering Nikola Bartůňková.[3] In July 2022, she played in the final of the European Youth Championship held in Klosters, Switzerland which she lost to Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva.[4]
2022: First ITF titles
Naef played and won her first final in Monastir, Tunisia, in March 2022.[5] In October 2022, she became champion in both singles and doubles in Reims, France.[6] A week later, she won another singles title in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin defeating Spanish player Irene Burillo Escorihuela in the final.[7]
2023: WTA debut and quarterfinal, Major and top 125 debuts
Naef started the season with a title in Loughborough, England, where she became the champion by defeating British Eliz Maloney in the final.[8] In February, Naef played her first $40k tournament finals, and became the champion in both singles and doubles in Porto, Portugal.[9]
The 17 years old made her WTA Tour debut as a wildcard[10] and recorded her first tour-level win at the grass court event 2023 Libéma Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands defeating 42 years old wildcard Venus Williams.[11] Next, she upset eighth-seeded Caty McNally for her second WTA Tour win, before losing to top-seeded Veronika Kudermetova in the quarterfinals.[12]
She made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon after qualifying.[13][14]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.[16]
^The first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.