Sao Paulo-SP) – Luisa Stefani, world number 30, and Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski (number 6) make their debuts this Sunday (11) at the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells, California. The duo face the association of Kazakh Anna Danilina and North American Asia Muhammad, current tennis vice-champion of the tournament (alongside Japanese Ena Shibahara), from 3 p.m. in the first match on court 6.

Stefani and Dabrowski resume their partnership following 2021 success, when they were champions at the WTA 1000 in Montreal, Canada, runners-up in Cincinnati and San Jose, USA. The duo were playing in the US Open semi-finals when Luisa suffered a knee injury and was sidelined for a year. When Paulistana returned in September 2022, they played together and won the title at the WTA 250 in Chennai, India.

“Happy to replay the debut with Gabi, we had several days of training to get along, get used to the conditions. Here it’s slower, it depends on the time of day, if it’s windy , at night it’s colder, at lunchtime, in the afternoon it’s warmer. It’s very interesting because the conditions change a lot in the same day, “said Luisa, sponsored by Fila and Faros Invest, XP COB ambassador and who has the support of Liga Tênis 10 and Bolsa Atleta.

“We know our opponents well. I played with Danilina recently, I know her standards, she’s a great player, she fluctuates a bit and I don’t think they’ve ever played together. It’s about using it to our advantage. Asia Muhammad has already won a title this year, serves well, plays well in doubles and singles too. It’s a tough first round. let’s goadded Luisa.

Luisa is delighted with the premiere (Giovanni Fragalle / Publicity)

Make the story of his career – Luisa Stefani, 25, started playing tennis at the age of 10, at B.Sports, in the neighborhood of Perdizes, in São Paulo (SP), where she was born. He played in the main draws of all four junior Grand Slams and made it to the US Open junior doubles semi-finals in 2015, when he reached No. 10 in the youth world rankings. He went to the United States to study and play tennis. On the college circuit, he played for Pepperdine University in California. Between 2015 and 2018, still on the American university circuit, he devoted himself in part to the ITF professional circuit. He chose to drop out of college to fully compete on the professional circuit from mid-2018.

He rose to prominence in professional doubles and started reaping results in 2019, winning a WTA title in Tashkent. In 2020, he won the WTA 125 from Newport Beach and celebrated the WTA title from Lexington. She finished the year ranked 33rd in the world, the first Brazilian in the top 40 in more than three decades. In 2021, she went to the WTA 500 finals in Abu Dhabi, reaching the top 30 – the first Brazilian tennis player since 1976. And the WTA 1000 runner-up in Miami moved her up to 25th position – then the best by a Brazilian since the creation of the WTA rankings in 1975.

At the Tokyo Games, he won the unprecedented Olympic bronze medal for Brazil alongside Laura Pigossi. He continued his progression in the rankings and reached ninth place at the start of 2022. On his return to the circuit, after knee surgery, he won three titles at the end of the 2022 season: WTA 250 in Chennai, India, WTA 1000 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and WTA 125 in Montevideo, Uruguay, back in the Top 50 of the WTA rankings. He started 2023 with the WTA 500 titles in Adelaide, Australia, mixed doubles at the Australian Open and the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi.