Sara Sorribes Tormo

Sara Sorribes Tormo (born 8 October 1996) is a Spanish professional tennis player. She achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 32 on 7 February 2022 and peaked at No. 33 in the WTA doubles rankings on 23 October 2023. She has won two singles titles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. On the ITF Circuit, she has won ten singles and five doubles titles.
She won her maiden WTA title at the 2021 Abierto Zapopan in Guadalajara. On the Challenger Tour, she has been runner-up at the Bol Open, and champion at the Open de Limoges, in doubles in 2019.
Sorribes Tormo made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2015 Rio Open, after making it through the qualifying rounds. Her first appearance at a Grand Slam tournament came at 2015 French Open, but she failed to qualify for the main draw, while her Grand Slam main-draw debut happened at the 2016 French Open, when she passed qualification.
Her most significant results in 2017 was reaching the semifinals of the WTA events at the 2017 Copa Colsanitas in Bogotá, Colombia in April and at the 2017 Ladies Championship Gstaad, Switzerland in July.
Her first Grand Slam match-win came at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, where she defeated Kaia Kanepi in the first round.
Sara had a career-high junior ranking of No. 33, and won three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit. She was also runner-up at 2013 US Open in doubles, where together with Belinda Bencic, they lost to the Czech duo Barbora Krejčíková & Kateřina Siniaková. In 2014, she won the European Junior Championships, defeating her countrymate Paula Badosa in the final.
Until 2017, Sara used to play at ITF tournaments. During 2017, she entered the top 100 for the first time, and became more constant on the WTA Tour.
Playing for Spain Fed Cup team, she made her debut in the 2015 Fed Cup World Group II Play-offs, and has accumulated a win–loss record of 6–4.
Early life and background
Sara Sorribes Tormo was born on 8 October 1996 in Castellón de la Plana in Spain. Her mother owns a souvenir shop and used to be a tennis instructor, and her father works in real estate and used to play pro soccer. Her mother introduced her to the sport at age 6. Her favorite surface is clay. Her current residence is La Vall d'Uixó, Spain.
Professional career
2012–15: Attempted to debut on WTA Tour, top 200
Sorribes Tormo played in her first main draw on the WTA Tour at the 2012 Barcelona Open, where she lost in first round of qualifying to Ani Mijačika. At the 2012 Madrid Open, she received a wildcard for the qualifying, but lost in the first round to Varvara Lepchenko.
The following year, she received another wildcard chance for qualifying at Madrid but lost in the second round to Alexandra Dulgheru. At the Palermo Ladies Open and Swedish Open, she once failed to qualify for the main draw.
In 2014, she again received a wildcard for the Madrid Open qualifying but lost to Caroline Garcia in the first round. During the year, she got only one chance to debut in a WTA Tour main draw, but lost in the first round of qualifying at the Luxembourg Open to Barbora Krejčíková.
In 2015, Sara was successful on her first attempt to play in a WTA Tour main draw, passing qualifying at the Rio Open, where she lost in the first round to Paula Ormaechea. On 23 March 2015, Sara entered the top 200 for the first time, ranked 198th. At the Family Circle Cup, she went even further, reaching third round, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Shelby Rogers but then lost to Sara Errani. At Madrid, once again as a wildcard, she lost in the first round of qualifying to Bojana Jovanovski. She played at the French Open, which was her first appearance in a Grand Slam qualifying. However, she lost to Shahar Pe'er in the first round. At Wimbledon, she lost in second round of qualifying to Yang Zhaoxuan.
2016–17: Breakthrough in singles, major debut & top 100
Sara didn't start the 2016 season well in qualifyings at Brisbane, Hobart and the Australian Open, respectively. At Melbourne, she first defeated Cindy Burger but then lost to Zhu Lin. At the Morocco Open, she passed qualifying and in the main draw defeated Ons Jabeur, but wasn't good enough for Kiki Bertens in the second. Once again, with a wildcard for the Madrid Open, this time for the main draw, Sara lost to Samantha Stosur. It also was her first appearance in a Premier 5/Mandatory tournament main draw. At the French Open, she qualified for the first time for the main draw of a Grand Slam championship. In her debut match, she won only two games against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. At the Mallorca Open, she made her WTA Tour main-draw debut on grass, and her first match win, against compatriot Paula Badosa. In the second round she lost to Ana Ivanovic. At Wimbledon, she was stopped by Irina Khromacheva in the first round of qualifying. At the US Open, Sara was close to her main-draw debut, but lost to Kristína Kučová in the third round of qualifying. At the Korea Open, she made her first WTA Tour quarterfinal, before Patricia Maria Țig defeated her. She finished the year as world No. 107, only one place behind her then-best ranking of 106, that she reached on 14 November 2016.
Sara started 2017 with two losses in qualifying, at Shenzhen Open and Hobart International, but then enteres the main draw of the Australian Open. She faced No. 5 seed Karolína Plíšková but won only two games. At the Hungarian Ladies Open, she lost in the first round to Hsieh Su-wei, while at the Malaysian Open, she advanced to the second round, where she lost to Duan Yingying in three sets. For the first time, Sara in qualified for the Indian Wells Open. In the first round, she defeated Ekaterina Makarova, her first win at any Premier 5/Mandatory tournament, but in the second round, she wasn't good enough for sixth seed Agnieszka Radwańska. With this result, Sara debuted in the top 100 on 20 March 2017, reaching No. 99. At the Miami Open, she lost in the final stage of qualifying to Madison Brengle. At Monterrey Open, she got to the second round, where she lost to countrymate Carla Suárez Navarro. Finally, she recorded more recognizable results, reaching her first WTA semifinal at the Copa Colsanitas, where countrymate Lara Arruabarrena stopped her from reaching her first WTA Tour final. On 8 May 2017, Sara got to her then-best career ranking of 79, which was also her best ranking until 2019. At the Madrid Open, she lost in the first round to Samantha Stosur for the second year in a row. At the Italian Open, she failed in qualifying losing to CiCi Bellis. At the French Open, Sara lost to Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets. The grass season didn't end well, losing in the first rounds of the Mallorca Open to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Wimbledon to Naomi Osaka. In the second part of the clay-court season, Sara made her second career WTA semifinal at the Swiss Open. During her semifinal match against Kiki Bertens, after finishing the first set, Sara was forced to retire due to left wrist injury. At the Cincinnati Open, she lost in first round of qualifying to Monica Puig. Losing to Kurumi Nara in first round of US Open, Sara completed participation at all four Grand Slam events. By the end of 2017 season, she reached the quarterfinals of the Korea Open and Tianjin Open. She failed in qualifying for the China Open, losing to Andrea Petkovic in the final stage.
Sara finished the year ranked No. 99.
2018–20: First Grand Slam and top-10 wins
In 2018, first tournament for Sara was Qatar Open, where she lost in final stage of qualifying to Kateryna Bondarenko. Next week, she played at Hungarian Open, where in first round Ysaline Bonaventure defeated her. At Indian Wells qualifying, she won against Allie Kiick and Ajla Tomljanović, and reserved her spot in the main draw, but lost to CiCi Bellis. At Miami, she lost in the first round of qualifying to Carol Zhao. Her first WTA Tour main-draw win in 2018 happened at the Monterrey Open, where she defeated Tereza Martincová, but lost in the second round to Ana Bogdan. Next week, she got to second round of Copa Colsanitas, where Lara Arruabarrena stopped her. At the Morocco Open, Aleksandra Krunić was better in second round. At Madrid, Sara earned her first win there against Madison Keys, but then lost to Kristýna Plíšková in the second round. At the French Open, she lost in second round of qualifying. At Wimbledon, Sara made her first singles grand-slam win, defeating Kaia Kanepi in first round, but lost to Suárez Navarro in the second round. At the Swiss Open in Gstaad, Sara lost to Mandy Minella, losing her chance to get to her first semifinal in 2018. At US Open, Sara lost to Daria Gavrilova in the first round of the main draw. At Wuhan Open, she passed qualifying and lost in the first round to Viktorija Golubic. Her appearance at Wuhan was her first Premier 5 tournament. For the second year in a row, she lost to Andrea Petkovic in qualification of the China Open.
Sara started the 2019 season playing in quarterfinal at ASB Classic, where on her way to the semifinal, Hsieh Su-wei stopped her. At Australian Open, she lost in first round to Anett Kontaveit. At Indian Wells Open, she lost in the second round of qualification, while in Miami she got to the second round in main draw, where she lost to Donna Vekić. In Charleston, she was eliminated in the second round by Sloane Stephens in two tie-breaks. In Bogotá, she was better than Christina McHale and Ana Bogdan in first two rounds, but then lost in the quarterfinal to Beatriz Haddad Maia. At Stuttgart Open, she won three matches in qualification and then lost in the first round in the main draw to Andrea Petkovic. At Madrid Open, she was better than her countrymate Lara Arruabarrena in the first round, but her next opponent, Naomi Osaka, was better in the second. At Italian Open, she failed in qualification, losing in the first round to Ons Jabeur. At Morocco Open, she also did not do well, losing in the second round to Nina Stojanović. At French Open she marked her first win there, winning against Alison Van Uytvanck, but in next round, Sloane Stephens defeated her.
On 10 June 2019, she reached her career-high ranking of world No. 64. In the grass-court season, she made it to the second round of the Nottingham Open, and lost in the first round of the Mallorca Open. At Wimbledon, she was forced to retire during her first-round match against former world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, while trailing 5–4. At the US Open, just like at Australian Open, she lost to Anett Kontaveit. During Asian tour, Sara played only two WTA tournaments. She played at the Japan Women's Open, where she reached quarterfinals, losing to Misaki Doi in straight sets. Then she headed to Guangzhou, where she was stopped in the first round by Anna Blinkova.
The first two tournaments in 2020 were not successful for Sara, losing in both of them in the first round. Then she got to the Australian Open, where she defeated Veronika Kudermetova, but just like the year before, Anett Kontaveit stopped her from going to the next round. In February, in the Fed Cup qualifying round, playing for Spain, Sara defeated Naomi Osaka 6–0, 6–3. That was her first and so far only top-10 win. At both Mexican tournaments, Mexican Open and Monterrey Open, Sara lost in the first round. After the comeback of the WTA Tour after COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Sara played at the Palermo International, but lost to Dayana Yastremska in straight sets. In Prague, she reached the quarterfinals, winning against Barbora Strýcová and Laura Siegemund, but then lost to Irina-Camelia Begu in three-sets. At the US Open, she beat Claire Liu in the first round before 16th seed Elise Mertens knocked her out of the tournament. In Istanbul, she defeated Heather Watson but then lost to Paula Badosa in the second round. At the French Open, she faced top seed Simona Halep and lost, winning only four games, all of them in the first set.
2021: First WTA title and two 1000 quarterfinals, top 50 debut
Sorribes started the year with a quarterfinal appearance at the Abu Dhabi Open, where she lost to Marta Kostyuk, in three sets. She then had a few first-round exits, losing in the first round of the Australian Open to Daria Saville, in straight sets. In early March, Sorribes Tormo won her first WTA singles title at the Abierto Zapopan. She only lost one set on the way to her win, beating second seed Marie Bouzková, and then former world No. 5, Eugenie Bouchard, in straight sets. After that, she headed to the Monterrey Open where she made it to the semifinals losing to the eventual champion, Leylah Fernandez.
Sorribes Tormo entered the main draw of the Miami Open where she reached the quarterfinals losing to world No. 9, Bianca Andreescu, in three sets. This was Sorribes's first WTA 1000 event. On the road to the quarterfinals, she beat Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady, 21st seed Elena Rybakina and 27th seed Ons Jabeur. As a result, she entered the top 50 at world No. 48 on 5 April 2021.
In the first round of Wimbledon, Sorribes Tormo weathered 47 winners to beat Ana Konjuh 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, then squared off against 2018 champion Angelique Kerber in a 3-hour, 19 minute epic Kerber pulled out, 7–5, 5–7, 6–4, despite being broken seven times. The players received a standing ovation from the spectators for their efforts.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sorribes Tormo shocked world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, with a score of 6–4, 6–3. In the second round, she defeated Fiona Ferro (6-1, 6–4), but lost in the round of 16 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (1-6, 3–6).
Tormo beat 22nd seed Karolína Muchová, 6–2, 7–6, to reach the second round of the US Open, only to be swept aside by Emma Raducanu in the third, 6–0, 6–1.
2022: Top 35 career-high ranking, Madrid quarterfinalist, early season ending
2023: 100 spots rankings drop, French Open fourth round, Second WTA title, back to top 55
After taking a six months hiatus since October 2022, she dropped to No. 132 on 22 May 2023, 100 positions lower than her career high ranking back in February 2022.
Subsequently, she entered the 2023 French Open using protected ranking. She reached the fourth round for the first time in her career, defeating wildcard Clara Burel, Petra Martić and Elena Rybakina by walkover. She also reached the quarterfinals in doubles with Marie Bouzková after the opposite team of Kato/Sutjiadi was defaulted (see details in French Open controversy below). As a result, she moved back up by 50 positions to the top 85 in the singles rankings to No. 82, and in doubles to No. 87, on 12 June 2023.
She won her second singles title at the 2023 Tennis in the Land as a lucky loser. She became the sixth lucky loser in WTA history to win a singles title. It was her first title since 2021 Guadalajara.
Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova won their first WTA 1000 China Open title defeating Giuliana Olmos and Chan Hao-Ching.
French Open controversy
At the 2023 French Open, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified from the tournament during their doubles match after a ball returned by Kato to a ballgirl accidentally hit the ballgirl. The incident sparked controversy and criticism of Marie Bouzková and Sara Sorribes Tormo, who argued for the disqualification. Kato hit a one-handed backhand to return the ball to the ballgirl. The ballgirl seemed unaware that the ball was coming towards her and it unintentionally struck her, causing her discomfort and tears. After a consultation with officials, Kato and Sutjiadi were defaulted. The punishment received surprise and backlash from some viewers and tennis commentators. Former player Gilles Simon criticized Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo's actions, while some suggested they should also face consequences. The incident drew widespread attention and sparked debates about sportsmanship in tennis. Kato issued an apology, expressing remorse.
Performance timelines
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup, Hopman Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.
Singles
Current through the 2023 US Open.
Doubles
Current through the 2022 US Open.
Significant finals
WTA 1000 finals
Doubles: 1 title
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 2 (2 titles)
Doubles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up)
WTA 125 finals
Singles: 1 (runner-up)
Doubles: 1 (title)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 20 (10 titles, 10 runner–ups)
Doubles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runner–ups)
Junior Grand Slam finals
Girls' doubles: 1 (runner–up)
WTA Tour career earnings
Career Grand Slam statistics
Seedings
The tournaments won by Sorribes Tormo are in boldface, and advanced into finals by Sorribes Tormo are in italics.
Best Grand Slam results details
Head-to-head records
Record against top 10 players
Sorribes Tormo's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10. Active players are in boldface.
No. 1 wins
Top 10 wins
Double-bagel matches
Notes
References
External links
1996 births
Living people
People from La Vall d'Uixó
Sportspeople from the Province of Castellón
Spanish female tennis players
Tennis players from the Valencian Community
Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Spain
Mediterranean Games medalists in tennis
Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games
Olympic tennis players for Spain
Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Tennis controversies