
Clara Tauson

Clara Tauson, born 21 December 2002, is a Danish female tennis player, who in 2016, at age 13, became the youngest Danish champion in tennis. She has been a full time professional since 2019. Her career-high ranking is World No. 90 in singles achieved on 17 May 2021 and No. 501 in doubles achieved on 10 May 2021. Former tennis player Michael Tauson is her uncle.
As an amateur junior she became European youth Olympic champion in 2017 and European Junior Champion in 2018. Between 2016 and 2019 she won nine singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit with the 2019 Australian Open title the greatest. The same year she became the first Danish girl to top the junior world ranking. 
Her debut on the entry level professional ITF Women's World Tennis Tour came in September 2017. Here she has won 9 titles, the first age 14. Her WTA Tour debut came in April 2019 and her debut in a senior level Grand Slam came at the 2020 French Open in September 2020. She won her first WTA singles title at the 2021 Lyon Open and at the same time broke into top 100 on the WTA rankings at a career-high ranking of No. 96 on 8 March 2021.
As a player for Denmark at the Fed Cup, Tauson has a win–loss record of 5–5.
Playing style.
Tauson is right-handed and hits a double backhand. According to herself, her best weapon is her forehand while her favorite shot is the drop shot and her favorite surface is clay. In a comparison to Caroline Wozniacki she considers herself more aggressive. Wozniacki, who has trained with her, agrees that she is strong and aggressive.
Career.
Clara Tauson started playing amateur junior tennis in 2013 age 10 on the European tour and from age 13 on the ITF Junior Circuit, the highest level for juniors. From 2017, she started playing professional tournaments as well, first on entry level, ITF, and later on the highest level, WTA. In 2019, she reached the top of the junior ranking and the same year she became a full time professional. In 2021, her first year as a senior, she entered top 100 on the WTA ranking. She focuses on singles but has also played doubles tournaments and Fed Cup.
2008-2015: Early club career.
At age 6, Tauson started playing foam tennis in Nærum Tennis Club and changed one year later to real tennis. Earlier on she had practiced swimming. She played for some years in Lyngby Tennis Club, where she in 2011 won the girls' U9 tournament at the Zealand championships and the club championship for girls' U10. She changed club to Gentofte Tennis Club and in 2014 she became three times Danish U12 champion, winning girls' singles, girls' doubles and mixed doubles. 
She debuted on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour (competitions in Europe for players aged under 17) 26 August 2013 when she participated in KB Tennis’ Girls-12 tournament, with a defeat in the first round. On the European Junior Tour she played six Girls-12 and three Girls-14 tournaments with two semifinals as best result. In 2015 she played nine Girls-14 tournaments on Tennis Europe Junior Tour. First final and tournament victory came when she won the KB Tennis’ tournament in June. During the rest of the year she made three more finals with one win.
2016: Danish champion.
On 15 February, Tauson debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit (the premier level for worldwide competition among U18 tennis players) when she participated in DISPUK Copenhagen Winter Cup 2016. During the year she took part in ten singles ITF Junior Circuit-tournaments. She reached five finals winning one. In addition, she played eight tournaments in girls' doubles. Of these she reached four finals winning one. Both victories came in November at the Grade-4 tournament ITF Junior Championships in Dubai where she was top seeded. 
Tauson ended 230th on ITF's junior ranking. She was awarded Danish Junior Tennis Player of the Year for her overall performance. At club level, Tauson became Danish champion for teams with Gentofte Tennisklub's ladies. In August she became the youngest female Danish champion in singles at age 13. She thereby beat Caroline Wozniacki's record of age 14. She changed club from Gentofte Tennisklub to Hellerup Tennis Club (HIK Tennis) in September. Her coaches in Hellerup were among others Kenneth Carlsen and Tine Scheuer-Larsen. 
2017: Professional debut.
She played 12 singles and eight doubles tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit winning one of each. She was awarded Danish Junior Tennis Player second year in a row. On 20 April, Tauson made her debut for the Denmark Fed Cup team at a group B match against Egypt. Tauson lost her doubles with partner Mai Grage but Denmark won the match 2–1.
At the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Hungary in July, she was top seeded in the tennis tournament and won without losing a set. In September she made her Grand Slam debut by entering the qualification for the junior competition of US Open. However, she lost the first match and did not make it to the main round.
Still 14 years old, she debuted on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour in September. She played three tournaments, reaching two finals with one win. The first tournament was in Antalya, Turkey in which she got to a semifinal. On 31 October Tauson entered the WTA world-ranking, when she unseeded reached the final in the ITF tournament Djursholm Ladies in Stockholm. Next week she took the first senior title by winning Stockholm Ladies advancing to 743 on the WTA world ranking as the youngest on the list.
2018: European Junior Champion.
Tauson played 13 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit, reaching six finals in singles with five wins. In doubles she won two finals and lost two. Her best junior Grand Slam was French Open, which was also her first main round appearance. She reached third round in singles and a semi final in doubles. At the end of the year she won bronze at the ITF Junior Masters a parallel tournament to WTA Finals. 
Her biggest victories were the European Junior Championship in girls' singles in Switzerland and Osaka Mayor's Cup her first Grade-A tournament win. At Fed Cup in Athens in April, she and the rest of the Danish team secured advancement to the third highest level for national teams in competition with Egypt, Greece and Israel.
She got a major sponsor contract with Japanese sports equipment producer Yonex, ended fourth on the ITF junior ranking and 863 on the WTA singles ranking.
2019: Junior top ranking, WTA debut.
Tauson was for the third year in a row awarded Danish Junior Tennis Player, for the second in a row C WorldWide Talentprisen and for the first time Danish Olympic Hope. She received 165,000 DKK (c. $24,000) for travel expenditure from ITF. 
She played her first 2019 Australian Open junior Grand Slam. Here she was top seeded in girls' singles and won this title as the first Danish girl. The next week, she also became the first Dane to top the girls' singles world ranking. In February, she represented Denmark in Fed Cup in a match against Russia and Poland in Group I Europe/Africa. She lost her singles matches and Denmark was over-all relegated to Group II.
In April 2019, she entered her first WTA tournament on a qualifier’s wildcard at the Ladies Open Lugano in Switzerland. She made it to the main tournament and lost her first round match. Later that year, she entered her first WTA tournament not on a wildcard in Swedish Open. She ended the year as 267 on the WTA ranking.
2020: Senior Grand Slam debut.
In February, she helped bringing Denmark back to Europe/Africa Group I in Fed Cup. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her career was put on a hold until August. In September 2020, she broke in to the WTA Top 200 for the first time in her career. This allowed her to enter the French Open qualifications. The French Open, which was postponed due to the pandemic, was her first senior level Grand Slam appearance. 
In the first round of qualification, Tauson beat Gabriela Talabă in 3 sets. In the second round of qualification, she defeated the 6th seeded Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight sets (6–1,6–2) before making it to the final round of qualifications where she met Serbian Ivana Jorovic for a place in the main draw. After multiple rain delays, and saving 6 set points in the first set, Tauson managed to win the match in what was, despite all appearances on paper, not a comfortable affair. 
In her first main-draw Grand Slam match, Tauson went up against world No. 25, and recent US Open semifinalist, Jennifer Brady from the United States. In a nearly three hour match, Tauson defeated the American 9–7 in the deciding set to advance to the second round where she lost to Danielle Collins, another American.
2021: Maiden WTA title and top 100.
Tauson entered Lyon Open (WTA 250) as a qualifier at the end of February. In this event, she made her first WTA final beating the 1st seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova en route. In the final, she beat a fellow qualifier Viktorija Golubic, whom she also defeated at the Fujairah International Women Tennis Open in January. With the win, Tauson entered the top 100, being the second youngest, after American Coco Gauff. The next week she qualified for her first WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg Ladies Throphy. Here she lost to 8th seed and later winner Daria Kasatkina in the first round. 
At the opening of the clay season in April, she was seeded for the first time on the WTA tour in Colombian Copa Colsanitas. However, here she lost to a qualifier also in the first round. Her next competition was MUSC Health Women's Open in Charlston, USA. She reached the quarter finals but had to retire against Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, the winner of the tournament in Colombia, because of a knee injury she got in the first round. The indury prevented her from participating in WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open. Instead she participated in WTA 125 L’Open 35 de Saint-Malo four days later, this time in both singles and double. While she again was eliminated early on in the singles, she managed to reach the semi finals in double with her partner Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus.
Performance timeline.
Singles.
"Current through 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open."
ITF Women's World Tennis Tour finals.
Tauson has participated in 28 ITF Women's Circuit/ITF Women's World Tennis Tour tournaments since September 2017. She has been in thirteen finals and won nine. Her biggest wins are the $60,000 tournaments in Pingshan, China and Meitar, Israel both in 2019. 
Junior Grand Slam Finals.
Clara Tauson has played five Junior Grand Slam tournaments in which she has played singles in all of them and doubles in three.