Every time Beatriz Haddad Maia steps on a tennis court, she's carrying the weight of a nation. At the 2024 US Open, the Brazilian is carrying it well.
Having never been past the second round of New York's major, the No. 22 seed stormed through three rounds despite dropping her first set played in the tournament to Elina Avanesyan. In the next six, she lost a combined nine games. On Monday, the 6-foot left-hander struck 40 winners to defeat two-time former US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki, a crowd favorite, on a raucous Louis Armstrong Stadium that was not only packed to the brim in side, but saw fans lined up around the outside for a chance to get a glimpse of the 2-hour, 41-minute action.
As just one of two Brazilians, famed for their passion for sports, ranked inside the WTA's Top 300 in singles (the other, Laura Pigossi, is No. 141), it's a scene Haddad Maia has come to know well in the little more than two years since she first cracked the Top 50 in 2022. (The last Brazilian woman to be ranked even that high was Teliana Periera in 2015; she peaked at No. 48.)
"It's very nice to see a lot of people, especially Brazilians cheering for me and following me during the whole year," Haddad Maia said on-court after her 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory. "I think that gives me the motivation to keep going also, because I know there is a lot of girls and boys who can get inspired, and they can also dream and see me on these big courts and see that if I'm there, they also can do it.
"I think it's very special to be this person, and I will try to bring as [much] happiness as I can for everyone."
Haddad Maia's run in Flushing Meadows is not only a personal best, but it's also a national watermark this century. She is the first Brazilian woman to reach the US Open women's singles quarterfinals since the late Maria Bueno in 1968. (Gustavo Kuerten did it on the men's side in 1999 and 2001.)
Last year, Haddad Maia broke through on a major stage with a run to the semifinals of Roland Garros, losing to world No. 1 and eventual champion Iga Swiatek. Now through to her second career Grand Slam quarterfinal, she told reporters post-win against Wozniacki that lessons learned from her first trip deep into Week 2 of a major tournament will serve her well as she navigates a career-best Queens showing.
"The semifinal in the French Open helps to believe, to know that, OK, I already passed through this moment," she said. "[It's] not easy for the tennis players. We know how pressure we feel every single match. Doesn't matter if it's quarterfinals or first round. I think not only Roland Garros semifinals but also the other matches that I had in Grand Slams, especially tough loss, matches that I lost.
"I felt a lot of pain right after, and I think I learned a lot from these moments. I feel that I have this different experience, and I feel ready for the next quarterfinal."
After that Paris run, Haddad Maia briefly broke into the WTA's Top 10—the first woman to do that, again, since Bueno, an International Tennis Hall of Famer whose seven major singles titles all came before the start of tennis Open Era. But she has struggled for consistency since, and this year, won back-to-back matches just twice since January before she reached the final of a WTA 250 in Cleveland the week before the US Open's main draw began.
The last of Bueno's eight semifinals in New York (she won the title three times) also came in 1968, and to match that feat, Haddad Maia will have to defeat Karolina Muchova, who played in that round a year ago, and whom she's never beaten.
Despite the adversity in front of her, Haddad Maia says that the simple mantra that has been key to her Queens resurgence will continue to spur her forward: Trust the process, and the results will follow.
"I think I work very hard every single day, so when I step on court, I know that it can be tough and matches sometimes can be tough, but if you give everything and you work for that, you're going to create opportunity," she said. "I think it's that I'm trying to be more in the present and creating the opportunities during the matches."
