Introduction
Whitney Osuigwe (/əˈsɪɡweɪ/ ə-SIG-way; born April 17, 2002) is an American tennis player.
She is the reigning ITF Junior World Champion and a former world No. 1 junior. Osuigwe also won the 2017 French Open to become the first American to win the girls' singles event in 28 years.
Personal life
Osuigwe has been playing tennis at the IMG Academy since age 6, where her father Desmond has been a teacher at the academy since 1997 and acts as her primary coach. Desmond is from Lagos in Nigeria and played professional tennis events at the ITF Futures level before coming to the United States to attend college. Whitney has an older brother named Deandre who is a college basketball player and a younger sister named Victoria who also plays tennis.
Junior career
In June 2017, Osuigwe climbed to No. 2 in the junior rankings by dominating the clay-court events in the previous six months. She started by reaching the semifinals at the Orange Bowl in December and then won two Grade-1 clay-court tournaments in back-to-back weeks in February. Osuigwe capped off her dominance in this part of the season by winning the 2017 Junior French Open over fellow American Claire Liu. In doing so, she became the first American to win the girls' event since Jennifer Capriati in 1989, the fifth American champion overall, and the ninth youngest winner of the event at under 15 years and 2 months. This was also only the second time the final was contested between two Americans, with the other occurring in 1980.
Osuigwe would go on to finish the season as the No. 1 ranked junior in the world, for which she was named the 2017 ITF Junior World Champion. Furthermore, she then won the Orange Bowl before the year came to a close.
On August 12, 2018, Osuigwe won the USTA Girls 18s National Championships which earned her a wild-card entry into the main draw of the US Open.
Professional career
Osuigwe made her WTA main-draw debut at the 2018 Miami Open, losing to her fellow wild card and junior rival Claire Liu.
In January 2019, Osuigwe played alongside David Ferrer on the Spain team in the 2019 Hopman Cup, replacing Garbiñe Muguruza who was out due to injury. Osuigwe played only the mixed-doubles match, losing to the French team which consisted of Lucas Pouille and Alizé Cornet, 2–4, 2–4. In March, she entered the Miami Open main draw as a wild card, winning her first-round match against fellow wild card Mari Osaka, the sister of Naomi Osaka.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1 title)
| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 2017 | French Open | Clay | Claire Liu | 6–4, 6–7, 6–3 |
Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 2017 | Wimbledon | Grass | Caty McNally | Olga Danilović Kaja Juvan |
4–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 2018 | Wimbledon | Grass | Caty McNally | Wang Xinyu Wang Xiyu |
2–6, 1–6 |
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
| Finals by surface |
|---|
| Legend |
| $100,000 tournaments |
| $80,000 tournaments |
| $60,000 tournaments |
| $25,000 tournaments |
| $15,000 tournaments |
| Finals by surface |
| Hard (1–0) |
| Clay (1–2) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| Carpet (0–0) |
| $100,000 tournaments |
| $80,000 tournaments |
| $60,000 tournaments |
| $25,000 tournaments |
| $15,000 tournaments |
| Hard (1–0) |
| Clay (1–2) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| Carpet (0–0) |
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | Jan 2018 | ITF Wesley Chapel, United States | $25,000 | Clay | Francesca Di Lorenzo | 2–6, 6–1, 4–6 | |
| Win | Nov 2018 | ITF Tyler, United States | $80,000 | Hard | Beatriz Haddad Maia | 6–3, 6–4 | |
| Win | Apr 2019 | ITF Charlottesville, United States | W80 | Clay | Madison Brengle | 6–4, 1–6, 6–3 | |
| Loss | May 2019 | ITF Charleston, United States | W100 | Clay | Taylor Townsend | 4–6, 4–6 |
Doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
| Finals by surface |
|---|
| Legend |
| $100,000 tournaments |
| $80,000 tournaments |
| $60,000 tournaments |
| $25,000 tournaments |
| $15,000 tournaments |
| Finals by surface |
| Hard (0–1) |
| Clay (2–1) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| Carpet (0–0) |
| $100,000 tournaments |
| $80,000 tournaments |
| $60,000 tournaments |
| $25,000 tournaments |
| $15,000 tournaments |
| Hard (0–1) |
| Clay (2–1) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| Carpet (0–0) |
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | Mar 2018 | ITF Orlando, United States | $15,000 | Clay | Caty McNally | Dia Evtimova Ilona Kremen |
6–2, 6–3 | |
| Win | Apr 2018 | ITF Jackson, United States | $25,000 | Clay | Sanaz Marand | Gaia Sanesi Chanel Simmonds |
6–1, 6–3 | |
| Loss | Apr 2018 | ITF Charlottesville, United States | $80,000 | Clay | Ashley Kratzer | Sophie Chang Alexandra Mueller |
6–3, 4–6, [7–10] | |
| Loss | Jul 2018 | ITF Ashland, United States | $60,000 | Hard | Sanaz Marand | Jovana Jakšić Renata Zarazúa |
3–6, 7–5, [4–10] |
Performance timelines
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | A | NH |
Singles
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.
| Tournament | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | SR | W–L | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slam tournaments | |||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | 1R | Q1 | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| French Open | A | A | Q2 | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – | |
| Wimbledon | A | A | Q1 | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – | |
| US Open | Q1 | 1R | 1R | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% | |
| Win–Loss | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0 / 3 | 0–3 | 0% | |
| Premier Mandatory tournaments | |||||||
| Miami Open | A | 1R | 2R | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% | |
| Career statistics | |||||||
| Year-end ranking | 1120 | 226 | 132 | $366,617 | |||