Caty McNally


Catherine "Caty" McNally is an American tennis player. She is the 2018 French Open juniors doubles and 2018 French Open girls' singles runner-up and US Open junior doubles champion. She has won two doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as two singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On September 9, 2019, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 105. On February 3, 2020, she achieved her highest doubles ranking of world No. 39.

Early life and background

McNally was born in Madeira, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, to John McNally and Lynn Nabors-McNally. Her mother was briefly a professional tennis player who had a career best doubles ranking inside the top 250. Her older brother John is also a professional and was a high-ranked junior player. Both are coached by their mother.

Junior career

McNally finished runner-up at the Wimbledon junior doubles tournament in 2016, 2017 and 2018. She won her first Grand Slam junior title at the 2018 French Open doubles event at the age of 16, partnering with Iga Świątek. At the same tournament she reached the final of the girls singles, where she lost to Coco Gauff. In September 2018, she partnered Gauff to win the girls doubles title at the US Open.
In 2017, McNally was on the United States team that won the Junior Fed Cup, having previously been a losing finalist.

Professional career

2017–18: WTA doubles debut

McNally made her WTA main-draw debut at the 2017 Western & Southern Open in the doubles draw, partnering with Alexa Glatch.

2019: First singles wins; first doubles titles

In February 2019, McNally won the $100K Dow Tennis Classic. Later that month, she reached the third round of the Indian Wells Challenger, losing to eventual winner Viktorija Golubic. A week after that, she qualified for the BNP Paribas Open, also in Indian Wells, beating Kristýna Plíšková and Timea Bacsinszky in the qualifiers. She earned a wildcard for the Miami Open, where she was again beaten by Coco Gauff. In July, she qualified for her first Grand Slam main-draw tournament at Wimbledon.
At the end of July and beginning of August, McNally recorded her first WTA main draw singles wins with a run to the semifinal at the Washington Open, beating Zhu Lin, Christina McHale and fourth seed Hsieh Su-wei. Meanwhile, she and Gauff won the doubles competition, beating third seeds Miyu Kato and Anna Kalinskaya in the semifinal, and fourth seeds Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollár in the final. She was awarded a wild card into her home tournament, the Cincinnati Open, where she played her first-round match on center court, but lost to Elise Mertens. She teamed with up Alison Riske to play in the doubles. The pair reached the quarterfinals, beating fourth seeds Yifan Xu and Gabriela Dabrowski in a second round match that went to 17–15 in the match tiebreak, the second-longest match tiebreak in a women's doubles match.
McNally's first win in a Grand Slam tournament came at the US Open where she defeated Timea Bacsinszky in the first round. She took a set off six-times champion Serena Williams before losing in three sets in a tight second-round match. Passing her in the stadium complex later that night, Williams asked her: "Are you really 17 years old?" McNally and Gauff—dubbed "McCoco"—followed up their 2018 girls' doubles win by reaching the third round of the doubles event, beating ninth seeds Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke in the second round in a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium, but losing heavily to Ash Barty and Victoria Azarenka in the third. The run took McNally into the top 100 in the doubles rankings, and just outside the top 100 in the singles rankings.
She partnered Gauff again in the Linz Open, where they reached the semifinal. They were beaten by Barbara Haas and Xenia Knoll. At Luxembourg the following week, McNally lost in the first round of the singles to Jeļena Ostapenko, but went through to the final of the doubles with Gauff, beating Misaki Doi and Makoto Ninomiya, No. 4 seeds Anna Blinkova and Miyu Kato, and No. 1 seeds Kristýna Plíšková and Renata Voráčová. They beat No. 2 seeds Kaitlyn Christian and Alexa Guarachi in the final to secure their second WTA title, with a career win–loss record of 12–2 as a team.

2020

In her first tournament of 2020, the Auckland Open, McNally was knocked out in the first round of the singles after qualifying as a lucky loser, but she and Gauff reached the semifinals of the doubles. At the Australian Open, she won her qualifying matches, entering the main draw, where she defeated Sam Stosur in the first round, before losing to Zhang Shuai. In doubles, McNally and Gauff recorded their best result at a Grand Slam tournament, reaching the quarterfinals before falling to second seeded Kristina Mladenovic and Tímea Babos in two sets. As a result, McNally broke into the top 40 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Performance timelines

Singles

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.
This table is current through the 2020 Australian Open.

Doubles

WTA career finals

Doubles: 2 (2 titles)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1–02019 Citi Open – Women's Doubles|Washington Open,
United States		InternationalHard Coco Gauff Maria Sanchez
Fanny Stollár		6–2, 6–2
Win2–02019 BGL Luxembourg Open – Doubles|Luxembourg Open,
Luxembourg		InternationalHard Coco Gauff Kaitlyn Christian
Alexa Guarachi		6–2, 6–2

WTA 125K series finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0ITF Lawrence, United States25,000Hard Catherine Harrison6–2, 6–2
Win2–02019 Dow Tennis Classic – Singles|ITF Midland, United States100,000Hard Jessica Pegula6–2, 6–4

Doubles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runner-ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1–0ITF Hilton Head Island, United States15,000Clay Emily Appleton Kylie Collins
Meg Kowalski		7–5, 6–3
Loss1–1ITF Fort-de-France, Martinique15,000Clay Emily Appleton Rasheeda McAdoo
Amy Zhu		5–7, 6–7
Win2–1ITF Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe15,000Hard Emily Appleton Shelby Talcott
Amy Zhu		6–3, 6–0
Win3–1ITF Orlando, United States15,000Clay Whitney Osuigwe Dia Evtimova
Ilona Kremen		6–2, 6–3
Win4–1ITF Tampa, United States15,000Clay Natasha Subhash Rasheeda McAdoo
Katerina Stewart		3–6, 6–3,
Win5–12018 Mercer Tennis Classic – Doubles|ITF Macon, United States80,000Hard Jessica Pegula Anna Danilina
Ingrid Neel		6–1, 5–7,
Loss5–2ITF Rancho Santa Fe, United States25,000Hard Francesca Di Lorenzo Hayley Carter
Ena Shibahara		5–7, 2–6

ITF Junior Circuit

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)

ITF Junior finals

Singles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runner–ups)

Doubles: 15 (9 titles, 6 runner–ups)

OutcomeW–LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1–0Delray Beach ITF, USClay Natasha Subhash Nandini Das
Anna Dollar		7–6, 6–2
Loss1–1Evert American ITF, Florida, USHard Kacie Harvey Emma Decoste
Clarissa Hand		1–6, 1–6
Loss1–2Porto Alegre Junior ChampionshipsClay Natasha Subhash Panna Udvardy
Dayana Yastremska		6–7, 6–3, 11–13
Loss1–3WimbledonGrass Mariam Bolkvadze Usue Maitane Arconada
Claire Liu		2–6, 3–6
Win2–3Abierto Juvenil MexicanoClay Natasha Subhash Malene Helgø
Claire Liu		6–2, 6–4
Win3–3Easter Bowl Championship, California, USHard Whitney Osuigwe Taylor Johnson
Ann Li		6–3, 7–6
Win4–358th Trofeo Bonfiglio - Campionati Internazionali
d'Italia Juniores, Milan, Italy		Clay Whitney Osuigwe Cho I-hsuan
Ayumi Miyamoto		6–3, 7–6
Loss4–4WimbledonGrass Whitney Osuigwe Olga Danilović
Kaja Juvan		4–6, 3–6
Win5–4Eddie Herr ITF, Florida, USClay Whitney Osuigwe Thasaporn Naklo
Naho Sato		6–3, 6–1
Win6–4Easter Bowl Championship, California, USHard Hailey Baptiste Savannah Broadus
Kylie Collins		6–0, 6–0
Loss6–559th Trofeo Bonfiglio - Campionati Internazionali
d'Italia Juniores, Milan, Italy		Clay Leonie Küng Yuki Naito
Naho Sato		6–7, 4–6
Win7–5French OpenClay Iga Świątek Yuki Naito
Naho Sato		6–2, 7–5
Win8–5Junior International Roehampton, United KingdomGrass Whitney Osuigwe Clara Tauson
Wang Xinyu		7–6, 7–6
Loss8–6WimbledonGrass Whitney Osuigwe Wang Xinyu
Wang Xiyu		2–6, 1–6
Win9–6US OpenHard Coco Gauff Hailey Baptiste
Dalayna Hewitt		6–3, 6–2

World TeamTennis

McNally will be making her World TeamTennis debut in 2020, and will be joining the Springfield Lasers as they eye a three-peat for the King Trophy when WTT season set begins July 12 at The Greenbrier.