Panna Udvardy

Panna Udvardy is a Hungarian tennis player, who has a career-high WTA ranking of No 76 in singles, achieved on September 12, 2022. She won one WTA 125 title and 11 ITF titles in her career.

Panna Udvardy was born on September 28, 1998, in Kaposvar, Hungary. She started playing tennis at the age of five. For a while, the family lived in Australia, where her talent was noticed and she was invited to the city’s team. In 2006, she won first place at the national mini-tennis championship for 1st-grade girls. At that time, she was already the most successful player in her age group. At the age of 12, she won the individual and doubles age group championship of Veszprem County and became a student champion in 2011. As a junior, she won the Aridea Cup (Greece), Trnava Cup U16 and Michalovce Cup U16 (Slovakia), Banana Bowl (Brazil), and was the runner-up at the J60 Marsa \ Ricoh Malta ITF World Ranking Tournament (Spain). She also played in the Junior Grand Slam in 2016.

Panna Udvardy made her professional debut in 2016 at the $15,000 Gyor (Hungary), reaching the second round. Later the same season she won her first ITF title at the $10,000 W15 Casablanca (Morocco) and was the runner-up at the $10,000 Rabat (Morocco).

In 2017, Panna Udvardy won another title at the ITF Circuit, triumphing at the $15,000 Hammamet (Tunisia), $15,000 W15 Oeiras (Portugal), and $15,000 W15 Szekesfehervar (Hungary), but also was runner-up at the $15,000 Edgbaston (UK) and reached the semi-finals of the $60,000 Dunakeszi (Hungary).

Panna Udvardy made her WTA debut in 2018. She played in the main scheme of the WTA 250 Hungarian Ladies Open but lost in the first round.

In 2019, Panna Udvardy continue playing entirely in the ITF Circuit. She reached the semi-finals of the $80,000 W80 Palm Harbor, FL (USA) and was the runner-up at the $25,000 W25 Naples, FL (USA).

Panna Udvardy played at the main scheme of the WTA 125 Prague Open in 2020 but lost in the first round. The short season seriously broke her schedule and she participated just in a few more ITF tournaments without some significant success.

Panna Udvardy made her breakthrough in the world’s tennis in 2021, winning the titles at the $25,000 W25 Naples, FL (USA), $25,000 W25 Pelham, AL (USA), $25,000 W25 Frydek Mistek (Czech Republic), $25,000 W25 Rio Do Sul (Brazil), and $60,000 W60 Brasilia (Brazil). She reached her first WTA final, even at the WTA 125 category – Montevideo Open. However, she lost to Diane Parry (France). During the season she reached the semi-finals of the WTA 125 Argentina Open, the quarter-finals of the WTA 250 Hungarian Grand Prix, and played at the WTA 250 Winners Open in Cluj-Napoca. Following her good results, she entered the world’s Top 100, ending the season as WTA No 95.

In 2022, Panna Udvardy debuted at the Grand Slam tournament, playing in the mains scheme of the Australian Open, but lost in the opening round to Victoria Azarenka (Belarus). In March, she reached the quarter-finals of the WTA 125 Anytech365 Andalucia Open. Two months later, she reached another quarter-final at the WTA 125 Liqui Moly Open Karlsruhe. During the Summer, Panna Udvardy won the title at the $60,000 W60 Cordenons (Italy) and played her second WTA final at the WTA 125 BCR Iasi Open, losing to Ana Bogdan (Romania). In October, Panna Udvardy won the title at the $60,000 W60 Barranquilla (Colombia), and in November she achieved her most considerable success winning the WTA 125 Argentina Open title.

In 2023, Panna Udvardy played at the Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open and French Open but lost in the first round. She also reached the second round of the WTA 250 Merida Open Akron but did not record some significant success.

Panna Udvardy is one of the most talented tennis players and for sure we will expect much more titles in the coming year from her.

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