Monica Puig Marchan was born on September 27,1993 and is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player.
51 Facts About Monica Puig
2.
Monica Puig is the first Puerto Rican in history to win a gold medal at the Olympics while representing Puerto Rico, having done so in 2016 at the women's singles event.
3.
Monica Puig is a Central American and Caribbean champion and Pan American silver medalist.
4.
Monica Puig retired as a professional tennis player on 13 June 2022.
5.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Monica Puig won the gold medal, the ninth overall medal at the Games for Puerto Rico.
6.
Monica Puig continued her good form, winning two out of three tournaments.
7.
Monica Puig continued to participate in bigger tournaments, though not with as much success as she had in the smaller ones.
8.
Monica Puig had her breakthrough season in 2009; she started doing much better in the bigger tournaments.
9.
Monica Puig reached her first Grade-1 final in Casablanca, losing to Mai Grage of Denmark.
10.
Monica Puig continued playing consistently, highlights of the latter months of the year included a semifinal appearance at a Grade-B1 tournament in Tulsa, losing to Bouchard in three sets.
11.
Monica Puig started the year reaching the final of the 32nd International Casablanca Junior Cup, falling easily to Sachie Ishizu of Japan.
12.
Monica Puig then reached another final a week later at the Coffee Bowl losing to An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium in straights.
13.
Monica Puig followed that up with a semifinal appearance at a Grade-1 tournament in Barranquilla.
14.
Monica Puig finished the season with a flourish, falling in the quarterfinals of Osaka, the final of Merida and the semifinals of Key Biscayne, both to Lauren Davis.
15.
Monica Puig was in the juniors event of the Australian Open.
16.
Monica Puig received a wildcard into the qualifying draw of the Indian Wells Open.
17.
Monica Puig defeated Anne Keothavong in the first round but was then knocked out by Sorana Cirstea, in three sets.
18.
Monica Puig won the silver medal at the Pan American Games after defeating Christina McHale of the United States to advance to the gold medal round.
19.
Monica Puig lost to Irina Falconi of the United States in the final.
20.
In January 2012, Monica Puig entered the Auckland Open, ranked 213 in the world, and won the first and second round of qualifying matches, but lost in the last round to the No 145 in the world, Karolina Pliskova.
21.
Monica Puig received a wildcard to play in the Indian Wells Open qualifying draw, but, in the second round, lost to world No 66, Eleni Daniilidou.
22.
Monica Puig's breakthrough came when she reached the final of the Poza Rica $25k tournament unseeded.
23.
Monica Puig opened the first round by eliminating the top-seed and world ranked 87, Alexandra Panova.
24.
At the Australian Open, Monica Puig was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Wang Qiang.
25.
In Paris at the WTA indoor event, Monica Puig lost in the final round of qualifying to Stefanie Vogele.
26.
In October 2014, Monica Puig won first place at the WTA Rising Stars Invitational in Singapore.
27.
Monica Puig repeated her Australian Open success to reach the third round at the French Open, defeating Olga Govortsova and Julia Gorges, before losing to the 15th seed Madison Keys.
28.
At Wimbledon she faced home player Johanna Konta in the first round, in which Monica Puig lost in two sets.
29.
At the Rio Summer Olympics, Monica Puig won the women's singles gold medal by defeating Polona Hercog, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbine Muguruza, Laura Siegemund, Petra Kvitova, and finally Angelique Kerber.
30.
Monica Puig became the second unseeded player to win a medal at the Olympics after Alicia Molik had won bronze in Athens and the first athlete representing Puerto Rico to win a gold medal in any sport.
31.
In Puerto Rico's Olympic history, Monica Puig is the ninth sportsperson and the first woman to win an Olympic medal.
32.
Monica Puig is the first Latin American representative to win the gold medal in singles and the second to win a medal, after Gabriela Sabatini won silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
33.
In November, Monica Puig was presented the award for Best Female Athlete in Rio 2016 presented by the Association of National Olympic Committees.
34.
Monica Puig was not originally seeded at the US Open, but after a withdrawal of Sloane Stephens, Puig became the 32nd seed.
35.
Monica Puig lost in the first round to Zheng Saisai, and in doubles with Mariana Duque-Marino to Nicole Gibbs and Nao Hibino, and concluded the season with a career best year-end ranking of No 32.
36.
Monica Puig was unable to replicate her success throughout 2017 and fell out of the top 50 in June.
37.
Monica Puig started the season at the Auckland Open where she lost in the first round to second seed and eventual champion, Julia Gorges.
38.
Monica Puig beat Sam Stosur in the first round of the Australian Open; she lost in the second round to Kaia Kanepi.
39.
Monica Puig had a great run at the Miami Open as she stunned second seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
40.
Monica Puig was defeated in the second round by tenth seed, two-time and eventual champion, Petra Kvitova.
41.
Monica Puig retired from her qualifying match in Rome at the Italian Open to Donna Vekic due to a right hip strain.
42.
Monica Puig started her 2019 season at the Auckland Open where she lost in the second round to third seed Hsieh Su-wei.
43.
Monica Puig then retired during her second-round match against Wang Yafan due to food poisoning.
44.
Monica Puig kicked off her clay-court season at the Charleston Open.
45.
Monica Puig missed the Auckland Open and the Australian Open due to her undergoing right elbow surgery.
46.
Monica Puig made a comeback after two years at the Madrid Open where she lost to Danielle Collins in the first round, in straight sets.
47.
Monica Puig retired in June 2022 due to the cumulative effects of repeated injuries she sustained throughout her career.
48.
Monica Puig has had multiple coaches in her career, including Alain De Vos, Ricardo Sanchez, Juan Todero, Kamau Murray and Othmane Garma, Philippe DeHaes, and Diego Veronelli.
49.
Monica Puig has played one season of World TeamTennis making her debut in 2019 with the Vegas Rollers for their inaugural season.
50.
Monica Puig joined her then-fiance, former Georgia Tech tennis player and avid runner Nathan Rakitt, for a run and enjoyed it, so much that they decided to sign up for the 2022 New York City Marathon.
51.
Monica Puig was cheered on by Puerto Ricans and finished the New York marathon in just over.