Luisa Veras Stefani (born 9 August 1997) is a professional tennis player from Brazil who specializes in doubles. Her career-high doubles ranking is world No. 3, achieved in September 14 2026.
Stefani is the first Brazilian woman to reach the WTA Top 10 and the Top 5 in the Open Era. She is also the first Brazilian woman to have achieved both milestones. She reached world No. 9 in doubles on 1 November 2021 and world No. 4 on 13 July 2026.
On 20 May 2019, she reached a singles ranking of No. 431.
Stefani won the mixed-doubles competition at the 2023 Australian Open with Rafael Matos, becoming the first all Brazilian pair to win a major title. With that, Stefani also became the second Brazilian woman to win any major title—after Maria Bueno—and the first Brazilian woman ever to win a mixed doubles title at the Australian Open. She is also one of two Brazilians to win an Olympic medal for tennis, partnering Laura Pigossi at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to win bronze in women's doubles.
Juniors and college years Stefani started playing tennis at age 10, enrolled by her mother who had taken tennis lessons to improve her Frescobol skills. Stefani enjoyed it so much that she wanted to play more and more, until she decided to pursue a professional career in the sport.
At the age of 14, Stefani's family moved to the United States, where it was hoped she would develop herself better in tennis. She started training at Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, and competed in the main draws of all four junior Grand Slams, eventually reaching two junior Grand Slam semifinals in doubles: the 2014 French Open and the 2015 US Open. As she attended Pepperdine University, with a college scholarship, Stefani studied advertising before pausing her academic program. In the Intercollegiate Tennis tour Stefani played for the Pepperdine Waves team, ranked as high as No. 2 in the ITA rankings, and was also named the 2015 ITA National Rookie of the Year, having compiled a 40–6 record in her freshman season and reached the semifinals of the 2016 NCAA Singles Championships, where she lost to eventual champion Danielle Collins.
Stefani attained a career-high ranking of world No. 10 on the ITF Junior Circuit.
Professional
2015 Stefani made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2015 Brasil Tennis Cup where she received a singles main-draw wildcard.
2019
Until 2019, Stefani tried to play both singles and doubles. The doubles kept being more productive, and once an invitation to make her tour debut at the 2019 Monterrey Open with Giuliana Olmos led to the semifinals and a ranking increase, she decided to stop playing singles to have more chances at appearing in bigger events. Soon afterward, Stefani made her major main-draw debut at French Open, partnering Australian Astra Sharma in doubles.
In September, with Hayley Carter as partner, she reached the first WTA Tour doubles final at the Korea Open and, the following week, won the first career title at the Tashkent Open. With these campaigns, she entered the top 100 and reached a career-high ranking in doubles of No. 75 on 21 October 2019. After that, Stefani established a fixed partnership with Carter.
At the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Luisa won a bronze medal alongside Carolina Alves.
2020 In 2020, the Stefani/Carter duo reached the Australian Open third round, won the Challenger Series title in Newport, reached the Dubai quarterfinals in February, and won the Lexington Open in August. With that, they entered the top 40 for the first time.
At the US Open, she had her best major campaign in her career reaching the quarterfinals, defeating the six seeds Japan duo Shuko Aoyama/Ena Shibahara in the round of 16. It had been 38 years since a female doubles player from Brazil had gone as far in a Grand Slam tournament (the last time that Brazilians were in the quarterfinals was in Wimbledon in 1982: Patricia Medrado and Cláudia Monteiro).
At the Italian Open, she reached the semifinals, losing only to the top seeds. In October, she entered her first Premier final in Ostrava, playing with Gabriela Dabrowski.
2021: Olympic doubles bronze, No. 9, injury
Stefani and Carter reached their first WTA 1000 final at the 2021 Miami Open. Stefani had to pass on the French Open, after being forced to endure an emergency appendicitis surgery. With Carter getting a season-ending injury at Wimbledon, Stefani announced she would spend the rest of the year with Gabriela Dabrowski.
At the postponed Tokyo Olympics, Stefani won a bronze medal, partnering Laura Pigossi. Stefani and Pigossi were only granted entry to the Olympics one week before the 2020 Games opened, with Stefani ranked No. 23 in the doubles rankings and Pigossi at No. 190, and had only played together once previously—a defeat at the 2020 Fed Cup. Saving four match points against Czech players Karolína Plíšková and Markéta Vondroušová in the round of 16, they beat Veronika Kudermetova and defending gold medalist Elena Vesnina after saving four match points in the final super tiebreak. Pigossi and Stefani became the first Brazilians in history to obtain an Olympic medal in tennis.
Following the Olympics, seeded fifth, Stefani won her first WTA 1000, partnering Dabrowski, at the Canadian Open avenging their loss in the Silicon Valley Classic final to Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepač. The following week, they followed this successful run by another, reaching the WTA 1000 final at the Cincinnati Open by defeating current Olympic champions, second seeded pair of Krejciková and Siniaková. They lost the final to Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai.
The US Open had Stefani reaching her first major semifinal and fifth straight in 2021, partnering with Gabriela Dabrowski, only to injure her knee in the decisive game against Coco Gauff and Caty McNally and withdraw. Stefani had to sit out the rest of the season following surgery to mend the anterior cruciate ligament injury. Still in November, she rose to No. 9 of the doubles rankings. The only other Brazilian woman to rank so high was Maria Bueno before the Open era.
During her rehabilitation, Stefani met Guilherme Pachane, a former Brazilian college tennis player who was transitioning to the professional tour. He would later become her boyfriend and eventually take on the role of her head coach, first working alongside Leo Azevedo and later assuming the position on his own.
2022: Guadalajara doubles title, doubles top 50 After nearly a year of recovering from her knee injury, Stefani announced her return to play at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September, partnered with Ena Shibahara. Before that, she visited the US Open to train among the WTA's best players. During the major event, she arranged with Dabrowski for both to play the Chennai Open the week before Tokyo. Stefani returned to the courts winning the WTA 250 title in Chennai along with Dabrowski.Stefani volta com tudo e fatura o título em Chennai
Ranked No. 217 at the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara, playing with Storm Sanders, she reached an unprecedented Brazilian final at the WTA 1000 level with Beatriz Haddad Maia. Stefani and Sanders won the title in a highly contested match in the tie-breaker. As a result, she returned to the top 100 moving more than 160 positions up to a year-end ranking of No. 55.
Partnering Ingrid Martins, Stefani won the doubles title at the WTA 125 Montevideo Open, defeating Quinn Gleason and Elixane Lechemia in the final. She closed the season at No. 48.
2023: Mixed-doubles title, top 10, first WTA grass title, Pan American champion Stefani announced she would play the 2023 Australian Open with Caty McNally, but withdrew without playing a game once McNally injured herself in the singles tournament. Before that, she got together with McNally's former partner Taylor Townsend at the WTA 500 in Adelaide, where she won the tournament, rising to No. 34 in the world.Stefani conquista 1º título do ano e 6º da carreira
Also during the Australian Open, Stefani and Brazilian partner Rafael Matos were crowned champions, after defeating the Indian duo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in straight sets. The two became the first all Brazilian pair to win a major, with Stefani herself becoming the second Brazilian woman to ever win any major title.
After winning the mixed doubles title, Stefani said she was devastated when McNally withdrew shortly before their first-round match. She recalled crying after receiving the news, said she felt shaken by the setback, and explained that she eventually accepted there was nothing she could do about the situation.
Along with Zhang Shuai, Stefani won the WTA 500 in Abu Dhabi, returning to the top 30 in doubles.Campeã, Stefani volta ao top 30 depois de seis meses Following two first-round exits, partnering with Anna Danilina, Stefani announced she would reunite with Dabrowski in the following two tournaments. The duo then reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells, but fell in the first round of the Miami Open. Stefani and Dabrowski also reached the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 Madrid Open, and the third round at Roland Garros. Afterwards they decided to part ways, with Stefani stating she was frustrated with the low results.
Later, playing with Caroline Garcia, Stefani won her first WTA Tour title on grass at the WTA 500 in Berlin, with this reaching No. 14 in the WTA doubles rankings. Still with Garcia, Stefani reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, along the way defeating sixth seeds Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend, and former doubles world No. 1, Tímea Babos (who played alongside Kirsten Flipkens), before losing to the eventual champions, Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová.
Stefani made the Cincinnati quarterfinals, partnering Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and upon her return to the US Open, alongside Jennifer Brady, repeated the semifinal that preceded her injury. With that, she returned to the top 10. At the China Open, she reached the semifinals playing with compatriot Ingrid Martins, defeating en route second seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, and then eighth seeds Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, avenging her loss at the US Open.
At the 2023 Pan American Games, Stefani and Pigossi won the doubles gold medal. Both having to play two finals on the same day, after winning gold in men's and women's doubles, Stefani and Marcelo Demoliner went to the mixed-doubles final and obtained another medal, now a silver.
In November, Stefanj played alongside Ingrid Martins in the final match of the four-rubber tie between Team Brazil and South Korea in Brasília, part of the play-offs for the Billie Jean King Cup. Stefani was originally set to pair with Beatriz Haddad Maia, but due to strategic changes, she teamed up with Martins instead. Martins and Stefani faced the South Korean duo of Back Da-yeon and Jeong Bo-young, winning the match in straight sets. It was Martin’s debut match representing Brazil in the BJK Cup. Brazil won the tie without dropping a single match.
2024: Third WTA 1000 doubles title Stefani reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open playing with Demi Schuurs, this being her best campaign in this tournament to date. At the Abu Dhabi Open, she partnered with Beatriz Haddad Maia, with whom she had won two ITF titels in 2019, serving as preparation for the 2024 Summer Olympics given they had the rankings to play the doubles tournament together. They reached the semifinals but had to pull out of the decisive game once Haddad injured herself in the singles semifinal.