Hayley Nicole Carter (born May 17, 1995) is an American former professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA doubles ranking of No. 25, which she achieved on 14 June 2021. Carter is primarily a doubles player. Over her career, she won two WTA Tour and two WTA 125 doubles titles, with nine titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
Junior years Carter played at the Smith Stearn's Tennis Academy growing up. She also won a record 14 South Carolina state championships. Between 2009 and 2012, she won three ITF Junior Circuit singles titles and one doubles title.
Carter played collegiate tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels, where she earned All-American honors each of the four years she competed. She is the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time leader in women's tennis singles victories with 168.
Professional 2019: New partnership with Stefani, first WTA Tour title In September 2019, with Luisa Stefani as partner, she reached her first doubles final on the WTA Tour at the Korea Open, and the following week, they won their first WTA Tour title at the Tashkent Open. Thereafter, Carter established a fixed partnership with Stefani.
2020: Top 40 debut The Carter/Stefani duo reached the third round for the first time at a major at the 2020 Australian Open where they were defeated by sixth seeded duo Gabriela Dabrowski/Jeļena Ostapenko.
They won the title at the Newport Beach Challenger, which was the second year in a row that Carter had won this event (with Ena Shibahara in 2019). They also reached the Dubai Tennis Championships quarterfinals in February, and won the Lexington Open in August. With that, they entered the top 40 for the first time.
At the Italian Open, they had another great tournament reaching the semifinals and losing only to the top seeds Hsieh/Strycová.
The pair's best result at a Grand Slam championship came at the US Open where they reached the quarterfinals, defeating the No. 6 seeds, Japan duo of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, in the round of 16.
2021: WTA 1000 doubles final and top 25, coaching Carter reached her best result at the WTA 1000 level by becoming a doubles finalist alongside Stefani in Miami, where they were defeated by the fifth-seeded duo Aoyama/Shibahara. Following Wimbledon, she joined the coaching staff of the Vanderbilt Commodores college team in July 2021. Through the rest of the year, she took part in three WTA tournaments in the US: the Cincinnati Open with Sabrina Santamaria, the US Open with Astra Sharma, and Indian Wells Open with Dabrowski.
2023 Carter returned to the University of North Carolina as an assistant coach in July 2023.
Grand Slam performance timelines
Women's doubles Tournament201920202021SRW–LAustralian OpenA3R3R0 / 24–2French OpenA3R1R0 / 22–2WimbledonANH1R0 / 10–1US Open1RQF1R0 / 33–3Win–loss0–17–32–40 / 89–8
Mixed doubles Tournament201920202021SRW–L Australian OpenAAQF0 / 12–1 French OpenANHA0 / 00–0 WimbledonANH3R0 / 11–1 US Open2RNH1R0 / 21–2Win–loss1–10–03–30 / 44–4
Significant finals WTA 1000 tournaments Doubles: 1 (runner-up) ResultDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2021Miami Open Hard Luisa Stefani Shuko Aoyama Ena Shibahara 2–6, 5–7
WTA Tour finals Doubles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups) LegendPremier M & Premier 5 / WTA 1000 (0–1)Premier / WTA 500 (0–2)International / WTA 250 (2–3)Finals by surfaceHard (2–4)Clay (0–2)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Copa Colsanitas, ColombiaInternationalClay Ena Shibahara Zoe Hives Astra Sharma1–6, 2–6Loss0–2Korea Open, South KoreaInternationalHard Luisa Stefani Lara Arruabarrena Tatjana Maria6–7(7–9), 6–3, [7–10]Win1–2 Tashkent Open, UzbekistanInternationalHard Luisa Stefani Dalila Jakupović Sabrina Santamaria6–3, 7–6(7–4)Win2–2 Lexington Open, United StatesInternationalHard Luisa Stefani Marie Bouzková Jil Teichmann6–1, 7–5Loss2–3 Internationaux de Strasbourg, FranceInternationalClay Luisa Stefani Nicole Melichar Demi Schuurs4–6, 3–6Loss2–4Abu Dhabi Open, United Arab EmiratesWTA 500Hard Luisa Stefani Shuko Aoyama Ena Shibahara6–7(5–7), 4–6Loss2–5Adelaide International, AustraliaWTA 500Hard Luisa Stefani Alexa Guarachi Desirae Krawczyk7–6(7–4), 4–6, [3–10]Loss2–6Miami Open, United StatesWTA 1000Hard Luisa Stefani Shuko Aoyama Ena Shibahara2–6, 5–7
WTA Challenger finals Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up) ResultW–LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0Newport Beach Challenger, United StatesHard Ena Shibahara Taylor Townsend Yanina Wickmayer6–3, 7–6(1)Win2–0Newport Beach Challenger, United States (2)Hard Luisa Stefani Marie Benoît Jessika Ponchet6–1, 6–3Loss1–2Open de Saint-Malo, FranceClay Luisa Stefani Kaitlyn Christian Sabrina Santamaria6–7(4), 6–4, [5–10]
ITF Circuit finals Legend $60,000 tournaments $25,000 tournaments $10,000 tournaments
Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 0–1 May 2013ITF Hilton Head, United States10,000 Hard Yana Koroleva 5–7, 4–6Loss 0–2 Aug 2014ITF Fort Worth, United States10,000 Hard Tatjana Maria 1–6, 1–6
Doubles: 14 (9 titles, 5 runner-ups) ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 0–1 Oct 2012ITF Florence, United States25,000 Hard Brooke Austin Ulrikke Eikeri Akiko Omae 1–6, 1–6Loss 0–2 May 2013ITF Hilton Head, United States10,000 Hard Josie Kuhlman Kristy Frilling Alexandra Mueller 3–6, 4–6Win 1–2 Jul 2014ITF Fort Worth, United States10,000 Hard Stefanie Tan Catherine Harrison Mary Weatherholt 6–3, 6–3Win 2–2 Jun 2018ITF Baton Rouge, United States25,000 Hard Ena Shibahara Astra Sharma Gabriela Talabă 6–3, 6–4Win 3–2 Aug 2018Lexington Challenger, United States60,000 Hard Ena Shibahara Sanaz Marand Victoria Rodríguez 6–3, 6–1Loss 3–3 Sep 2018ITF Lubbock, United States25,000 Hard Vladica Babić Naomi Broady Nadia Podoroska 6–3, 6–4Win 4–3 Oct 2018Stockton Challenger, United States60,000 Hard Ena Shibahara Quinn Gleason Luisa Stefani 7–5, 5–7, [10–7]Win 5–3 Feb 2019Rancho Santa Fe Open, United States25,000 Hard Ena Shibahara Francesca Di Lorenzo Caty McNally 7–5, 6–2Win 6–3 Jun 2019ITF Bethany Beach, United States25,000 Clay Usue Maitane Arconada Dea Herdželaš Tereza Mihalíková 6–4, 6–4Loss 6–4 Jun 2019ITF Sumter, United States25,000 Hard Vladica Babić Brynn Boren Caitlin Whoriskey 4–6, 4–6Win 7–4 Jun 2019ITF Denver, United States25,000 Hard Vladica Babić Brynn Boren Gail Brodsky 6–2, 6–3Win 8–4 Jul 2019Championships of Honolulu, United States60,000 Hard Jamie Loeb Usue Maitane Arconada Caroline Dolehide 6–4, 6–4Loss 9–4 Aug 2019Landisville Tennis Challenge, United States60,000 Hard Jamie Loeb Vania King Claire Liu 6–4, 2–6, [5–10]Win 9–5 Nov 2019Copa Santiago, Chile60,000 Clay Luisa Stefani Anna Danilina Conny Perrin 5–7, 6–3, [10–6]
World TeamTennis Carter made her World TeamTennis debut in 2020.
References
External links
Profile on North Carolina's website Profile on Vanderbilt's website