Catherine "Caty" McNally (born November 20, 2001) is an American professional tennis player.
She achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 54 on 22 May 2023 and her best WTA doubles ranking of No. 11 on 4 April 2022.[1] She has won eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour, three of them with Coco Gauff, and the pair also reached the final of the 2021 US Open. She reached another major final at the 2022 US Open with Taylor Townsend. She has also won six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.[2] In singles, McNally has won one title on the WTA Challenger Tour plus three on the ITF Circuit.
She is best known for her doubles partnership with Coco Gauff, which is nicknamed "McCoco" by fans and media.[3]
As a junior, McNally won the 2018 French Open doubles title, was runner-up in the 2018 French Open girls' singles, and won the US Open junior doubles competition.[4][5]
Early life and background
McNally was born in Madeira, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio,[6] to John McNally and Lynn Nabors-McNally, a graduate of Indian Hill High School. 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.[7]
Junior career
McNally finished runner-up at the Wimbledon junior doubles tournament in 2016, 2017 and 2018.[8] She won her first major junior title at the 2018 French Open doubles event at the age of 16, partnering with Iga Świątek.[9] At the same tournament she reached the final of the girls singles, where she lost to Coco Gauff.[10] In September 2018, she partnered Gauff to win the girls doubles title at the US Open.[11]
In 2017, McNally was on the United States team that won the Junior Fed Cup, having previously been a losing finalist.[12]
McNally's first win in a major came at the US Open where she defeated Timea Bacsinszky in the first round.[22] She took a set off six-times champion Serena Williams before losing in three sets in a tight second-round match.[23] Passing her in the stadium complex later that night, Williams asked her: "Are you really 17 years old?"[24] 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,[25] but losing heavily to Ash Barty and Victoria Azarenka in the third.[26] The run took McNally into the top 100 in the doubles rankings, and just outside the top 100 in the singles rankings.[27]
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.[33][34] 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.[35] As a result, McNally broke into the top 40 in the doubles rankings. In March, she lost to Sachia Vickery in the first round of the Indian Wells Challenger tournament,[36] but teamed up with Jessica Pegula to reach the final of the doubles, beating third seeds Stosur and Yanina Wickmayer in the semifinal before falling to Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend in the final.[37]
Following the break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, McNally took part in the Western & Southern Open, which was moved from her home town of Cincinnati to New York, losing in the first round to Alizé Cornet.[38] The following week, she reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time when she beat 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round of the US Open.[39]
McNally received a wildcard entry to the US Open, but was beaten in the first round by fourth seed Karolína Plíšková.[47] In the women's doubles, McNally and Gauff, who were seeded 11th, made their deepest run yet in a Grand Slam tournament when they reached the semifinals without dropping a set, beating top seeds and current Wimbledon champions Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens, in straight sets in the quarterfinals.[48] They progressed to the final when their semifinal opponents, Luisa Stefani and Gabriela Dabrowski, retired after Stefani sustained an injury during the first set tiebreak.[49] In the final, they lost to Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai.[50] The run to the final lifted McNally to No. 22 in the WTA doubles rankings.[citation needed]
2022: US Open final & top 15 in doubles, top 100 in singles
At the St. Petersburg Trophy in February, McNally teamed up with Anna Kalinskaya to win the doubles title, beating Polish Alicja Rosolska and New Zealander Erin Routliffe in the final; it was her fifth on the WTA Tour.[51] The win took her to a career high No. 16 in the rankings on February 14, 2022.[52]
She reached a second doubles final for the season with Kalinskaya at the Washington Open, defeating second seeded Belgian pair of world No. 1 in doubles, Elise Mertens, and Greet Minnen. They lost in the final to top seeded Jessica Pegula and Erin Routliffe.[53]
At the US Open, she and Taylor Townsend reached the doubles final, losing to Krejčíková and Siniaková.[54] At the Ostrava Open the following month, she reached the quarterfinals of the singles before being beaten by Iga Świątek. In doubles, she teamed up with Alycia Parks for the first time. They were unseeded, but beat the first and fourth seeds en route to the final, where they beat third seeds Rosolska and Routliffe to win the title. It was McNally's sixth doubles title.[55]
In November, she won her first WTA 125 title at the Midland Classic defeating Anna-Lena Friedsam in straight sets and made her top 100 debut in singles, at world No. 94 on November 7, 2022.[56][57]
In what turned out to be her last event of the season, McNally lost in the first round at Wimbledon to Jodie Burrage.[64] An elbow injury subsequently forced her to withdraw from the US Open.[65]
2024: Transylvania Open doubles title, elbow surgery and comeback
McNally withdrew from the Australian Open.[66] She briefly returned to the tour in February, playing at the Transylvania Open, where she won the doubles title with Asia Muhammad,[67] as well as tournaments in Linz and Puerto Vallarta, before undergoing surgery on her elbow at the renowned Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Alabama in March.[68]
The following month, McNally won her first title since her return to action at the Tampa ITF W50 and as a result jumped 223 places in the WTA singles rankings to world No. 543.[71]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.