Hailey Baptiste, Her Humble Origins + Great Prospects
A product of a neighborhood tennis training and education program in Washington, DC, Baptiste may not yet have Pope Leo XIV's blessing, but she's got Big Foe on her side.
In the summer of 2020, everyone was struggling, but the professional tennis players on tour — whether ATP/WTA Professional/Challengers or the ITF Futures (the minor leagues of tennis) — were in deep. Their events were cancelled; courts at clubs and even in public parks were closed; and travel without a $80 Covid test and heightened restrictions proved nearly impossible. But in the middle of the summer, amid a cancelled Wimbledon (for the first time since World War II), a delayed French Open and before a strange and empty U.S. Open, was one shining little light: World Team Tennis.
Then headed by Carlos Silva, a veteran of the sports industry, World Team Tennis managed to engineer a closed, Covid-friendly, fun and relaxing two weeks at The Greenbrier, a five-star resort and country club set among West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. Among the players who signed up — a who’s who of current Top-20 fixtures, including Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima, Jessica Pegula, Tommy Paul, Sofia Kenin and Danielle Collins, as well as veterans Venus Williams, Bethany Mattek-Sands, the Bryan Brothers and Kim Clijsters (trying her third comeback) — was a friendly Haitian-American 17-year-old girl named Hailey Baptiste.
Baptiste, whose long, wavy black hair, when down from her classic head-band, frames her wide face, large brown eyes and huge smile, had been invited as part of World Team Tennis’ development program for aspiring pros. Baptiste was on the roster of the New York Empire, but was only there to sub for any player injured or otherwise unable to play, same as Ulises Blanch, another teenage prodigy who warmed the bench for the same team the year before. But Baptiste, a one-time product of the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation who had come with her father, knew that the WTT was a means to achieve a dream, and not the dream itself. Still, she didn’t mind the falconing, horseback riding, golf, bowling, biking, skeet-shooting or other activities available to the players in their off-court hours, nor did she shy away from hanging with her comrades in a collegial atmosphere.
Cramming a month’s worth of tennis that usually takes players across about five U.S. cities into a week of stadium play was no easy feat, but the players committed and even enjoyed themselves, commenting regularly on the hospitality and fun away from the stress of the tour or worrying about when they could return to the tour (except for Danielle Collins, who took a side sojourn to visit old mates at the University of Virginia). Baptiste, however, took notes, and as soon as she was able, hit the Futures, working her way through the Challenger circuit and then settled in every tennis pundit’s third eye until her 2025 breakthrough, when she started rising and rising trough qualifers and into the second round of Indian Wells, to the third round of Miami (losing to Naomi Osaka (WTA No. 48) ), and just this past week in Italy, where she cruised through qualifiers (again) and then to the third round where she took Elina Svitolina (WTA No. 14) to three sets before exiting and heading straight to France for a Roland-Garros warm-up.
“It’s pretty crazy playing the same tournaments as all of them (the players she knew as a youngster). To see what they’re doing now is really cool, and it's motivating for me because I know I can do it, too,” Baptiste, now 23, told a USTA newsletter. Her pal, Frances Tiafoe (ATP No. 16) has been a bit more bold in his expectations of Baptiste: “Remember my little sis name, she finna be a problem,” he wrote on social media in 2019 about her. “They’re from my area in the DMV, and there’s nothing I pride more than D.C., Maryland, and Virginia… I always want to see (Hailey) win.”
And Now to the Eternal City: Rome Open Update…
This week near the Vatican City, Sinners came for redemption, and prayers were uttered all over the Foro Italico, while the commentators fell over themselves lauding the stadium that Mussolini built to land the 1940 fascist Olympic games (hey, I think it’s fascinating, too — that stadium once called the Foro Mussolini…). During ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s first tournament back, the player was more lean and buoyant than ever, visiting the new Augustinian Pope Leo XIV, gifting him a new Head tennis racquet and appearing perfectly saintly in a photo op. In the afternoons, however, he was back slinging dirt at anyone who had the misfortune to catch him on their way to the final, with the Northern Italian not dropping a set until Friday night’s semi-final match against American Tommy Paul (ATP No. 12) in a lopsided 1-6, 6-0, 6-3 defeat. The night before, Casper Ruud (ATP No. 7) was practically begging for mercy during his bagel-breadstick quarter-final loss. “It doesn't feel so bad,” Ruud said in the presser after the match. “Honestly, I think it was more fun than anything, even though I lost 0,1. You just look at the guy and say: ‘Wow, this is kind of next level shit.’”
Speaking of the heavens, all of the holy water in Rome couldn’t save Baptiste (WTA No. 90) from her exit, as one way or another she would face the equally effervescent Italian Jasmine Paolini (WTA No. 5). But now it’s up to Coco Gauff (WTA No. 3) from American Southern Baptist land to steel her nerves against the hometown favourite. Will Paolini’s fans play nice and not throw Cacio e pepe at her, despite that horrible blasphemy she uttered against carbonara following her quarterfinal win? Let’s hope not, as Gauff has gotten through on a wing and a prayer with tiebreak squeakers against new fan fav Mirra Andreeva (WTA No. 7) and then one in a semifinal third set dogfight with the apostle of stoicism Qinwen Zheng (WTA No. 8). With both players soaring in popularity, it’s a choice only Christ himself could make.
Back to Baptiste…
After Baptiste made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2019 Citi Open in DC by notching a win over U.S. Open finalist, Australian Open champion and much-loved tour vet, Madison Keys, she disclosed in a television interview that she had been attending the tournament for years — through the back door, sans ticket. “I knew some of the people who used to work here,” she said, “so they’d let me in…”
The D.C. native, and daughter of Haitian-Americans, Shari and Quasim Baptiste, grew up just five minutes away from the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center and Hailey began playing tennis at age four through the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation. Like the Kings County Tennis League in Brooklyn, New York, the WTEF provides tennis instruction, academic programs and wellness courses to the children of hardworking parents who may not be able to afford the expense of a tennis prodigy. Baptiste stood out immediately, however and moved over to training at the William Fitzgerald Tennis Center at Rock Creek Park. Baptiste outgrew that quickly and the family of modest income had to made a decision: keep their daughter on the least expensive road or bring her to the USTA’s regional training Junior Tennis Champions Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, — “the Harvard of programs,” according to mother Shari, “but how could we… afford to have her there?”
The family tightened its racquet strings and sent her to the lower-level program for beginners at age seven. Within 18 months, the JTCC invited Baptiste to the full-time program where she quickly befriended Tiafoe, the child of Sierra Leonean immigrants who literally grew up at the center where his dad served as head of maintenance. “The adjustment from regular school to the college-like atmosphere at JTCC was hard for Hailey,” said Shari Baptiste in a Go Fund Me page from 2017, when the family needed money for the increasing number of tournaments the youngster needed to play. “She struggled to keep up in the classroom and with fitting in with the other student-athletes. Most of the kids that play tennis on this level are wealthy, this is not our family.”
Once Baptiste decided to forego college and aim for the pros in 2016, however, the family asked for quick cash as the young Baptiste recognized that she performed her best when she and her parents travelled as a team. “We thought that she would be ok traveling with the coaches but she's accustomed to us all being together so thats what’s comfortable for her,” Shari explained on the site. “Hailey’s dream is to turn pro at 16, and we know that she can do it. Once you have seen her play & witness the dedication & commitment she exudes, there’s no way I would't do all that I can to help her reach her goal.
“Hailey is an amazing tennis player but more importantly, shes an amazing person. She shows poise & integrity on & off of the court and has the most fun-loving personality… It's so exciting to watch her on this journey, please help us in fulfilling her destiny.”
So far, the plan is working out, and although the Go Fund Me only raised about $6,700 for the teenager, she gained endorsements from Nike and Wilson as well as Morgan Stanley, Rolex, and Gillette Venus. But not even Leo can keep up with the adulation of Tiafoe. “Lil sis hit the big naaasssstyyy 😂😂 Big dub proud of you @hailrybaptiste,” he wrote after her third round run at Miami. “No lies told, sis. Proud of you, young queen ✊🏿✊🏿@haileybaptiste.”
Likes of the Week:
If the Pope forgives the Sinner, then can’t we all. And btw, how the hell did the Vatican get the Davis Cup trophy from wherever Italy, which remains the reigning champion, keeps it to the halls of another inner sanctum.
Serious Peeves of the Week:
Hating on Ons Jabeur, the Minister of Happiness in Tunisia, one of the kindest players on tour and an advocate for the UN on behalf of the children of Gaza. The WTA and the ATP supposedly pay millions of dollars to protect their players from online hate speech, and yet it still makes its way through the socials. Yalla, Ons, keep going.
With features such as the “Rankings Roundup” on the revamped WTA website, let’s just go back to the old logo and everything else. No player needs to have their drop in rankings highlighted for the world to have a gawk. And that it’s Mayar Sherif, another Arab and North African player who is also climbing steadily, ala Ons, after finishing a fantastic college run in America, which makes this even more shameful.
I love Baptiste's game. There's something "Jabeur-ish" in these hands. She's having quite the year and I hope the money she's making now is going to help her build for the next stage.
Thank you for this wonderful post about Hailey Baptiste! am a big fan of hers. She is a great player and a lovely human being. I wish her all the best and am very excited to see her continued progress and success on the tour!