Michelle Larcher de Brito

She has two older brothers who are twins, Sérgio and Sebastião, born in 1989.

She began playing at the age of 3 when her father introduced her at a local club.

Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito (born 29 January 1993), known by the anglicized name Michelle Larcher de Brito, is a Portuguese former professional tennis player.

She is the former Portuguese No. 1.

Larcher de Brito won four singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit in her career.

There, as an unranked wildcard, she lost in the first round of both singles (against world No. 185, Kristina Brandi) and doubles, teaming with Gréta Arn, against the pairing of Julie Ditty and Natalie Grandin). She would make her WTA Tour debut as an unranked wildcard at the Miami Open, reaching the second round before falling to the 16th seed Daniela Hantuchová in straight sets. At 14 years, one month and three days, Brito became the seventh-youngest player in the history of the WTA tour to win a singles main draw match by beating Meghann Shaughnessy in the first round and the youngest since the Age Eligibility Rule was implemented in 1995. Despite this achievement, due to her age, she wasn't allowed to play any more senior tournaments until September. During that time, she played for the Sacramento Capitals in the World TeamTennis, becoming the youngest player ever to be drafted in the competition.

She was also the youngest player ever to win the U-16 Eddie Herr Championship (in 2005 when she was 12).

Larcher de Brito played on the ITF Junior Circuit from August 2006 to December 2007, winning three singles tournaments.

She moved with her family to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where she remained until the end of 2007.

She trained full-time with her father, António Larcher de Brito, who is Portuguese and from Angola.

Her mother, Caroline, is from South Africa.

At Grand Slam tournaments, she made it to the singles quarterfinals of the 2007 French Open and the doubles quarterfinals of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships.

She won her last tournament, the 2007 Orange Bowl, becoming, at 14 years, 10 months and 11 days, the second youngest champion of the event's history after Nicole Vaidišová.

Larcher de Brito made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in early February 2007, at the $75k hardcourt tournament in Midland, Michigan.

She would be instrumental in the Capitals victory in the 2007 championship.

In her return to the ITF Circuit, she became the first Portuguese player to reach a semifinal at a $75k event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, losing to third seed Rossana de los Ríos.

The feat allowed her to debut in the WTA rankings at world No. 364.

In February, Larcher de Brito defeated world No. 124, Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, in the first round of the Cellular South Cup, but lost in the second round to the world No. 43, Caroline Wozniacki, in straight sets.

As a baseliner whose main attributes are her groundstrokes and movement, she won the 2008 Revelation Award from the Fundação Luso-Brasileira (Portuguese-Brazilian Foundation) and, as a result, appeared in the pages of Elle Portugal.

On 28 March 2008, on her return to the Miami Masters, she upset world No. 16, Agnieszka Radwańska, in the second round.

She would then lose to world No. 19, Shahar Pe'er.

In the first round she defeated world No. 75, Ekaterina Makarova, in three sets.

The following month, she debuted on her home tournament, the Portugal Open, where she lost to world No. 471, Sanda Mamić.

In June, she failed to qualify for Wimbledon, losing to world No. 105, Stéphanie Foretz Gacon, in the preliminary rounds.

On 16 July 2008, she nearly won the best victory of her career, narrowly losing to former world No. 1 player, Serena Williams, in three sets.

The day before, she had beaten world No. 34, Gisela Dulko, in straight sets.

Based on her good Bank of the West Classic tournament performance, where she won three qualifying matches and one main draw match, on 21 July 2008, Larcher de Brito's WTA singles ranking rose 56 places from the previous week, from No. 226 to 170 in the world, her then best ranking ever.

With that ranking she became the highest ranked female Portuguese player, ahead of then world No. 192, Neuza Silva.

At the Canada Masters, Larcher de Brito won two qualifying matches to make it into the main draw.

She then went on to defeat world No. 97, Vania King, in the first round and world No. 18, Flavia Pennetta, in the second, before losing to fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

After such a great performance by the 15-year-old, she rose to No. 131 in the world, making her the highest ranked Portuguese tennis player of all time.

At the US Open, Larcher de Brito reached the third round of qualifying, beating world No. 165, Angela Haynes, and world No. 169, Abigail Spears, but lost to Raluca Olaru in straight sets.

On 6 July 2009, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 76.

Upon entering the 2009 French Open, Larcher de Brito became the second Portuguese female player ever to appear in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament (after Deborah Fiuza in the 1975 Australian Open).

In 2009, she won the Confederação do Desporto de Portugal (Portuguese Sports Confederation) female athlete of the year award against such rivals as Vanessa Fernandes and Telma Monteiro.

She reached the third round, which remains her best ever result at a major (repeated at the 2013 and 2014 Wimbledon Championships).

Playing for the Portugal Fed Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 25–23.

Larcher de Brito is now a real estate agent.

Larcher de Brito was born in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.

Her best junior ranking was 19th with a 54–16 singles record and a 10–17 doubles record.