FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
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October 19, 2023,
There is another power hitting emerging female tennis player you should know more about.
She is inching closer and closer to winning her second singles title.
It has been a challenging journey, but then again, for a player trying to leave a number 111 ranking behind and burst into the top 50, it will always be a great challenge.
The road to getting there is strewn with top WTA players who want to win just as badly as she does.
America’s Caroline Dolehide is on the rise.
According to wtatennis.com, as of September 23, 2023, she is the 38th ranked player in the world. Caroline is clearly making her move.
How is that for a leap from number 111.
Most recently, she battled into the finals at the Guadalajara Open AKRON.
The informative tennis source tennis.com reported, “Maria Sakkari made a long-awaited return to the WTA winner’s circle on Saturday night at the Guadalajara Open AKRON. The Greek star captured the first WTA 1000 title of her career, just her second tour-level triumph of any kind, by ending the Cinderella run of American Caroline Dolehide in a 7-5, 6-3 final.”
Cinderella run?
Perhaps you could describe Caroline’s march to the finals that way. To get there, among others, she had to defeat resilient fellow American and former 2020 Australian Open Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin 7-5, 6-3 in the semi-finals.
That was a tall order.
Sofia has a career-high ranking by the WTA of No. 4 in the world, which she achieved on March 9, 2020. She was also the 2020 WTA Player of the Year, an award she earned by winning the 2020 Australian Open and finishing runner-up at the 2020 French Open.
Then there was the Round of 16.
There, Caroline defeated the WTA number 21 ranked player in Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-1.
Take this in for some perspective.
Caroline began the tournament ranked No. 111, but is set to march past her career-high ranking of No. 99.
Drum roll please.
A win over Kenin would enable the Hinsdale, Illinois luminary to crack the Top 50.
Caroline and Sofia have never met at the tour level previously.
Since she seems to be surging, let’s take a closer look at Caroline Dolehide.
Caroline Dolehide has won one WTA Tour singles title and one WTA 125 doubles title, as well as 18 titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit, eight in singles and ten in doubles.
Eighteen ITF titles is incredible.
Who is the ITF?
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there are 211 national and six regional associations that make up the ITF’s membership.
The ITF organizes the Grand Slam events, annual team competitions for men (Davis Cup), women (Billie Jean King Cup), and mixed teams (Hopman Cup), as well as tennis and wheelchair tennis events at the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games on behalf of the International Olympic Committee.
The ITF sanctions the Grand Slam tennis tournaments.
We’ve often heard of them but weren’t completely sure of the depth of what they do.
Caroline’s best performances on the WTA Tour came in singles when she recently reached the WTA 1000 final in Guadalajara and in doubles at the 2019 and the 2022 US Open events where she reached semifinals with Vania King and Storm Sanders, respectively, and also at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
As a junior, Caroline was a two-time major tournament finalist in doubles. She made her WTA Tour debut in July of 2017, and won her first WTA title in doubles at the Monterrey Open in Mexico in March 2021. Caroline also won her first Grand Slam match at the 2018 French Open.
Very impressive.
Perhaps more impressive, according to the WTA website, she has earned $2,284,419 in career prize money.
The women’s tour is filled with millionaires that you may know very little about.
We are determined to study more film of her. We have heard much about her playing style.
What is her playing style?
Caroline is an aggressive baseliner.
She is known for having a strong serve and powerful groundstrokes, which she uses to a hit a high number of winners.
Just what the women’s tennis tour needs, another super hard hitter.
Makes for more dynamic matches.
Her forehand in particular is one of her best shots and was already very advanced while she was still a teenager.
American CiCi Bellis faced Caroline at the 2014 Orange Bowl when both players were still juniors and commented that Caroline “hits probably the hardest by far” compared to Bellis’s other opponents and said “her serve is amazing.”
Venus Williams defeated Caroline at the 2018 Canadian Open, but commented that “she had a really great second serve.”
High praise indeed.
It takes a village to raise a star like Caroline. Time to visit her hometown.
Hinsdale is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in Illinois.
Caroline’s town is considered a western suburb of Chicago.
The population was 17,395 at the 2020 census, most of whom lived in DuPage County.
Take in this important stat.
Hinsdale is third-ranked Illinois community on Bloomberg’s Richest Places Annual Index, only behind Glencoe and Winnetka.
The median income for a household in the village was $206,701, and the median income for a family was $244,598.
That is impressive.
Well, though she resides in Florida, if Caroline wanted to put down her own stakes in her hometown, with the prize money she has made, it appears she could afford it.
The more we get to know about the players on the women’s tour, the more we understand how little we know.
Here is what we do know about Caroline.
You should keep an eye on her progress.
She is making great strides to make her way into the Grand Slams and continue that meteoric Cinderella story.
Even if it is inch by inch.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Shutterstock-Jimmie48-Photography-Editorial-usefcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fcielitecompetitor.com
https://www.wtatennis.com/players/322052/caroline-dolehide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Kenin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Dolehide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Tennis_Federation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinsdale,_Illinois
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
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