Monica Puig

Monica Puig Marchán (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. She is the first Puerto Rican in history to win a gold medal at the Olympics while representing Puerto Rico, having done so in 2016 at the women's singles event. She is also a Central American and Caribbean champion and Pan American silver medalist.

Having turned professional in 2010, Puig won two WTA Tour singles titles and six ITF singles titles. On 26 September 2016, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 27. On May 25, 2015, she peaked at No. 210 in the doubles rankings. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Puig won the gold medal, the ninth overall medal at the Games for Puerto Rico. With the feat, she also became the first Latin American champion in the women's singles discipline and is the only unseeded female player to win the gold medal since the reintroduction of tennis in 1988.

During her career, Puig defeated top-ten players Sara Errani, Caroline Garcia, Angelique Kerber, Garbiñe Muguruza, Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Wozniacki. She retired from the professional tour on June 13, 2022.

Monica Puig Marchán was born to a Cuban American father, José Puig, and a Puerto Rican mother, Astrid Marchán. Puig stated her paternal grandparents are Catalan.

In 2007, she entered her first tournament at the Prince Cup, but withdrew from the qualifying draw.

In 2008, she started the season with a surprise run to the final of the Costa Rica Bowl (Grade 3) as a qualifier, losing in straight sets to Eugenie Bouchard. She continued her good form, winning two out of three tournaments. Puig continued good results in small Grade-3 and-4 tournaments. In her first Grade-1 tournament in Lexington, she defeated Charlotte Calhoun before going out to Lauren Embree. She continued to participate in bigger tournaments, though not with as much success as she had in the smaller ones.

Puig had her breakthrough season in 2009; she started doing much better in the bigger tournaments. She reached her first Grade-1 final in Casablanca, losing to Mai Grage of Denmark. She continued playing consistently, highlights of the latter months of the year included a semifinal appearance at a Grade-B1 tournament in Tulsa, losing to Bouchard in three sets. In her next tournament, she won the doubles title.

In 2010, she continued her success at a higher level. Puig started the year reaching the final of the 32nd International Casablanca Junior Cup (Grade A), falling easily to Sachie Ishizu of Japan. She then reached another final a week later at the Coffee Bowl (G1) losing to An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium in straights. Puig followed that up with a semifinal appearance at a Grade-1 tournament in Barranquilla. Consistent results followed, before a huge Grade-A title at the 27th Copa Gerdau, defeating Jessica Pegula in the final. After a semifinal appearance at another Grade-A calibre tournament, she fell in the quarterfinals of the French Open. After that, she failed to advance past the quarterfinals of any of her tournaments until the US Open, where she lost to Yulia Putintseva. Puig finished the season with a flourish, falling in the quarterfinals of Osaka (GA), the final of Mérida (G1) and the semifinals of Key Biscayne (GA), both to Lauren Davis.