McCartney Kessler, a former Times Free Press Best of Preps girls’ tennis player of the year during her time at Georgia’s Calhoun High School, has secured the first WTA Tour tournament title of her career.
The 25-year-old former University of Florida standout, who recently made her debut in the top 100 of the WTA rankings, beat top-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 to win the Tennis in the Land final on Saturday in Cleveland.
Until this tournament, Kessler’s lone tour-level match win had been at the Australian Open — the year’s first Grand Slam tournament — this past January. In Ohio, she beat three of the top five seeds in the bracket, winning against Katrina Scott, Wang Xinyu, Arantxa Rus and Anastasia Potapova before her comeback victory against Haddad Maia, a 28-year-old from Brazil who reached the French Open women’s singles semifinals in 2023.
McCartney is set to compete in both singles and doubles at the U.S. Open, the year’s final Grand Slam that starts Monday in New York. Kessler trains in Chattanooga at Baylor School, where her brother, McClain Kessler, coaches boys’ tennis for the Red Raiders.