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Game to match name

Michelle Larcher de Brito has torn up the junior circuit and is poised to make an impact in the pros. Oh, she's 14.

By DAVE SCHEIBER, Times Staff Writer
Published January 7, 2008

Michelle Larcher de Brito in last year's Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, where she beat top-50 player Meghann Shaughnessy.
	[Getty Images (2007)]

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Michelle Larcher de Brito, who turns 15 this month, is already ranked No. 296 by the WTA. [Dirk Shadd | Times] Nick Bollettieri coaches Larcher de Brito, whose family moved from Portugal to his tennis academy in Bradenton. "I project Michelle to be one of my very best," Bollettieri says of his latest prodigy.

For the past few years, a teenage girl has been running her older male practice partners ragged at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton.

Now, Michelle Larcher de Brito, a hard-hitting, fist-pumping 14-year-old from Portugal, is starting to give older players a run on the women's pro tour.

Short of stature but long of name, she's a newcomer to watch as the pro season gears up next week with the Australian Open.

Larcher de Brito, who draws plenty of power from her muscular 5-foot-4, 125-pound frame and plays a mean baseline game, won't be competing in Melbourne. But if her brief time in the pros is an indication, she could one day be making waves Down Under.

"Michelle is very aggressive, a super athlete," said Bollettieri, who began working with her at age 9 when she arrived from Portugal with her parents and twin older brothers.

"She's very mature," added theheralded coach of some of the game's top male and female players over the years. "I project Michelle to be one of my very best."

Larcher de Brito, coached by her father, Antonio, in recent months, closed out her top-flight junior career by winning the Orange Bowl championship Dec.10. She also was the youngest player to win the under-16 Eddie Herr Championship at 12, receiving the Rising Star Award that another Bollettieri pupil, Maria Sharapova, won in 2000.

Her first foray into the pros came in February. A month later, at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Larcher de Brito competed as an unranked wild card and stunned No.43 and former No. 11 Meghann Shaughnessy in three sets. That made her the seventh-youngest player in WTA Tour history - at 14 years, 1 month and 3 days - to win a singles main draw match.

"I was really excited to play one of the biggest tournaments in the world," she said of the feat by phone last week from Hong Kong, where she was part of an eight-woman field. "The nerves were there. But I tried not to think about it, and I just went out and played my match."

In the process, Larcher de Brito also became the second-youngest female player to win a match in the Key Biscayne tournament's 22-year history, right behind Jennifer Capriati, who accomplished that in 1990, a week shy of her 14th birthday. Her performance got her drafted by the Sacramento Capitals on the World Team Tennis circuit, making her the youngest player in league history. And she responded by contributing to the team's record sixth championship in July.

"She controls the pace of play and her serve is getting better," Bollettieri said. "The more she plays and more matches she wins, the better and more confident she's going to get."

Larcher de Brito, who'll turn 15 on Jan.29, replaced Daniela Hantuchova in Hong Kong and lost to Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals on Friday. She teamed with Elena Dementieva to reach Saturday's doubles final, losing to Wozniacki and Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4.

Hong Kong is just the latest stop in Larcher de Brito's international background. The Larcher in her name comes from a French great-grandfather. Her father is Portuguese but moved to South Africa, where his uncle was a diplomat. Her mother, Caroline, is from South Africa and met Antonio there in high school. They fell in love and got married, with the twins born in 1989. Then came a move to Portugal, where their daughter was born in 1993.

As a girl, she watched her brothers play tennis tournaments and dreamed of playing, too.

"That's what motivated me," she said. "Whatever my brothers did, I wanted to do better. That's pretty much how I started. One day when they won trophies, I said, 'I want a trophy, too.' And my mom said, 'Well, you'll have to start playing tennis first.'"

Larcher de Brito began playing at 5 and excelled right away, soon catching the eye of one of Bollettieri's coaches at a clinic in Portugal. That led to a scholarship offer at the world-renowned Bollettieri Academy. So at 9, she traveled to Florida with her family to begin a new phase of her life.

"She's just a natural," Caroline said. "And she loves it so much."

After a stellar junior career, Larcher de Brito is learning the ropes in the big time and starting to feel comfortable.

"The players are really nice," she said. "We talk and it's really great finally to play with and be with the top players. The age difference isn't really a big deal. It's all about tennis."

But Larcher de Brito also likes just being a kid. She attends school three hours a day (between three-hour practices with her father) and enjoys hitting the mall and movies with her friends as much as time allows.

She likes biology class because she's an animal lover (with a Siberian Husky named for her favorite clothing line, Armani), enjoys hip-hop and Justin Timberlake, likes to watch repeats of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and says her favorite movie is the horror flick When a Stranger Calls. But tennis fans likely won't be calling Larcher de Brito a stranger for much longer.

She's already a sensation in Portugal and a good bet to make her distinctive name well-known in the States.

"Right now my goal is to improve my pro ranking," said the WTA's No.296-ranked player. "Most of all, I just want to keep improving."

Dave Scheiber can be reached at scheiber@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8541.

Fast facts

Australian Open

What: First Grand Slam event of the year

When/where: Jan. 14-27; Melbourne

Qualifying matches: Thursday-Saturday

Main draw: Noon Friday

Defending champions: Roger Federer and Serena Williams

TV: ESPN2

[Last modified January 6, 2008, 22:20:55]