Céline Naef

Céline Naef (born 25 June 2005) is a Swiss tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 121 in singles, achieved on 16 October 2023, and No. 122 in doubles, reached on 18 November 2024. Naef has won one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour along with ten singles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Career Junior years Naef had a successful junior career. Her career-high ranking as a junior was world No. 4. In 2022, Naef won a prestigious tournament for juniors, the Trofeo Bonfiglio (Grade A). In 2022, Naef reached the final of the French Open, partnering Nikola Bartůňková. In July 2022, she played in the final of the European Youth Championship held in Klosters, Switzerland which she lost to Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva.

2022: ITF Circuit titles Naef played and won her first final in Monastir, Tunisia, in March 2022. In October 2022, she became champion in both singles and doubles in Reims, France. A week later, she won another singles title in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin defeating Spanish player Irene Burillo Escorihuela in the final.

2023: WTA Tour debut, major and top 125 debuts Naef started the season with a title in Loughborough, England where she became the champion by defeating British Eliz Maloney in the final. In February, Naef played her first $40k tournament finals, and became the champion in both singles and doubles in Porto, Portugal.

The 17 years old made her WTA Tour debut as a wildcard at the 2023 Rosmalen Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and recorded her first tour-level win at the grass court event, defeating wildcard Venus Williams. Next, she defeated eighth seed Caty McNally, before losing to top seed Veronika Kudermetova in the quarterfinals. She made her Grand Slam tournament debut at Wimbledon after qualifying but lost in the first round to 22nd seed Anastasia Potapova.

2024: WTA 125 singles and doubles finals

Ranked No. 161, she received again a wildcard for the Rosmalen Open in 's-Hertogenbosch and defeated qualifier Elizabeth Mandlik, before losing to second seed and eventual champion Liudmila Samsonova.

Partnering fellow Swiss player Belinda Bencic, she was runner-up in the doubles at the WTA 125 Open Angers, losing to Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the final. The following week Naef reached the singles final at the WTA 125 Open de Limoges with wins over ninth seed Oceane Dodin, Sara Saito, fifth seed Erika Andreeva and Elsa Jacquemot. She lost the championship match to seventh seed Viktorija Golubic. Despite her defeat, Naef rose 28 places in the WTA rankings as a result of her run to the final, ending the 2024 season at World No.153.

Performance timeline Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Singles Current through the 2024 Wuhan Open.

WTA 125 finals Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ResultW–LDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 0–1 Open de Limoges, France Hard (i) Viktorija Golubic 5–7, 4–6Loss 0–2 Ilkley Open, United Kingdom Grass Ashlyn Krueger 5–7, 2–6

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups) ResultW–LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 Andorrà la Vella Open, Andorra Hard (i) Erika Andreeva Tímea Babos Heather Watson 6–2, 6–1Loss 1–1 Warsaw Open, Poland Hard Nina Stojanović Weronika Falkowska Martyna Kubka 4–6, 6–7(5)Loss 1–2 Open Angers Arena Loire, France Hard Belinda Bencic Monica Niculescu Elena-Gabriela Ruse 3–6, 4–6

ITF Circuit finals Singles: 12 (10 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendW80 tournaments (1–0)W60/75 tournaments (1–2)W40/50 tournaments (2–0)W25/35 tournaments (2–0)W15 tournaments (2–0)

Doubles: 8 (7 titles, 1 runner-up) LegendW100 tournaments (1–0)W75 tournaments (3–1)W40/50 tournaments (2–0)W15 tournaments (1–0)

Junior Grand Slam tournament finals Girls' doubles: 1 (runner-up) ResultYearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2022 French Open Clay Nikola Bartůňková Sára Bejlek Lucie Havlíčková 3–6, 3–6