Julia Riera

Julia Riera (born 29 May 2002) is an Argentine tennis player. Riera has a career-high singles ranking by the WTA of No. 93, achieved on 20 May 2024. She also has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 176, which she reached on 5 August 2024.

She has won one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour as well as eight singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Riera competes for Argentina in the Billie Jean King Cup, where she has a win/loss record of 25–8.

Career

Early years She began playing tennis at the age of seven at Gimnasia y Esgrima de Pergamino. At the age of nine, she moved to Viajantes de Pergamino, where she started being coached by Emilio Palena.

In 2016, she began traveling regularly to the CeNARD, and finished the year competing in the under-14 category at the Orange Bowl.

In 2017 and 2018, she represented Vélez Sarsfield in the interclub competitions organized by the Asociación Argentina de Tenis (Argentine Tennis Association).

In 2019, she began representing River Plate in the interclub championships and, with a 5–1 record, reached the final.

2021 She won her first two professional titles in Antalya, Turkey, capturing two W15 titles in consecutive weeks.

2022 In April 2022, Riera participated in the Billie Jean King Cup in Salinas, Ecuador, teaming up with Jazmin Ortenzi to be defeated by Brazilian players Carolina Alves and Beatriz Haddad Maia in a match lasting over three hours.

2023: WTA Tour debut, first semifinal Riera made her WTA Tour debut at the Morocco Open in Rabat. In her first match, she defeated former top-ten player Kristina Mladenovic. In the following round, she defeated third seed Mayar Sherif to reach her first WTA Tour quarterfinal. She then defeated sixth seed Yulia Putintseva, reaching a WTA Tour-level semifinal on her tour debut. However, she lost to Julia Grabher in three sets.

In August, Riera competed in an ITF W80 tournament event in Brasília. In doubles, she partnered with Brazilian player Carolina Alves and won the title, defeating the British-Ukrainian duo Eden Silva and Valeriya Strakhova in the final.

During the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Riera won the bronze medal in women's doubles, partnering with María Lourdes Carlé.

Riera also won the singles bronze medal, defeating Rebecca Marino from Canada in the bronze-medal match by 3–6, 6–4, 6–1.

Partnering again with María Carlé, she won the doubles title at the Montevideo Open, defeating Freya Christie and Yuliana Lizarazo in the final.

2024: First WTA 500 win, top 100 & major debuts In January, Riera qualified for the 2024 Brisbane International, after defeating both Priscilla Hon and Mai Hontama in three sets, respectively. In the first round, she defeated Viktoriya Tomova in straight sets, notching both her first WTA 500 main-draw win as well as her first WTA Tour-level victory on hardcourts. In the following round, Riera defeated seventh seed and world No. 21, Ekaterina Alexandrova, to book a spot in the round of 16. She lost to Linda Nosková, after pushing her to three sets.

Following her lifting the biggest singles trophy of her career at the W75 in Chiasso, she reached the top 100 in the rankings at No. 94, on 22 April 2024.

After that, Riera played at the Wiesbaden Open and won the singles title, defeating Jule Niemeier in the final, in three sets.

In May, she qualified into the 2024 French Open for her major main-draw debut, after facing Alexandra Eala in the last match of the qualifying rounds and winning in three sets.

At the main draw's first round, Riera was overcome by Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu.

In November, with the Argentine Billie Jean King Cup team, she went to São Paulo to face the Brazilian team. Partnering with Jazmín Ortenzi, she lost to Carolina Alves and Beatriz Haddad Maia in the decisive doubles match of the tie, in which Brazil secured a place in the 2025 Finals qualifiers.

2025: Australian Open debut In January, Riera qualified for the main draw of the singles competition of the Australian Open for the first time in her career and lost to Haddad Maia in a three-set match in the first round.

At the 2025 Copa Colsanitas, in Bogota, Colombia, Riera was a semifinalist, losing in straight sets to Camila Osorio.

In her first round match, Riera was leading British player Francesca Jones 5–3 in the third set when the match ended dramatically, after Jones collapsed due to the effects of playing at high altitude without acclimatisation. Riera assisted medics as her opponent was lifted into a wheelchair and taken off the court.

At the French Open, Riera, along with Lourdes Carlé and Paula Ormaechea successfully advanced from the qualifying rounds into the main draw of the women's singles. This marked the first time in 39 years that three Argentine women achieved this feat in the same edition of the tournament, matching the milestone last reached in 1986.

In September, Riera played at the first edition of the SP Open, a WTA 250 held in São Paulo, Brazil. She advanced to the second round of the singles draw, but was defeated in straight sets by Alexandra Eala.

In December, Riera took part in the first edition of the exhibition tournament “Road to Australia” in Buenos Aires. She was crowned women's champion after defeating Jazmín Ortenzi in the final, 6–4 6–3.

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

Singles Current through the 2023 US Open.

WTA 125 finals Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals Singles: 12 (8 titles, 4 runner-ups) LegendW100 tournaments (1–1)W60/75 tournaments (2–0)W25/35 tournaments (3–3)W15 tournaments (2–0)Finals by surfaceClay (8–4)

Doubles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runner-ups) LegendW80 tournaments (1–0)W60/75 tournaments (0–1)W40/50 tournaments (2–0)W25/35 tournaments (2–2)Finals by surfaceHard (1–0)Clay (4–3)