Haddad Maia announces break from tennis: 'It hasn't been easy'
Former Top 10 player Beatriz Haddad Maia won't play again on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz in 2026, she announced this week in a video posted to social media.
Haddad Maia, 30, dropped outside the Top 100 for the first time in five years in May, and has struggled to capture the on-court consistency that was once a hallmark of her game. She struggled to a 4-19 record this season after previously also ending her 2025 prematurely. She last played at Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round of qualifying to Maria Timofeeva -- her eighth straight loss.
"I know I kind of disappeared and I used this time to reflect a lot,” she said, speaking in her native Portuguese. She confirmed that she plans to take the rest of the year off and return in 2027 with a protected ranking.
“It’s a decision I’ve been dealing with mentally for a few months," she said. "It hasn’t been easy -- for those of you who’ve been following me on the court, my relationship with tennis hasn’t been easy. So I really wanted to share this with you."
Haddad Maia became the first woman from Brazil to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Maria Bueno in 1968 when she advanced to the final four at Roland Garros in 2023 -- a run that made her the first woman from her country in the Open Era to break into the Top 10 of the PIF WTA Rankings. A trailblazer for South American tennis, Hadda Maia owns four WTA singles titles and eight in doubles, having also reached the 2022 Australian Open doubles final with Anna Danilina.
Off the court, Haddad Maia recently announced her engagement to longtime partner Alex Daoud, and had spoken openly about her decision to undergo an egg freezing procedure through the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program last year.
“I’m making this video out of respect for all of you who root so hard for me, who have so much affection for me and have always supported me so much," she continued. "I really want to be able to learn and discover things. There are things in life that aren’t just external.
“Decisions seem very easy to make, but in reality, they’re very internal. I kept fighting a lot against things that were actually more external. I did make changes, I made decisions, I tried different paths, and this moment of taking this break has arrived.”
