Gabriella Patricia Taylor[1] (born 7 March 1998) is a British former tennis player.
Taylor won six singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 12 December 2018, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 162. On 19 March 2018, she peaked at No. 479 in the WTA doubles rankings. Taylor retired from tennis in 2020.
Early life
Taylor was born on 7 March 1998 in Southampton, to a British father from Newcastle and a Bulgarian mother from Plovdiv. She moved to Marbella, Spain at the age of 13 to further her tennis career and to Barcelona at 19. She turned professional at the age of 16.[citation needed]
Career
Juniors
At the 2012 'British Junior National Championships' Taylor became under-14 girls' singles winner beating Katie Swan in the final 7–6(7), 6–3.[2] Later in the year she was runner-up at the world's most prestigious junior tournament Junior Orange Bowl losing to Maia Lumsden 6–3, 7–5,[3] both players having been semifinalists in that year's European equivalent the Petits As. The following year the two players teamed up to become Under-16 British National Junior Champions in the doubles competition.[4]
In November Taylor won her first ITF title in South Africa, unseeded she came from a set down to upset top seeded Naomi Totka of Hungary in three sets.[7]
2016 – Wimbledon Juniors 'poisoning' incident and recovery
In 2016, Taylor achieved her best juniors results in her sole junior major appearance at Wimbledon. She reached the quarterfinals[8] but had to retire in the following match against Kayla Day.[9] Taylor contracted a bacterial infection called leptospirosis, which would keep her from playing tennis for a month. Initially, she was thought to have been poisoned while her bag was left unoccupied, however, medical experts declared this to be highly unlikely.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Police later concluded that there was no evidence of deliberate poisoning.[16]
Taylor recovered sufficiently to reach three consecutive ITF finals at Heraklion, Greece in October and November although failing to win any.
2017
In May, as the sixth seed, she won her first $25k tournament, beating third seed Danielle Lao in the final in straight sets.[17] Wimbledon granted wild card entries to her[18] in both the singles and the doubles (partnering Freya Christie) qualifying draws, losing both in the first round.[19] In November, she began working with coaches Xavier Budo and David Sunyer which she credits with changing her mindset, leading to her most successful period to date.[20]
2018
After three ITF title wins in February[21] and March, Taylor broke into the top 200 rankings for the first time.[22] She was subsequently chosen to represent Great Britain in the Fed Cup team alongside Johanna Konta, Heather Watson and Anna Smith for the World Group II play-off tie in Japan,[20] however she did not play in any of the matches.[23]
Following struggles with her mental health, Taylor retired from tennis in 2020 to pursue a career in art.[26] Her last professional tournament was an ITF event in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in March 2020, where she lost in a tight three-setter to Paige Hourigan in the round of 32.
Grand Slam performance
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.[27]
