Catherine "Caty" McNally (born November 20, 2001) is an American tennis player. She is best known for her doubles partnership with Coco Gauff, which is nicknamed "McCoco" by fans and media.[2] She has won four doubles titles on the WTA Tour, three of them with Gauff, and the pair reached the final of the 2021 US Open. She also has won six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.[3] On 8 November 2021, she achieved her highest doubles ranking of world No. 16.[1] In singles, McNally holds two titles on the ITF Circuit and reached the third round of the 2020 US Open. On 9 September 2019, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 105.
As a junior, McNally won the 2018 French Open doubles title, was runner-up in the 2018 French Open girls' singles, and won the US Open junior doubles competition.[4][5]
McNally was born in Madeira, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio,[6] to John McNally and Lynn Nabors-McNally. Her mother was briefly a professional tennis player who had a career best doubles ranking inside the top 250. Her older brother John is also a professional and was a high-ranked junior player. Both are coached by their mother.[7]
Junior career[]
McNally finished runner-up at the Wimbledon junior doubles tournament in 2016, 2017 and 2018.[8] She won her first Grand Slam junior title at the 2018 French Open doubles event at the age of 16, partnering with Iga Świątek.[9] At the same tournament she reached the final of the girls singles, where she lost to Coco Gauff.[10] In September 2018, she partnered Gauff to win the girls doubles title at the US Open.[11]
In 2017, McNally was on the United States team that won the Junior Fed Cup, having previously been a losing finalist.[12]
Professional career[]
2017–18: WTA doubles debut[]
McNally made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2017 Western & Southern Open in the doubles draw, partnering with Alexa Glatch.[9]
At the end of July and beginning of August, McNally recorded her first WTA main draw singles wins with a run to the semifinal at the Washington Open, beating Zhu Lin, Christina McHale and fourth seed Hsieh Su-wei.[15][16][17] Meanwhile, she and Gauff won the doubles competition, beating third seeds Miyu Kato and Anna Kalinskaya in the semifinal,[17] and fourth seeds Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollár in the final.[18] She was awarded a wildcard into her home tournament, the Cincinnati Open,[6] where she played her first-round match on center court, but lost to Elise Mertens.[19] She teamed with up Alison Riske to play in the doubles.[20] The pair reached the quarterfinals, beating fourth seeds Yifan Xu and Gabriela Dabrowski in a second round match that went to 17–15 in the match tiebreak, the second-longest match tiebreak in a women's doubles match.[21]
McNally's first win in a Grand Slam tournament came at the US Open where she defeated Timea Bacsinszky in the first round.[22] She took a set off six-times champion Serena Williams before losing in three sets in a tight second-round match.[23] Passing her in the stadium complex later that night, Williams asked her: "Are you really 17 years old?"[24] McNally and Gauff—dubbed "McCoco"—followed up their 2018 girls' doubles win by reaching the third round of the doubles event, beating ninth seeds Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke in the second round in a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium,[25] but losing heavily to Ash Barty and Victoria Azarenka in the third.[26] The run took McNally into the top 100 in the doubles rankings, and just outside the top 100 in the singles rankings.[27]
2020: First Grand Slam quarterfinal and top 40 debut in doubles[]
In her first tournament of 2020, the Auckland Open, McNally was knocked out in the first round of the singles after qualifying as a lucky loser, but she and Gauff reached the semifinals of the doubles.[33][34] At the Australian Open, she won her qualifying matches, entering the main draw, where she defeated Sam Stosur in the first round, before losing to Zhang Shuai. In doubles, McNally and Gauff recorded their best result at a Grand Slam tournament, reaching the quarterfinals before falling to second seeded Kristina Mladenovic and Tímea Babos in two sets.[35] As a result, McNally broke into the top 40 in the doubles rankings. In March, she lost to Sachia Vickery in the first round of the Indian Wells Challenger tournament,[36] but teamed up with Jessica Pegula to reach the final of the doubles, beating third seeds Stosur and Yanina Wickmayer in the semifinal before falling to Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend in the final.[37]
Following the break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, McNally took part in the Western & Southern Open, which was moved from her home town of Cincinnati to New York, losing in the first round to Alizé Cornet.[38] The following week, she reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time when she beat 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round of the US Open.[39]
In April, McNally reached the third round of the Charleston Open, beating Elena Rybakina and Anastasija Sevastova in the first two rounds.[43] In the one-off MUSC Health Open later that month, also in Charleston, she was beaten in the first round of the singles by Shelby Rogers, but partnered with Hailey Baptiste to win the doubles tournament, beating Australian duo Ellen Perez and Storm Sanders in the final.[44] She won her second doubles title of the season the following month at the Emilia-Romagna Open, partnering Gauff, who also won the singles.[45] In August, she lost to Sloane Stephens in the first round of the Stanford Classic, but reached the semifinal of the doubles with CoCo Vandeweghe.[46]
McNally received a wildcard entry to the US Open, but was beaten in the first round by fourth seed Karolína Plíšková.[47] In the women's doubles, McNally and Gauff, who were seeded 11th, made their deepest run yet in a Grand Slam when they reached the semifinals without dropping a set, beating top seeds and current Wimbledon champions Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens, in straight sets in the quarterfinals.[48] They progressed to the final when their semifinal opponents, Luisa Stefani and Gabriela Dabrowski, retired after Stefani sustained an injury during the first set tiebreak.[49] In the final, they lost to Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai.[50] The run to the final lifted McNally to No. 22 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Performance timelines[]
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
F-S
SF-B
NMS
P
NH
(W) Won; (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, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)
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.