Paula Ormaechea (born 28 September 1992) is an Argentine tennis player based in Italy. She has won sixteen singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 21 October 2013, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 59. Ormaechea has a 21–13 win–loss record, playing for Argentina Fed Cup team. She plays in the Italian Tennis Serie A1 (major circuit) in the Tennis Club Rungg of Eppan an der Weinstraße, in South Tyrol near Bolzano.

Personal life

Paula Ormaechea was born 1992 to Mirna and Marcelo Ormaechea. She has two sisters, Valentina and Sofía. Juan Pablo Guzmán, former ATP tennis player, serves as her coach. Ormaechea cites Roger Federer, Serena and Venus Williams as her role models, and also admires Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

Career review

Junior career

Ormaechea entered professional junior tournaments in 2006. She defeated Kristina Mladenovic in the semifinals of the Banana Bowl, but lost to Ana Bogdan in the final. Ormaechea won her next title at the Uruguay Bowl in March 2009. She also played at the French Open and US Open, but fell to Bianca Botto and Richèl Hogenkamp in the first round, respectively. In addition, she won four doubles events, her last junior doubles title came at Canadian Open championship in September 2009.

Fed Cup / BJK Cup

Ormaechea made her debut for Argentina Fed Cup team on 26 April 2009 in the 2009 World Group Playoff against Ukraine. She partnered María Irigoyen, losing to Mariya Koryttseva and Olga Savchuk in straight sets. Ormaechea made her singles debut in 2010 World Group II rubber against Estonia. She lost her first match to world No. 61, Kaia Kanepi, and the second one to Maret Ani. Ormaechea also played in the rubber against Canada, and lost both of her singles matches — against Aleksandra Wozniak and Valérie Tétreault.

2011

Her first tournament was an ITF event in Colombia, where she lost to Alexandra Cadanțu in straight sets in the first round of qualifying. After this, she played the Copa Colsanitas, but again lost in qualifying, this time in the second round. Despite her bad run, Paula rebounded and won an ITF tournament in Santiago, Chile one month later. She then played four ITF events during May, reaching the final of one, but losing to top seed Lucie Hradecká. Paula then played the qualifying for the Brussels Open, her first Premier tournament. She got to the final round of qualifying after defeating Catalina Castaño and Andrea Hlaváčková, but was then swept aside by doubles specialist Abigail Spears, 6–1, 6–1. Following this loss, she headed to Rome to play a $25k tournament, but lost in the second round to Sofia Shapatava. Then, following another loss in the quarterfinals of an ITF event in Poland and an early elimination in the qualifying at the Budapest Grand Prix, Paula's form improved when she qualified for the Gastein Ladies in Kitzbühel, Austria. She there lost in the first round of the main draw to María José Martínez Sánchez, in straight sets. Paula then took a break from the WTA Tour, playing eight ITF events from August to October, winning two of them.

2012

Ormaechea began new season at the Sydney International where she lost in the second round of qualifying to 13th seed Vania King. Following this loss, she headed to Melbourne for the Australian Open where she qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw beating seventh seed CoCo Vandeweghe, Hsieh Su-wei, and 19th seed Yvonne Meusburger. In the first round of the main draw, she overcame Simona Halep in three sets. In the second round, however, she was sent crashing out by eighth seed Agnieszka Radwańska, in straight sets. Due to her strong beginning of the new season, her ranking peaked at over No. 140 for the first time.

2013: French Open 3rd round, top 100 and new career-high rankings

She made her debut in the top 100 on 10 June 2013, at world No. 81, following the 2013 French Open where she reached the third round. She reached a career-high of No. 59, on 21 October 2013.

Performance timelines

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.

Singles

Current through the 2023 Charleston Open.

Doubles

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 32 (16 titles, 16 runner–ups)

Doubles: 24 (9 titles, 15 runner–ups)

National team participation

Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup

Singles (12–10)

Doubles (0–2)