Photo : Mauricio Paiz/Tennis Canada
On Thursday, Katherine Sebov of Toronto, ON was named to Canada’s Billie Jean King Cup team for the fourth time in her career as a replacement for the injured Bianca Andreescu.
She may not be the biggest name, but Sebov has been one of the strongest Canadians on the tour so far in 2023, which has already been a career year for the 24-year-old despite just three months flipping on the calendar.
Meet the latest member of Team Canada presented by Sobeys.
Home-Soil Debut
Sebov made her WTA Tour debut in August 2021 in Chicago. A year later, she received a wild card to the 2022 National Bank Open, marking her first tour-level match in Canada and her first match at the WTA 1000 level. She lost a highly-competitive clash 7-5 in the third set to eventual quarter-finalist Yulia Putintseva.
Two weeks later, Sebov scored her first match win on the WTA Tour at the 250-level event in Granby, Quebec.
Welcome to the Big Leagues
In January 2023, Sebov made the long trip to Melbourne to try and qualify for her first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open.
Despite having not played in major qualifying since 2019, she was successful and made her Grand Slam debut in a big way, on Rod Laver Arena against world No. 5 Caroline Garcia.
Toronto Champion
After her success in Australia, Sebov took some extra time to train in Toronto and it paid. The local hero won the title in her hometown when the ITF Tour passed through, only dropping one set on her way to a third career ITF title.
Consistency Building
Toronto provided a springboard for Sebov, who kept her strong start to 2023 going by qualifying for a WTA 1000 event for the first time. Not only that, she won her first match at that level at the Miami Open.
Skyrocketing Ranking
Coming into 2023, Sebov sat a No. 222 in the WTA rankings, 30 spots behind her career-high of No. 192 achieved in 2019.
In the first week of the season, she inched past that mark. But as her results improved, her ranking started to climb rapidly. Her victory in Toronto saw her jump 27 spots to a new career high.
Two weeks later, after her run in Miami, she climbed another 24 spots into the Top 150 for the first time. By qualifying for Charleston and winning her first-round match, she reached another career-high ranking of No. 136.
