Players Under the Microscope / Barry Millns / 08 October 2008 /

Having told us all about Laura Robson last week, Barry Millns now turns his attention to Portuguese starlet Michelle De Brito and gives us the lowdown on a 15 year-old whose rise up the rankings has been lightning quick and looks like it won't be slowing down anytime soon.

For two countries that border each other it is hard to fathom the huge gulf that exists between Spanish and Portuguese tennis. While the former can boast about multiple major champions and world No.1s, historically the latter has always lagged far behind.

There are currently 16 Spanish men and five Spanish women ranked inside the Top 100. Portugal has none ranked so high on either tour, but that could change in the near future if 15 year-old Michelle Larcher De Brito continues her meteoric rise.

Having turned pro in February 2007, a week after her 14th birthday, the Lisbon born, Bradenton based right-hander ended the year ranked No.296, when she also claimed the prestigious Orange Bowl junior title. Since then she has soared to a career-high No.119 and although she has yet to play in a 'senior' grand slam there is a very good chance she will do so next January in Melbourne.

Still coached by her father Antonio, who introduced her to the sport when she was just three, Michelle now trains at the Bollettieri academy in Florida. Currently 5 foot 5 inches tall she is a strong baseliner, whose best assets are her ground-strokes and movement.

Brito lists her favourite court surfaces as hard and grass and her favourite players as Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Rafael Nadal. There is still a long way to go to follow in their illustrious footsteps but like all of them she clearly loves to compete and hates to lose.

On her Tour debut in March 2007 she beat the American Megan Shaughnessy in the first round in Miami, which made her the seventh-youngest player in history to win a Tour singles main draw match. Twelve months on she reached the third round of the same event, beating Ekaterina Makarova and 17th seed Agnieska Radwanska, both from a set down, in the process.

Then, in July, she showed even more promise by qualifying for Stanford, beating Gisela Dulko in the first round and taking the first set off top seed Serena Williams before losing in three. A month later in Montreal, where she also qualified, she defeated Vania King and Flavia Pennetta back-to-back in three sets before losing 6-4 in the third to world No.4 Svetlana Kuznetsova and last week she made her first Tour quarterfinal in Tashkent.

Physically and mentally Brito is certainly getting stronger month by month, learning quickly from the top tier experience she has already gained. For one so young, she is also likely to be taller by the time she is fully grown.

Jennifer Capriati was the last under-15 to win a Tour title back in 1990. Following her teenage 'burn-out', playing restrictions were imposed to prevent others suffering in the same way and since then only three 15 year-olds have won professional tournaments (Mirjana Lucic, Nicole Vaidisova and Tamira Paszek).

To date in 2008, four teenagers have won WTA tournaments - Agnieska Radwanska (19), Alize Cornet, Caroline Wozniacki and Sorana Cirstea (all 18). That compares to five back in 1998 (Patty Schnyder, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Mirjana Lucic and Henrieta Nagyova).

So don't be surprised if, in the next few months, the Portuguese prodigy (and by far the youngest player in the world's Top 300) wins her maiden title. Along with 17 year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (now ranked No.68 having ended last year at No.286) Brito is undoubtedly one to watch.

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