#3. Monica Puig
The Puerto Rican scripted history at the Rio Olympics by winning the gold medal at the singles tournament.
After thrashing French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-1 in the third round, Puig beat two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals to become the first unseeded player to win a medal at the Olympics since Alicia Molik’s bronze at the Athens games.
In the final, she beat an in-form Angelique Kerber in three sets to win Puerto Rico’s first ever Olympic gold. She also became the first Latin American singles player to win an Olympic gold and the second to win a medal since Gabriela Sabatini’s silver medal at the Seoul Olympics.
The World No. 32 is yet to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam as her best performance till now has been reaching the fourth round of the Wimbledon in 2013 where she beat then fifth seed Sara Errani in the first round.
Her best performance at the Australian Open has been a third round appearance this year. The same goes for the French Open where she reached the third round in 2013 and 2016. Puig’s best US Open performances has been a second round appearance in 2014 although she was expected to be a surprise in this year’s tournament after winning the Olympic gold.
