Topic: Michelle Larcher de Brito

Michelle Caroline Larcher de Brito, born Micaela Carolina Larcher de Brito, also known as Michelle Larcher de Brito or Michelle Brito (born 29 January 1993 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese tennis player. Larcher de Brito's family moved to the United States when she was nine years old so she could attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. She was coached by Nick Bollettieri until the end of 2007. Currently she is training full time with her father, António Larcher de Brito. She achieved a career-high ranking of 76 on July 6, 2009.

She is the first Portuguese female player to enter the main draw of a grand slam, which occurred at the 2009 French Open. Her impressive results at such a young age have prompted Nick Bollettieri to tip her as a possible Top 10 player. She is known for her loud grunts while executing shots, being noted for surpassing in decibels the likes of Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles, Victoria Azarenka and Venus and Serena Williams, other famous "grunters". In response to criticism from fellow players about this, she defended herself by saying, "I could (stop grunting), but, you know, it won't feel natural, because it feels like something is missing in my game if I just stop."

Larcher de Brito's coach and father, António, is Portuguese, born in Angola. Her mother, Caroline, is from South Africa. She has two older brothers who are twins, Sebastião and Sérgio. She began playing at the age of three when her father introduced her at a local club in Lisbon. She is a baseliner whose main attributes are her groundstrokes and movement, and she prefers hard and grass courts. Her favorite players are Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Rafael Nadal. In a recent interview, she said it was her dream to play an exhibition match in a football stadium, preferably Benfica's Estádio da Luz in her native Lisbon.