Mónica Puig Marchán[a][b] (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican professional tennis player and Olympic gold medal winner. She is also a Central American and Caribbean champion and Pan American silver medalist. Puig has won one singles title on the WTA tour and six singles titles on the ITF circuit in her career. On July 11, 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 33. On July 23, 2012, she peaked at world number 263 in the doubles rankings. In May 2014, Puig won her first WTA tour title at the 2014 Internationaux de Strasbourg.At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Puig became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal while representing Puerto Rico and the ninth overall medalist for that delegation. During this event, she became the first Latin American player to win the women's singles tournament. Defeating two top-ten opponents, she bested the second ranked player in the world, Angelique Kerber, in the final. Puig is the only unseeded female player to win gold since the reintroduction of tennis in 1988.
Mónica Puig Marchán was born September 27, 1993 in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico to a Cuban-american father, José Puig, and a Puerto Rican mother, Astrid Marchán. Her paternal grandparents are Catalans (Spanish). She has a brother named Ricardo "Ricky" Puig. In July, Puig won the gold medal in the women's tennis singles event at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. Puig was the second seed in the singles event at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, but lost in the first round to Zheng Saisai of China in straight sets.Puig started her 2016 season strongly in Sydney. As a qualifier she went on to defeat Magdaléna Rybáriková, Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Samantha Stosur, and Belinda Bencic before losing in her second WTA final to Svetlana Kuznetsova. At the Australian Open, she reached the third round, defeating Magda Linette and Kristýna Plíšková before losing to the fourth seed Agnieszka Radwańska. In the 2016 Aegon International Eastbourne, Puig progressed as far as to the semi-finals after beating Kristina Mladenovic.
At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Puig won the women's singles gold medal by defeating Polona Hercog, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Laura Siegemund, Petra Kvitová, and finally Angelique Kerber. Puig became the second unseeded player to win a medal at the Olympics after Alicia Molik won bronze in Athens and the first athlete representing Puerto Rico to win a gold medal in any sport. Puig is the first Latin American representative to win the gold medal in singles and the second to win a medal after Gabriela Sabatini won silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
