Happy and healthy, Kayla Cross gears up for more success in 2025 – Tennis Canada

After a busy 2024, Kayla Cross has much to be thankful for ahead of the holidays.

“I’m feeling healthy,” said the Canadian, during a feature interview on Match Point Canada.

“I think the last few years I’ve always had these little dips of being injured or sick. Now that I’m feeling good, I’ve been on a roll.”

“On a roll” is putting it lightly. The 19-year-old London, ON native has achieved new career-high rankings in both singles and doubles to close out the season. In singles, she finished runner-up at the Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby in July. Just one month later, she won her first professional singles title at the W35 Saskatoon Challenger, defeating fellow Canadian Mia Kupres in the final.

Read more: Top 10 most memorable Canadian tennis moments of 2024

Cross gained further ground in the fall with a runner-up finish at the Tevlin Challenger in Toronto and has kept competing ever since. With 52 singles wins on the year, one title, and two finals, she has pushed her singles ranking 378 spots to a career-high 266.

In doubles, the Canadian has shown her versatility, teaming up with multiple partners throughout the year to great success. She won consecutive titles on clay with Ariana Arseneault in Punta Cana in September, captured both the W35 Edmonton and W75 Calgary National Bank Challenger alongside Maribella Zamarippa in October, and just recently won another ITF event in Miami with American Anna Rogers.

She credits her adaptability to why she’s managed to win with multiple players.

“I’m pretty open when it comes to playing doubles. I try to see what they want to do, what patterns they like, so I think that’s why I’ve found so much success with different players.”

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With six doubles titles in 2024, she’s now up to 180^th in the world. While the huge ranking improvement in both singles and doubles has paid dividends, it was never a focal point for her in 2024.

“This year was more about getting healthy and doing things on my own. There were no massive ranking goals that I had put on myself. It obviously worked out pretty well,” laughed the Canadian.”

Beyond her on-court achievements, Cross has relished the friendships and experiences she’s gained on tour. Travelling from tournament to tournament, she’s prioritized building connections with the familiar faces she encounters along the way.

“You get to go to dinner with people. It was really important for me to make friends and those connections on tour, so I keep enjoying it while I’m out there.”

“I’ve made so many friends on tour this year, which has been amazing.”

With the knee issues that plagued her 2023 season now in the rear-view mirror, Cross is eyeing a more specific performance goal for the upcoming year.

“Looking a little further, my goal is to make French Open qualifying.”

She’ll start by competing at ITF events in the U.S. in the early months of the season to build towards it.  

Through her experiences so far, the 19-year-old is embracing each and every opportunity to play, travel, and connect. Asked for a women’s player she’d most like to square up against it, Cross didn’t shy away from a chance to meet the world No. 1.

“Maybe (Aryna) Sabalenka. Someone who has a lot of power, I want to see if I can hang with that,” laughs Cross.

And as for a dream doubles partner, why not a U.S. Open champion and Olympic medallist, from the same country?

“Obviously Gaby Dabrowski. As a Canadian, it would be so special to play with her.”

With her health restored and confidence high, 2025 is shaping up to be another big year for Kayla Cross.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW ON MATCH POINT CANADA