THE PERSON BEHIND THE POWER

Alycia Parks was born in Atlanta on December 31, 2000, and grew up in Florida, where she still lives in Port St. Lucie. Tennis started as a family project, and she came through the ITF circuit rather than the traditional junior pathway. Today she works with coach Roger Smith.

Her first WTA main draw came in April 2021 at the MUSC Health Women's Open in Charleston, where she entered qualifying as an alternate, came through it, and reached the second round before falling to top seed Ons Jabeur. Months later her arrival got loud. In her first Grand Slam main draw match, at the 2021 US Open, she served 129 mph, tying the fastest serve by a woman ever recorded at the tournament. In October 2022 in Ostrava she beat former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova and world No. 7 Maria Sakkari back to back to reach her first WTA quarterfinal, and won her first WTA doubles title the same week with Caty McNally.

In February 2023 she won her first WTA singles title in Lyon, beating world No. 5 Caroline Garcia in the final. That summer she added a WTA 1000 doubles title in Cincinnati with Taylor Townsend and reached career highs of No. 40 in singles and No. 27 in doubles.

At six foot one, right handed with a two handed backhand, she plays first strike tennis built around one of the biggest serves in the women's game. Away from competition she is drawn to fashion, travel and the creative side of life on tour.

What comes next is bigger than any single season. The goal on court is simple: keep climbing. Away from it, she is building toward a line of her own, custom, high quality and unlike anything else on tour, because for Alycia the way you show up has always been part of the performance.