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Caroline Dolehide stays much of the time within the ITF regime, but she is peeking out from the shadows into the WTA having defeated many significant women players at well known tournaments. Dolehide, an Illinois native earned three ITF singles and three ITF doubles titles and even though she's ranked in the mid 100s, scrambling and chasing down balls in a large part of her tennis resume.
She's only 19-years-old but has already earned runner-up titles in a few grand slams in the girls' doubles division. In 2015 she paired with Katerina Steward to get the runner-up trophy at theFrench Open. The following year she partnered with another American, Kayla Day and they captured the runner up title for the 2016 US Open.
It was last year in 2017 that she not only won two ITF singles titles as well as two ITF doubles' crowns, but made her main draw debut at the Bank of the West tournament in California. She's defeated Irina Falconi at the Brisbane qualifying rounds, landed into the quarterfinals in doubles at the Stanford Classic with partner Kayla Day and even defeated Su-wei Hsieh at the Indian Wells Challenger event a seasoned pro on the WTA tour for 17 years.
Caroline Dolehide is a feisty, consistent fighter with a whip-actioned forehand that is very difficult to handle by her opponents. She's already dismantled Shelby Rogers at the opening round at Indian Wells and then the second round was sizzling as she took down Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in three sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Dolehide is climbing up the rankings ladder and took on the WTA no. 1 Simona Halep in the third round. "Her topspin is really tough to return", Halep had said after the match. It was a battle playing opposite Dolehide who never gives up and consistently knows how to become aggressive when need be.
She can mix up her shots and prove lethal to any player at any time. Halep fought through three grueling sets with Dolehide, as the Captain of the US Fed Cup, Kathy Rinaldi watched on with the thundering crowd. Dolehide had dissected Halep's game and ran off point after point winning the first set 6-1.
But the no. 1 seed wouldn't go down so fast and came back in the second set, correcting the errors that she made so carelessly. "I felt she was a little bit down...I had to keep her back so she wouldn't attack", Halep had explained as for the reason how she won over Dolehide.
But keeping her back and staying focused was much of the game plan for Halep to do with the young American woman who wouldn't give up. Slices, spins, big forehands down-the-line was a bit of her tennis strategy for trying to win over Halep.
Much of it worked and she'd gathered enough points to get into a second set tiebreaker but the Romanian proved the tougher one and brought out some vintage shots that Dolehide couldn't return. Halep won the tiebreaker and moved onto the deciding set gaining the confidence and eliminating unforced errors to win over her strong, young opponent 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.
The Romanian says about her game that "In the end I think I was stronger in the legs. Also when I had to finish the points, I did. I'm really, really happy about this victory. It was tough down there". The Illinois WTA woman ends her run at Indian Wells' third round but she won't be forgotten as she received a huge applause from the crowd upon her departure onto the next tournament soon, to show her skills that may win her the match or possibly a maiden title at a WTA event.