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A young girl living in Upstate, New York, Louisa had learned tennis at the young age of seven when her mom, Carole started setting up tennis lessons for her at a nearby country club. She would enjoy the instructions on hard courts in the winter and in the summer play on red clay outdoors.
Louisa became comfortable, confident and content to follow her dream of playing tennis for a career and followed the traditional path of entering Challenger events and not ever being afraid to take chances on her shot selections, her opponents or her surface of play.
As an ITF player she won 45 matches and one title, which helped her make it into the 200th ranking. She is in Madrid now, where she reached the semifinals losing to Dominika Cibulkova, after just making the qualifiers' status last week but she's proven to most that she can be potentially dangerous with that smashing forehand and her intentional point finishers at the net.
Louisa is an exceptional young woman who hadn't even went past the round of 16 at any tournament this year, lost in the first round of qualifying four times already and is basically the only American woman player left and the only one that likes red clay.
She's admitted laughingly that "I've always just loved it" and that her win column is in the double digits since she started playing on the gritty red surface since the Charleston event. It is tough to know that she is the only American young woman out there in Madrid, making a statement and riding on the coat tails of no one.
Louisa has carved and dug her own winning circle since she entered the first round of Madrid by winning over the devious playing Monica Niculescu. Chirico's second round was with Ana Ivanovic who has carried her threatening status and potential wins throughout her career.
Louisa proved too much for Ana and overrode her in three sets. Round three was the dynamic, feisty Daria Gavrilova who's taken off many top seeded players, but not successful this time and fell to Chirico's consistency and defiance to not lose.
Louisa's next opponent was the 'in your face, never give up' like of Victoria Azarenka. But it wasn't Vika's day and she sustained a back injury in previous matches to make her testimony with Chirico, a walkover. With hard work and diligence, Louisa has crawled and dug her way into the semis where she will have to be a tough, offensive and defensive player against the powerful shotmaking of her next lady-in-waiting, Dominika Cibulkova.
Can Louisa claw her way into the Madrid finals? Time will tell for the last American female tennis player standing. But Louisa Chirico has nothing to lose. She's defiant, determined and dedicated enough to play her very best whether she wins over Cibulkova or not.
She's had her tests of playing nearly the best and has learned that tennis homework is always continuous and a lesson from start to finish. Also Read: Roger Federer is proof that age doesn't matter