Kirrily Sharpe (born 25 February 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.

Biography

Sharpe, a left-handed player from Sydney, trained with the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

in Canberra. She was a member of the Australian team which won the 1988 World Youth Cup, now known as the Junior Fed Cup. While still only 17, she competed in the main draw of the

1990 French Open The 1990 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 89th staging of the French Open, and the second Gra ...

as a qualifier and scored an upset win over 14th seed

Raffaella Reggi Raffaella Reggi (; born 27 November 1965) is an Italian TV pundit and former professional tennis player. Career As a junior, Reggi won the Orange Bowl 16 and under in 1981. She was a member of the Continental Players Cup Team in 1982. Reggi ...

, en route to the third round. She also competed in junior Grand Slam events that year and made three finals. At the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, she was runner-up to

Andrea Strnadová Andrea Strnadová (born on 28 May 1972) is a retired tennis player from the Czech Republic. She is married to Australian former tennis player Jason Stoltenberg Jason Stoltenberg (born 4 April 1970) is an Australian former professional tenni ...

in the girls' singles, and was also a losing finalist in the girls' doubles, partnering

Nicole Pratt Nicole Pratt (born 5 March 1973) is a retired tennis player from Australia. Pratt was born in Mackay, Queensland. She is the middle sibling of five children of cane farmers and was taught to play by her father, George, who was a top junior pl ...

. She won the girls' doubles title at the 1990 US Open with Kristin Godridge. The same pair won a

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

doubles title at the 1990 Open Clarins in Paris. A knee injury, suffered early in 1991, kept her out for most of the year and required a reconstruction. Sharpe made the third round of the

1992 Australian Open The 1992 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Hardcourt, outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park, Flinders Park in Melbourne, Australia and was held from 13 through 26 January 1992. It was the 80th edition of the Australian Open and the ...

as a wildcard, with wins over

Silke Meier Silke Meier (born 13 July 1968) is a former professional tennis player from Germany who played on the WTA tour from 1985 to 1999. She reached the third round of the US Open in 1990 and, over her career, recorded victories against Jana Novotná, ...

and

Anna Földényi Anna Maria Földényi (born 22 August 1974) is a former professional tennis player from Hungary. In her career, Földényi won 13 singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 27 September 1999, she reached her best singles ran ...

. In her only singles main-draw appearance at Wimbledon in 1993, she had a first-round match up with world No. 1,

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...

, who beat the Australian 6–0, 6–0, losing only 18 points in the process. Sharpe retired from professional tennis after the 1996 season.

WTA career finals

Doubles (1–0)

ITF finals

Singles (7–0)

Doubles (13–16)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Kirrily 1973 births Living people Australian female tennis players Tennis players from Sydney Australian Institute of Sport tennis players US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles 20th-century Australian women Sportswomen from New South Wales