Mayar Sherif

Mayar Sherif Ahmed Abdel-Aziz (; born 5 May 1996) is an Egyptian professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA ranking of No. 31 in singles, making her the highest ranked Egyptian singles player, male or female, in the Open Era. She also has a career-high of No. 65 in doubles.
Sherif has won two singles titles on the WTA Tour and one title in doubles. She has also won a record eight WTA 125 singles titles and two doubles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour along with nine singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She is the younger sister of Rana Sherif Ahmed.

Sherif spent her final two years of college at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, graduating in 2018 with a bachelor of science in sports medicine. She was part of the university's tennis team and was an All-American in both 2017 and 2018, and the West Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2018. She made the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA singles tournament and ended her senior season ranked 11th in the nation in singles.

Sherif made her WTA Tour singles debut at the 2020 Prague Open. She was the first Egyptian female player in a main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the 2020 French Open.
She made history again for Egyptian tennis at the 2021 Australian Open, becoming the first woman from her nation to win a Grand Slam main-draw match. She became also the first Egyptian woman to qualify for the Olympic Games and reach a WTA tournament final in Cluj-Napoca. At the 2023 Madrid Open, she became the first Egyptian player to reach a WTA 1000 quarterfinal.

Playing for Egypt Billie Jean King Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 25–13 (singles 13–7) as of June 2025.

Professional

2019–2020: Historic major & WTA Tour debuts

Sherif started 2020 playing in the Australian Open qualifiers which was her first appearance at a major tournament. She lost in the first round of qualifiers to Ann Li. In March, she won the title at a $25k tournament in Antalya defeating Dalma Gálfi in the final.

In August, at the Prague Open Prague Open, Sherif advanced through the qualifying making her main-draw debut at WTA Tour-level. In the first round, she lost there to Laura Siegemund in three sets.

In late September 2020, Sherif defeated Camila Osorio, Caty McNally and Giulia Gatto-Monticone in the French Open qualifying. Making her major main-draw debut as the first Egyptian female player, Sherif came up against second seed and world No. 3, Karolína Plíšková, losing in three sets.

2021: Major & WTA 1000 wins, Olympics & top 100 debut

Sherif again made history as the first Egyptian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament, beating Chloé Paquet in the first round of the Australian Open.

She qualified for Indian Wells making her WTA 1000 debut, and defeated Zheng Saisai for her first win at this level.
She received a wildcard for the WTA 1000 Miami Open.

Sherif delivered another highlight, when she, as the first Egyptian woman, qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, after winning the 2019 African Games.

Sherif also became the first Egyptian woman to reach a WTA Tour singles and doubles final in Cluj-Napoca. In singles, she defeated top seed Alizé Cornet, Alex Eala, Kristína Kučová and Mihaela Buzărnescu but lost to Andrea Petkovic in the final. In doubles, partnering Katarzyna Piter, she lost to Natela Dzalamidze and Kaja Juvan in the final. As a result, she entered the top 100 at world No. 97 on 9 August 2021, the first Egyptian woman to do so, and also reached a career-high in doubles at No. 154.

2022: Maiden career title, top 50 in singles & top 100 in doubles

She made her top 50 debut in singles and reached world No. 98 in doubles on 16 May 2022.

At the French Open, she became the first Egyptian woman to win a Roland Garros main-draw match, defeating Marta Kostyuk in two sets. She withdrew in the second round due to injury.

At the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Sherif defeated Anna Bondár, Simona Waltert, Lauren Davis, and Ana Bogdan to reach her second WTA 250 final, and her first since the previous summer. She then defeated top seed and world No. 7, Maria Sakkari, in straight sets to claim her first singles title and become the first woman from Egypt to win a WTA Tour title. The win against Sakkari was also her first top-10 win.

2023: WTA 1000 quarterfinal, record sixth WTA 125 title, historic ranking

At the 2023 Madrid Open, Sherif defeated Camila Giorgi by retirement, 30th seed Anhelina Kalinina, world No. 5 Caroline Garcia and 24th seed Elise Mertens to reach her first WTA 1000 singles quarterfinal, thus also becoming the first Egyptian player to do so.

She won her second WTA 125 title at the Open Internacional de Valencia in two weeks following her triumph at the WTA 125 Makarska International. As a result, she reached a historic career-high of No. 31 in the singles rankings, becoming the highest ranked Egyptian player, male or female, in the Open era. No other player had won more than three WTA Challenger titles since the level was introduced in 2012.

2024: Madrid and Rome third rounds, five final defeats

In April, Sherif reached the third round at the Madrid Open with wins over Lauren Davis and 25th seed Marta Kostyuk before losing to world No. 4, Elena Rybakina.
At the start of May, she reached the final at the Catalonia Open in Lleida, Spain, where she lost to Katerina Siniaková in a match lasting almost three hours.

At the Italian Open in Rome later that month, Sherif made the third round, defeating 11th seed Jasmine Paolini on the way, before losing to 25th seed Victoria Azarenka in three sets.
The following week she lost in the final of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma to Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. Sherif suffered similar disappointment at her next tournament, the Morocco Open where she was defeated in the final by Peyton Stearns.

She reached the final as she attempted to defend her Makarska International title in June, but lost to Katie Volynets in three sets.
In July, Sherif was runner-up at the Grand Est Open 88 in Contrexéville, France, losing to Lucia Bronzetti in a final which lasted more than three-and-a-half hours.

As top seed at the Hamburg European Open in August, she reached the quarterfinals but was defeated by Olga Danilović.
Partnering with Anna Blinkova, Sherif won the doubles at the Jasmin Open, defeating Alina Korneeva and Anastasia Zakharova in the final.

Alongside Nina Stojanović, she won the doubles title at WTA 125 Copa Colina in Chile in November. Later that month, Sherif won the singles title at the WTA 125 Argentina Open, defeating Katarzyna Kawa in three sets in the final.

Performance timelines

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup, United Cup, Hopman Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

''Current through the 2023 China Open.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.''

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 12 (8 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 20 (11 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Doubles: 13 (6 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Head-to-head records

Record against top 10 players

* She has a 2–5 record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Notes

References

External links

Mayar Sherif
at Pepperdine Waves
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherif, Mayar
1996 births
Living people
Egyptian female tennis players
Tennis players from Cairo
African Games gold medalists for Egypt
African Games bronze medalists in tennis
African Games silver medalists in tennis
African Games gold medalists in tennis
African Games silver medalists for Egypt
African Games bronze medalists for Egypt
Tennis players at the 2011 All-Africa Games
Pepperdine Waves women's tennis players
Egyptian expatriate tennis players in the United States
Olympic tennis players for Egypt
Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2024 Summer Olympics