Mayar Sherif Ahmed Abdel-Aziz ( ar, ميار شريف أحمد عبد العزيز; born 5 May 1996) is an Egyptian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player. She is the younger sister of

Rana Sherif Ahmed Rana Sherif Ahmed ( ar, رنا شريف أحمد; born 20 July 1994) is an inactive Egyptian tennis player. On 8 November 2010, she peaked at No. 982 in the doubles rankings. Playing for the Egypt Fed Cup team The Egypt Billie Jean King Cup t ...

. She has career-high

WTA rankings The WTA rankings are the ratings defined by the Women's Tennis Association, introduced in November 1975. Iga Świątek is the current world No. 1. Ranking method The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A pla ...

of world No. 44 in singles, achieved on 18 July 2022, and No. 88 in doubles, reached on 11 July 2022. Sherif has won one singles title on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

, at the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Open. She has also won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour along with nine singles titles and six doubles titles on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmenta ...

. 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

singles debut at the

2020 Prague Open The 2020 Prague Open (branded as the 2020 J&T Banka Prague Open for sponsorship reasons) was a professional women's tennis tournament that was played on outdoor clay courts at the TK Sparta Praha in Prague, Czech Republic. It was a WTA Internatio ...

. 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 The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

and reach a WTA tournament final in

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. Playing for Egypt Fed Cup team, she has a win–loss record of 19–11 (in doubles: 10–5) in

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was chan ...

competition.

Professional career

2019–2020: Historic Grand Slam debut and WTA debut

Sherif started 2020 playing in the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...

qualifiers which was her first appearance at a WTA 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 Laura Natalie Siegemund (born 4 March 1988, in Filderstadt) is a German professional tennis player. She is a two-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2020 US Open in women's doubles with Vera Zvonareva, as well as the 2016 US Open in mixe ...

in three sets. In late September 2020, Sherif defeated

Camila Osorio María Camila Osorio Serrano (; born 22 December 2001) is a Colombian professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as high as No. 33 in singles and 273 in doubles. She has won one singles title on the ...

Caty McNally Catherine "Caty" McNally (born November 20, 2001) is an American tennis player. She achieved her highest doubles ranking of world No. 11 on 4 April 2022. On 7 November 2022, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 94. She is best known ...

and Giulia Gatto-Monticone in the French Open qualifying. Making her Grand Slam main-draw debut as the first Egyptian female player, Sherif came up against second seed and world No. 3,

Karolína Plíšková Karolína Hrdličková (née Plíšková; ; born 21 March 1992) is a Czech professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in singles, reaching the top of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on 17 July 2017 and holding the po ...

, losing in three sets.

2021: Historic first Grand Slam match win, WTA finals and Olympics & top 100 debut

Winners Open WTA250 - Day 3 (51367536512) (cropped)

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

. She 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

. In singles, she defeated top seed

Alizé Cornet Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. Cornet has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 16 February 2009, she ...

, Alex Eala, Kristína Kučová and Mihaela Buzărnescu but lost to

Andrea Petkovic Andrea Petkovic (, ; born 9 September 1987) is a German former professional tennis player. Born in Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia, to Serbian father Zoran and Bosniak mother Amira, she moved to Germany at six months old and turned professional in 2006 ...

in the final. In doubles, partnering Katarzyna Piter, she lost to Natela Dzalamidze and

Kaja Juvan Kaja Juvan (born 25 November 2000) is a Slovenian tennis player who turned professional on 17 October 2016. Juvan has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 58, achieved on 6 June 2022, and peaked at No. 99 in the doubles rankings on 11 July ...

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: Historic maiden title, French Open win & 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 The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and v ...

, she became the first Egyptian woman to win a Roland Garros main draw match, after beating Marta Kostyuk in two sets (6-3, 7-5). She withdrew in the second round due to injury. At the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Sherif defeated

Anna Bondár Anna Bondár (born 27 May 1997) is a Hungarian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 50 in singles, achieved on 18 July 2022, and world No. 47 in doubles, achieved on 24 October 2022. She is the current No. 1 Hungarian WTA playe ...

Simona Waltert Simona Waltert (born 13 December 2000) is a Swiss tennis player. Waltert has career-high WTA rankings of 118 in singles, achieved on 12 September 2022, and 180 in doubles, reached on 7 March 2022. Up to date, she has won one doubles title on t ...

Lauren Davis Lauren Davis (born October 9, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. Known for her aggressive backhand, speed, and clay-court strength, she won her first title on the WTA Tour at the Auckland Open and reached a career-high singles r ...

, and

Ana Bogdan Ana Bogdan (born 25 November 1992) is a Romanian professional tennis player. Having made her tour debut in 2007, she peaked at No. 46 in the WTA rankings in October 2022. Bogdan had a successful junior career, reaching world No. 2 on 5 January ...

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 Maria Sakkari ( gr, Μαρία Σάκκαρη, ; born 25 July 1995) is a Greek professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved on 21 March 2022, making her ...

, in straight sets to claim her first singles title and became the first woman from Egypt to win a WTA Tour title. The win against Sakkari was also her first top-10 win.

Performance timeline

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

Singles

''Current after the 2023 WTA Lyon Open.''

Doubles

WTA career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 2 (2 runner–ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 4 (4 titles)

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

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 18 (9 titles, 9 runner–ups)

Doubles: 13 (6 titles, 7 runner–ups)

Head-to-head records

Record against top 10 players

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

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