Sandra Birch-Krusos (born September 3, 1969) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from the United States. She is a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame.

Biography

Birch, who was raised in

Huntington Bay Huntington Bay is a village in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, on East Neck on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 1,425 at the time of the 2010 census. It is considered part of the greater H ...

on Long Island, was runner-up to

Natasha Zvereva Natalya "Natasha" Maratovna Zvereva (born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. Zver ...

in the girls' singles at the 1987 US Open. From 1988 to 1991 she played collegiate tennis for Stanford University and was a member of the championship winning teams in each of those four seasons. She was a two-time

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

singles champion. In 1989, she beat Jennifer Santrock to win her first singles championship, and she was runner-up in the doubles. Her second championship was won in 1991 as a senior, over Lisa Albano in the final. While at Stanford, she won the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in t ...

as the nation's best female tennis player in 1991. Both championship wins earned her a wildcard into the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

main draw. She was beaten in the first round by

Conchita Martínez Conchita Martínez Bernat (born 16 April 1972) is a Spanish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was the first Spaniard to win the women's singles title at Wimbledon, doing so in 1994. Martínez also was the runner-up at th ...

in 1989 and

Manuela Maleeva Manuela Georgieva Maleeva (; born 14 February 1967) is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour between 1982 and 1994. Through her marriage, Maleeva began representing Switzerland officially from January 1990 ...

in 1991. While at Stanford, she competed in several WTA Tour professional tournaments, most notably the 1989 OTB Open held in Schenectady, where she was a singles quarterfinalist and runner-up in the doubles with

Debbie Graham Debbie Graham or Debbie Graham Shaffer (born August 25, 1970) is a retired tennis player from the United States. She was awarded the "Most Impressive Newcomer" by WTA in 1992. She was a "High Performance Coach" for women with the USTA at the US ...

WTA Tour finals

Doubles (0-1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Birch, Sandra 1969 births Living people American female tennis players Stanford Cardinal women's tennis players Tennis players from New York (state) Sportspeople from Suffolk County, New York 20th-century American sportswomen