Steve Virgona (born 25 September 1978) is an Australian professional

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

player based in

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. , he is ranked number three in the world. Virgona's victories include the Australian Open (four times), the British Open (twice) and the US Open.

Career

Virgona started his career as a professional at the

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real tennis club before moving to

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at the age of 18. Steve gained much success early by playing doubles, and reaching the final of the British Open in 2001 and winning the doubles at the 1998 US Open. Virgona worked as a professional in

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, primarily at the Burroughs club, before moving back to Melbourne in 2004. After securing a position in

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in 2006, Virgona's tennis improved markedly and his ranking rose to world number 2. He defeated world champion

Robert Fahey Robert Leo Fahey (born 30 April 1968, in Hobart, Tasmania), nicknamed "Bag", is an Australian real tennis player and the former World Champion of the sport, holding the title from 16 March 1994 to 21 May 2016 and again from 28 April 2018 to ...

twice in 2006, but lost his world championship campaign to Tim Chisholm that year. Steve's tennis continued to improve, winning the Australian Open, and entered the 2008 world championships as the favourite to challenge Fahey. He lost narrowly to Camden Riviere in the final eliminator, and got revenge soon after in the US Open. In 2010, he won the US Open doubles championship, partnered by Ben Matthews.

References

1978 births Living people American real tennis players Australian real tennis players {{US-tennis-bio-stub