Angie Kate Cunningham (2 February 1973 – 4 October 2016) was a professional

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 ...

player from Australia. She competed during her career under her maiden name Angie Woolcock.

Biography

Tennis career

Cunningham was born in Launceston. Cunningham won the Pardey Shield tennis title at the age of 13, which made her the youngest winner of the prestigious Tasmanian schools competition. She moved to Melbourne soon after to pursue a career in tennis and was accepted into 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. Cunningham was runner-up in three junior

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

doubles finals, twice at 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. Th ...

and once at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. She partnered with

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 ...

to make the final of the

1989 Australian Open The 1989 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 77th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 through 29 January 1989. Seniors Men's s ...

. She was a finalist again, in 1991, with

Joanne Limmer Joanne Limmer (born 29 March 1974) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Biography Limmer, a right-handed player from Melbourne, began playing tennis at the age of six and had a successful career in junior tennis. Most notably, ...

. Cunningham beat Limmer to win her first ITF tournament in Woking, England, later in 1991. Cunningham eventually partnered with Limmer in order to reach the girls' doubles final at Wimbledon. Cunningham reached a highest junior doubles ranking of number two in the world. She competed primarily in doubles as a professional tennis player. Her best performance on the WTA Tour was a semifinal appearance, partnering Jo-Anne Faull at the Malaysian Women's Open in 1993. Her career best doubles ranking was 111 in 1993. She competed in the women's doubles main draws at the four grand slam tournaments that year. She won two ITF singles titles: at Lee on Solent, and in Ballarat, in 1994 Cunningham retired from tennis in 1996. She studied for a business degree at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...

after her tennis career. She started to work for the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...

in 2000, and she was based in London. Her roles during her ten year career at the WTA included being the Vice President of Player Relations and On-Site Operations.

Personal life and illness

Cunningham was the middle of three children born to Bill and Susie Woolcock. Her father ran the local real estate company, Woolcock Partners, for 40 years, before it was bought by her elder brother Sam in 2013. She had a husband Pat and two daughters. She was diagnosed with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(MND) in 2012. She died on 4 October 2016 at her home in Melbourne, at the age of 43. Her death occurred three and a half years after the death of Australian tennis player

Brad Drewett Brad Drewett (19 July 1958 – 3 May 2013) was an Australian tennis player and ATP official. He was the 1975 and 1977 Australian Open junior champion and the youngest player at age 17 to win the title since Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe. He w ...

, and a year before the death of another former Australian player

Peter Doohan Peter Doohan (2 May 1961 – 21 July 2017) was an Australian tennis player who won three consecutive Australian Hard Court Championships singles titles (1984, 1985, 1986), which remains an Open era record for that tournament. He won a further t ...

. Each man died from motor neurone disease.

Honours

She posthumously received the President's Spirit of Tennis Award for her efforts to raise awareness of MND, at the 2016

Newcombe Medal The Newcombe Medal celebrates and recognizes the performances, achievements, and contributions made by members of the Australian tennis family each year. The awards are named after Australian tennis legend John Newcombe. The awards are present ...

awards ceremony. The trophy for the

Hobart International The Hobart International is a women's professional tennis tournament held at the Hobart International Tennis Centre in Hobart, Australia. Held since 1994, it forms a part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and is classed as an Interna ...

is named the Angie Cunningham Trophy in her honour.

ITF finals

Singles (3–3)

Doubles (7–6)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Angie 1973 births 2016 deaths Australian female tennis players Tennis players from Tasmania Sportspeople from Launceston, Tasmania Sportswomen from Tasmania Australian Institute of Sport tennis players La Trobe University alumni Neurological disease deaths in Victoria (state) Deaths from motor neuron disease 20th-century Australian women