Kirrily Sharpe (born 25 February 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.

Biography

Sharpe, a left-handed player from Sydney, trained with 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. She was a member of the Australian team which won the 1988 World Youth Cup, now known as the

Junior Fed Cup Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup are the international team events in junior tennis (16-and-under age category). History Competitions were launched by the ITF in 1985 as the 16-and-under World Youth Cup, and rebranded in 2002 under ...

. While still only 17, she competed in the main draw of the

1990 French Open The 1990 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 94th staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...

as a qualifier and scored an upset win over 14th seed

Raffaella Reggi Raffaella Reggi (; born 27 November 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. Career As a junior, Reggi won the Orange Bowl 16 and under in 1981. She was a member of the Continental Players Cup Team in 1982. Reggi won the mixe ...

, en route to the third round. She also competed in 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 ...

events that year and made three finals. At the

1990 Wimbledon Championships The 1990 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 104th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

, she was runner-up to

Andrea Strnadová Andrea Strnadová (born on 28 May 1972) is a retired tennis player from the Czech Republic. She is married to Australian former tennis player Jason Stoltenberg. Strnadová was awarded the WTA Most Impressive Newcomer in 1991. WTA career final ...

in the girls' singles, and was also a losing finalist in the girls' doubles, partnering

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 ...

. She won the girls' doubles title at the 1990 US Open with

Kristin Godridge Kristin Godridge (born 7 February 1973) is a retired tennis player from Australia who competed on the WTA Tour from 1987 to 1996. Career Godridge achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 79 in September 1991. Her highest doubles ran ...

. The same pair won a

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 tourna ...

doubles title at the

1990 Open Clarins The 1990 Open Clarins was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts at the Racing Club de France in Paris, France, and was part of the Tier IV category of the 1990 WTA Tour. It was the fourth edition of the tournament and was hel ...

in Paris. A knee injury, suffered early in 1991, kept her out for the most of the year and required a reconstruction. Sharpe made the third round of the

1992 Australian Open The 1992 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne, Australia and was held from 13 through 26 January 1992. It was the 80th edition of the Australian Open and the first Grand Slam tourna ...

as a wildcard, with wins over

Silke Meier Silke Meier (born 13 July 1968) is a former professional tennis player from Germany who played on the WTA tour from 1985 to 1999. She reached the third round of the US Open in 1990 and, over her career, recorded victories against Jana Novotná, ...

and Anna Földényi. In her only singles main-draw appearance at Wimbledon in 1993, she had a first-round match up with world No. 1,

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...

, who beat the Australian 6–0, 6–0, losing only 18 points in the process. Sharpe retired from professional tennis after the 1996 season.

WTA career finals

Doubles (1–0)

ITF finals

Singles (7–0)

Doubles (13–16)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Kirrily 1973 births Living people Australian female tennis players Tennis players from Sydney Australian Institute of Sport tennis players US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles 20th-century Australian women