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 ...

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 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 tourna ...

, at the

2022 Emilia-Romagna Open The 2022 Emilia-Romagna Open is a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts in Parma, Italy as an ATP Challenger Tour 125 event for the men and a WTA 250 event for the women. The fifth edition of the men's event was held between 13 an ...

. She has also won four singles titles and one doubles title on the

WTA Challenger Tour WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesITF Women's Circuit. 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. She was the first Egyptian female player in a main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the

2020 French Open The 2020 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Originally scheduled for 24 May to 7 June, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was firs ...

. She made history again for Egyptian tennis at the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It was ...

, 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 var ...

and reach a WTA tournament final in

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. Playing for

Egypt Fed Cup team The Egypt Billie Jean King Cup team represents Egypt in the Billie Jean King Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Egyptian Tennis Federation. They currently compete in the Europe/Africa Zone of Group III. History Egypt competed in its ...

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

qualifiers which was her first appearance at a WTA tournament. She lost in the first round of qualifiers to

Ann Li Ann Louie Li (born January 17, 1995 in Bangkok, Thailand), popularly known as Ann Li, is a Filipino–Taiwanese businesswoman, fashion influencer, former actress, model, photographer, and television personality. She splits her time between Ma ...

. 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 In tennis, Prague Open may refer to: * Prague Open (1987–1999) * ATP Prague Open * WTA Prague Open * Sparta Prague Open Challenger The Sparta Prague Open Challenger is a professional tennis tournament played on Tennis court#Clay courts, clay cou ...

, Sherif advanced through the qualifying making her main-draw debut at WTA Tour-level. In the first round, she lost there to Laura Siegemund in three sets. In late September 2020, Sherif defeated Camila Osorio, Caty McNally and

Giulia Gatto-Monticone Giulia Gatto-Monticone (born 18 November 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. In February 2020, she reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 148, while her best WTA doubles ranking is 200, achieved in October 2014. She has n ...

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 pos ...

, 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 Chloe (; ), also spelled Chloë, Chlöe, or Chloé, is a feminine name meaning "blooming" or "fertility" in Greek. The name ultimately derives, through Greek, from the Proto-Indo-European root ', which relates to the colors yellow and green. T ...

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 Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circu ...

Alex Eala Alexandra Eala (born 23 May 2005) is a Filipino tennis player. Eala was the No. 2-ranked ITF junior on 6 October 2020. She has a career-high singles ranking by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) of 214, achieved on 31 October 2022. Eala is t ...

Kristína Kučová Kristína Kučová (; born 23 May 1990) is a Slovak tennis player. On 12 September 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 71. On 5 October 2009, she peaked at No. 168 in the WTA doubles rankings. She has won one singles title on ...

and Mihaela Buzărnescu but lost to Andrea Petkovic 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 ven ...

, 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 The Emilia-Romagna Open is a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It is currently part of the WTA Tour for women and minor league ATP Challenger Tour for men. It is held annually in Montechiarugolo, Parma Parma (; egl, Pä ...

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 player ...

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 the ...

, Lauren Davis, and Ana Bogdan to reach her second

WTA 250 WTA 250 tournaments is a category of tennis tournaments in the Women's Tennis Association tour, implemented since the reorganization of the schedule in 2021. Earlier these events were classified as WTA International Tournaments. As of 2021, WT ...

final, and her first since the previous summer. She then defeated top seed and world No. 7, Maria Sakkari, 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

* * *
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