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Marissa Irvin Gould (born June 23, 1980) is an American former
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 and author. She reached her highest singles ranking on August 12, 2002, when she became No. 51 in the world. Her best result at a Grand Slam was the third round of the French Open, which she achieved three straight years from 2003 to 2005. Irvin competed in 22 Grand Slams during her 5-year career.


Tennis career

Irvin was named the Southern California Female Junior Player of the Year in 1994 and 1995, and won the Lee Carlson Award as her high school's most outstanding female athlete. as well as the Block "S" Award at Stanford University as the most outstanding female athlete across all sports in the freshmen class. The highlight of Irvin's junior career was winning the 1997 U.S. Open title in girls' doubles, partnering
Alexandra Stevenson Alexandra Winfield Stevenson (born December 15, 1980) is an American former professional tennis player. Early life and education Stevenson's mother is Samantha Stevenson, a sports journalist. Her father is former National Basketball Associati ...
as well as reaching a national ranking of No. 1 in the United States in both singles (1998) and doubles (1997). She reached her highest world junior ranking of No. 1 in doubles and No. 19 singles in 1997. She attended Stanford University, where she was named a Stanford Academic Scholar Athlete and a GTE Academic All-American. She reached the individual finals at the NCAA Championships in 1999 and 2000, as well as winning it for her team in 1999. She was named the 2000
Honda 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 th ...
winner as the nation's top female collegiate tennis player, was a four-time NCAA All-American and two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year during her two years playing college tennis. She turned professional in 2000, having already reached a WTA ranking in the top 80 in the world as an amateur. That year, she broke into the top 100 after qualifying for the Australian Open (while still a student at Stanford) and defeating Corina Morariu in the first round before falling to eventual champion, Lindsay Davenport in the second round. She also achieved solid results on the
ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...
winning her first professional tournament in Florida. In 2001, she reached her highest year-end ranking of No. 64, and played her first WTA semifinal (upsetting Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario en route) during the Big Island Championships. She reached her highest ranking of No. 51 in August the following year, and beat
Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in te ...
at the
Bank of the West Classic The Silicon Valley Classic, sponsored by Mubadala Investment Company, is a week-long tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California, United States. Started in 1971, the tournament is the ol ...
for her biggest career win. Her best results in her final years on Tour were the third round 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 ...
in 2003, 2004 and 2005, the fourth round of the (then) Sony-Erricson Championships in Key Biscayne, FL in 2002 (l. eventual champion Serena Williams) and the fourth round of the
Pacific Life Open The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...
in 2004. Irvin has professional wins over Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Anastasia Myskina, Meghann Shaughnessy, Elena Bovina, Amy Frazier, Gisela Dulko, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Marion Bartoli,


Personal

Irvin started playing tennis at age 9. Her father, Richard, was a three-time All-American volleyball player at the University of California, Los Angeles, and led his team to three straight national titles. She attended high school at
Harvard-Westlake School Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school consisting of two campuses located in Los Angeles, California, with approximately 1,600 students enrolled in grades seven through twelve. Its two predec ...
, graduating with a 3.8 grade point average. Irvin was coached by Chuck Adams, and formerly by 1980 Australian Open champion
Brian Teacher Brian David Teacher (born December 23, 1954) is a former American professional male tennis player. He reached a career-high ranking World No. 7 in 1981. Teacher is best remembered for his singles championship at the Australian Open in 1980. Hi ...
. Irvin graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a degree in Political Science. In January 2008, she married Patrick Gould.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Irvin, Marissa 1980 births Living people American female tennis players Tennis players from Santa Monica, California US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles 21st-century American women Stanford Cardinal women's tennis players