Mary Sawyer (born 11 June 1957) is a former 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.

Biography

Sawyer comes from Perth and is of Irish descent, with her father an immigrant from Ireland. A two-time winner of the Irish Open, Sawyer beat former Wimbledon and US Open champion

Maria Bueno Maria Esther Andion Bueno (11 October 1939 – 8 June 2018) was a Brazilian professional tennis player. During her 11-year career in the 1950s and 1960s, she won 19 Grand Slam titles (seven in women's singles, 11 in women's doubles, and one in m ...

in the 1977 final, then won the event again the following year. Her most notable performance was a semifinal appearance at the

1979 Australian Open The 1979 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia and was held from 24 December 1979 through 2 January 1980. It was the 68th edition of the Austra ...

. Previously twice a quarterfinalist, she began the tournament with a first round upset over top-seeded

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a former professional tennis player from Romania. She won the 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of her main assets on court was her po ...

. This was the first occasion that a number one seed had been beaten in the opening round of the women's singles at a Grand Slam. She then defeated

Naoko Sato is a retired Japanese professional tennis player. Career Naoko Sato best results came in the doubles. She reached final of 1978 Australian Open with Pam Whytcross which they lost to Betsy Nagelsen and Renáta Tomanová Renáta Tomanová (b ...

and seventh-seeded

Janet Newberry Janet Newberry (born August 6, 1953) is an American former professional tennis player who was active in the 1970s. She is also known by her former married name Janet Newberry-Wright and Janet Wright. She reached the semifinals of the French Open ...

, then lost in the semifinals to

Sharon Walsh Sharon Walsh-Arnold (née Walsh; born February 24, 1952) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Walsh enjoyed a long career, playing her first Grand Slam singles event in 1969 and her last Grand Slam doubles match in 1990 ...

. After the Australia Open, Sawyer took a break from tennis, which she had planned before her tournament run. She had announced that she wanted to spend more time at home in Perth, having only been there for three-months out of the last five years. The break turned out to be permanent as she never returned to the tour.

WTA Tour finals

Doubles (0–1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sawyer, Mary 1957 births Living people Australian female tennis players Tennis players from Perth, Western Australia Australian people of Irish descent Sportswomen from Western Australia