Steffi Faasusivaitele Hearthington Carruthers (born 24 May 1993) is a Samoan 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. She is the first Samoan woman to play professional tennis and the first Pacific Oceanian player to win a professional tournament. Carruthers is from the village of Vailima, and was educated at Vaiala Beach School and

Samoa College Samoa College is a secondary school in Samoa officially opened in 1953. It is co-educational and teaches from years 9 to 13. It is in Apia on the island of Upolu and is considered the main college in the country. The early college and curriculum was ...

. and has played tennis since the age of 5, and competed in her first international tournament at the age of 10. She is named after German tennis player

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, ...

. Carruthers has career-high

WTA rankings The WTA rankings are the ratings defined by the Women's Tennis Association, introduced in November 1975. Iga Świątek is the current world No. 1. Ranking method The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A play ...

of 662 in singles and 556 in doubles. In her career, she won two ITF titles in doubles. Playing for Pacific Oceania in

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

, Carruthers has a win-loss record of 11–11. Carruthers began training to become a professional in 2012, and played her first professional season in 2014. She later competed in the 2017 Pacific Mini Games in

Port Vila Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate. Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

, winning gold in the doubles, gold in the singles, silver in the mixed doubles, and bronze in the women's team events. At the

2019 Pacific Games The 2019 Pacific Games was the sixteenth edition of the Pacific Games. The Games were held in Apia, Samoa, returning there for the first time since 2007. It was the third time overall that the Pacific Games were held in Samoa. The event was init ...

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa, as well as the nation's only city. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō ...

she won silver in the women's team event. In 2016 she was nominated as Sports Woman of the Year in the annual SASNOC sports awards.

ITF finals

Doubles (2–1)

ITF Junior Circuit finals

Singles (0–1)

Doubles (5–3)

Fed Cup participation

Singles (4–5)

Doubles (1–2)

References

External links

* * * 1993 births Living people Samoan female tennis players {{Samoa-tennis-bio-stub