Mayar Sherif

Mayar Sherif Ahmed Abdel-Aziz (born 5 May 1996) is an Egyptian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 31 in singles, achieved on 19 June 2023, making her the highest ranked Egyptian player in the Open Era. She also has a career high ranking of No. 88 in doubles, reached on 11 July 2022. Sherif has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, at the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Open. She has also won a record six WTA 125 singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour along with nine singles titles and six doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She is the younger sister of Rana Sherif Ahmed.
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 WTA Tour 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.
She made history again for Egyptian tennis at the 2021 Australian Open, 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 and reach a WTA tournament final in Cluj-Napoca. At the 2023 Madrid Open, she became the first Egyptian player to reach a WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
Playing for Egypt Fed Cup team, 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 & WTA Tour debut
Sherif started 2020 playing in the Australian Open qualifiers which was her first appearance at a WTA tournament. She lost in the first round of qualifiers to Ann Li. 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, 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 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, losing in three sets.
2021: Grand Slam match win, WTA finals, Olympics & top 100 debut
Sherif again made history as the first Egyptian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament, beating Chloe Paquet in the first round of the Australian Open.
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 Cluj-Napoca. In singles, she defeated top seed Alizé Cornet, Alex Eala, Kristína Kučová and Mihaela Buzărnescu but lost to Andrea Petkovic in the final. In doubles, partnering Katarzyna Piter, she lost to Natela Dzalamidze and Kaja Juvan 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: First WTA 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, she became the first Egyptian woman to win a Roland Garros main-draw match, after beating Marta Kostyuk in two sets. She withdrew in the second round due to injury.
At the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Sherif defeated Anna Bondár, Simona Waltert, Lauren Davis, and Ana Bogdan to reach her second WTA 250 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.
2023: Historic maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal, record sixth WTA 125 title and career-high ranking
At the Madrid Open, Sherif defeated Camila Giorgi by retirement, 30th seed Anhelina Kalinina, fifth seed Caroline Garcia and 24th seed Elise Mertens to reach her first WTA 1000 singles quarterfinal, thus also becoming the first Egyptian player to do so.
She won her second WTA 125 title in Valencia in two weeks following her triumph at the WTA 125 at the 2023 Makarska International Championships. As a result, she reached a historic career high of No. 31 in the singles rankings becoming the highest ranked Egyptian player, male or female, in the Open Era. No other player had won more than three WTA 125 titles since it was introduced in 2012.
At the WTA 1000 2023 Guadalajara Open Akron she reached the semifinals in doubles partnering Jasmine Paolini.
Performance timelines
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 China Open.
Doubles
Current through the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
WTA Tour career finals
Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Doubles: 2 (2 runner–ups)
WTA Challenger finals
Singles: 6 (6 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
She has a 2–5 record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Notes
References
External links
Pepperdine Waves bio
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 for Egypt
Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics