Fry shirley

Shirley Fry's father, Leicester, was an ardent supporter of a healthy lifestyle and attracted all four of his children to sports since early childhood. All his children won sports competitions in his native Akron and its environs, but only Shirley achieved more significant successes. In the album, presented to her at nine, her father wrote a wish: “The goal is Wimbledon by 1945 ” ^[2] . Although World War II prevented the implementation of the plan on time, in the future, Lester Fry’s dream still came true.

At age 14, Shirley Fry already participated in the main draw of the U.S. Championship for adults, becoming his youngest participant until 1979, when Katie Horvath broke her record. At 15, she had already reached the quarter-finals ^[2] . In 1943, she won the U.S. Women's Championship in pairs, and in 1944 and 1945 in singles. Already in 1943, she became the US champion on indoor courts in both singles and doubles, and since 1944 she entered the top ten US tennis players.

Shirley Fry's advancement to higher achievements has long been hampered by intense rivalry by older and more experienced rivals. However, in 1948 she reached the finals of the French Open in singles and women's doubles. In 1950, she won her first title in Grand Slam tournaments : in a pair with Doris Hart, she won in Paris, and at Wimbledon and the US Championship they lost to the venerable Louise Braff and Margaret Osbourne-Dupont , for whom they were, respectively, the fourth and ninth joint victory in these tournaments. However, as early as next year, Fry and Hart surpassed their eminent rivals by winning all three grand slam tournaments in which they participated (with the exception of the Australian Championship ). In addition, they met twice in the finals of the Grand Slam singles: Fry won in France, and then at Wimbledon Hart took a crushing revenge. In the U.S. Championship, Fry met in the finals with the young Maureen Connolly - the rising star of female tennis and the future owner of the Grand Slam - and managed to impose a fight on her, winning the second set with a score of 6: 1, but still lost in the end.

In the next two years, Fry and Hart, as in 1951 , won three Grand Slam tournaments in pairs, but Fry's single player tournaments did not submit anymore - the last major success was reaching the finals in Paris in 1952 , where she lost to her regular partner . As a result, she began to doubt whether she was still able to win singles, and in 1954 announced the end of her active career. She found work in the newspaper St. Petersburg Times ” in Florida and continued to play tennis in order to maintain tone. However, she soon realized that she was drawn back to the competition. The decision to return was made ^[2] .

Already in February 1955, Fry defeated Doris Hart in a tournament held at the University of Miami , and in the summer reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, where in the match with Louise Braff sprained her ankle and was out of action for several months. A new comeback took place in the fall of 1955 and in early 1956 , when Fry took part in ten tournaments in the Caribbean and Florida and won nine of them. In the second half of 1956, Shirley Fry won her second and third Grand Slam tournaments - Wimbledon and the US Championship - and ended the year in the status of the unofficial first racket of the world (according to the annual rating of the Daily Telegraph newspaper . At the end of the year she went to Australia, where one of the tournaments ran into businessman Karl Irwin, whom he knew from previous competitions he judged to be married in New South Wales, shortly after Shirley won her third consecutive and fourth overall Grand Tournament Lema - Australian Championship, completing her Grand Slam career (victories in all four tournaments over the years), she was the third-ever tennis player to win all four tournaments after Connolly and Hart, and one of the few to record managed to do this in both singles and doubles (along with Hart, Margaret Smith Court , Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams ).

After the wedding, Shirley announced that she would not defend her championship at Wimbledon and the US Championship in singles and would focus on playing in mixed pairs. Soon, already pregnant, at a passing tournament in Rockdale (Australia), she lost to an 18-year-old rival. Towards the fall, she again and finally announced her retirement from active competitions. Later, in the late 60s, having undergone an elbow operation, she participated in veteran competitions, winning the national championship in this age category in tandem with Betty Pratt . She also worked as a tennis coach for three decades after her active career ended and sheathed a racket only in 1990 due to knee problems. From Karl Irwin, she had four children ^[3] .

In 1970, the name Shirley Fry-Irwin was listed on the International Tennis Hall of Fame . In 1995, she, as a graduate of Rollins College (who graduated in 1949 ), was included in the list of the female Student Tennis Hall of Fame.

Singles (8)

Victories (4)

Lost (4)

Women's Doubles (19)

Victories (12)

Lost (7)

Mixed Doubles (5)

Victory (1)

Lost (4)

• Shirley Fry // Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia / Bud Collins, Zander Hollander (Eds.). - Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1997 .-- P. 402-403. - ISBN 1-57859-000-0 .

• Shirley Fry-Irwin at the International Tennis Hall of Fame website
• Shirley Fry-Irwin at the Student Tennis Hall of Fame Women's Site
• Shirley Fry-Irwin at Sports Pundit